Burn The House Down (2023) Series: Tense Melodrama From Japan

A fire burnt down the Mitarai family home

The wealthy and well-off Mitarai family own and manage their own hospital in Tokyo City. In one of the tragic incidents, a terrible accident 13 years ago happened when their luxurious house became engulfed in flames and completely burnt down. Then the mother of the protagonist Anzu Murata (Mei Nagano) publicly acknowledged that she was somehow responsible for the said harrowing fire incident at that time. That shocking fire not only forced the break-up of her family but also forced her, her mother and her younger sister to leave their family home and live in distressing conditions.

Who really started the fire?

Anzu Murata never believed that her frail mother was responsible for the said fire. She was convinced that her mother was wrongly accused of arson and forced to own up to the circumstances. So, thirteen years later, she went undercover to work as the housekeeper in her family home to gather evidence and to find out who really set up the said fire. In order to gain access to her childhood home, she used a false identity so that her new employer (her stepmother), the second wife of her father, Makiko (Kyoka Suzuki) did not suspect anything fishy and allowed her access to her old family home.

Searching for the truth

Once she gained entry into her home and earned the trust of her stepmother, she started looking for pieces of evidence that could clear the name of her mother. In her secretive personal mission to find the truth behind the fire incident, she is supported by her friends and family members. And in the end, all of them discover the truth, but will it set things right?

There are three prime suspects in the arsonist case. All of them gained immensely after the fire.

1st suspect

The first one is Makiko Mitarai (Kyôka Suzuki), a dedicated mother, a devoted wife and a successful working woman, who moved into Mitarai’s house as a second wife (of Anzu’s father) after the fire.

2nd suspect

The second one is Kiichi (Asuka Kudô), the eldest son of Makiko. He seems to be deeply troubled, remains locked inside his room and has not interacted with any outsider in the last so many years.

3rd suspect

The third one is Shinji (Taishi Nakagawa), the second and youngest son of Makiko. He lives in the shadows of his overachieving family members, so works hard to become someone important in life.

How did the fire affect the family?

After the tragic fire accident, Osamu Mitarai (Mitsuhiro Oikawa) married Makiko, and then she and her sons moved into a newly reconstructed Mitarai family house. In other words, Makiko, Kiichi and Shinji successfully replaced the first wife Satsuki (Michiko Kichise) and her two daughters Anzu Murata (Mei Nagano) and Yuzu Murata (Yuri Tsunematsu) in the wealthy Mitarai family. So, after the marriage, Makiko, Kiichi and Shinji moved up the socio-economic ladder in society. A the same time, Satsuki lost her memory and her daughters Anzu and Yuzu struggled with the sudden misfortune in their lives.

No doubt all three prime suspects prospered after the fire incident.

But who was really responsible for the fire?

The answer is it was Kiichi’s younger brother – young child Shinji – at the time of the said fire, thirteen years ago. It was an innocent mistake made by Shinji, as he simply tried to heat up delicious-looking meat curry on the gas burner so that he could taste and eat it. But after he lit the gas flame, the fire spread around to burn the entire house and the little child Shinji could not do much to douse the menacing fire. Unable to do anything, he escaped, while never admitting his unintentional childhood mistake. In the end, he admits and owns up to his mistake, when Anzu manages to bring out the truth.