This is Furuhata Ninzaburô at his most Columbo-esque. He knocks over the killer's suitcase entering a room, proceeds to ask her for an autograph, and then plays his rendition of a children's song on the piano. Tamura Masakazu approaches these comedic scenes with his usual aplomb but all the goofiness aside, in "The Piano Lesson" he faces off against his fiercest opponent yet.
Nana Kinomi plays the fierce world-famous pianist and she brings a kind of star presence to her performance unseen yet on "Furuhata Ninzaburô". She is utterly convincing and captivating as the diva before whom even the most influential men of Tokyo kowtow. The best scenes are not the thriller ones but rather the ones in which the academy's deputy headmaster and his minion beg Kinomi to perform for them. Their grovelling attempts are utterly hilarious and contemptible.
Kinomi carries "The Piano Lesson" and makes it a much more enjoyable and memorable episode than its script would suggest. Oh, it's a fine script, don't get me wrong, with one of the cleverest twists of the entire series, but for the most part, it is a talky, straightforward affair. Kinomi makes it exciting. Her performance is dangerous, intimidating, and ultimately heartbreaking. She also plays wonderfully off Tamura Masakazu who plays this episode more for comedy than menace. Furuhata is not very intimidating here, preferring instead to play the jester to Kinomi's evil queen.
This is also the first episode directed by Hidetomo Matsuda whose confident direction is a fine middle ground between the cinematically stylish work of Mamoru Hoshi and the nuts-and-bolts approach of Keita Kôno. There are several inspired moments in "The Piano Lesson", such as Kinomi's melodramatic arrival, but for the most part, his direction is nicely low-key without ever seeming low-effort.