The film studio setting is used well in "Rehearsal for Murder". Not only does it provide a dynamic and varied locale for the usually rather claustrophobic "Furuhata Ninzaburô" series, but it also gives a great excuse for director Mamoru Hoshi to shoot the episode in an exaggerated, mannered style of old-school samurai movies. Not that Hoshi needs much of an excuse, to be honest. This leads to one of the most cinematic and bloody opening sequences so far which sees a popular samurai-movie actor played by Nenji Kobayashi slash a sleazy executive's throat with a katana blade. Ludicrously red blood squirts everywhere, much as it does in Kurosawa's "Ran", painting the unblinking face of the murderer.
Kobayashi gives the killer a kind of quiet stoicism not often seen in "Furuhata Ninzaburô". He is the first killer so far who never gets flustered or bamboozled by Furuhata's mind games. So how does the tenacious inspector solve the murder? Well, through a rather flimsy final reveal. The usually excellent writer Kôki Mitani drops the ball here. The plot lacks a solid twist or a compelling enough hook and the usually sparkling dialogue is somewhat subdued and overly expository.
That is not to say there's no humour in the episode. Masahiko Nishimura and Tôru Minegishi make for a very funny double act as Furuhata's clumsy sidekick and his publicity-hunting boss respectively. Their scenes, in which they farcically keep changing their statements to the press, are the best written of the whole story.
The rest of "Rehearsal for Murder" is carried by Hoshi's stylish direction and Kobayashi's measured performance. Furuhata himself is, of course, wonderful as well, as he always is. In "Rehearsal for Murder" he is back to his menacingly unknowable self. Kobayashi and Tamura Masakazu play well off of each other, especially in a rather tense scene in which Furuhata tests whether the actor can tell a real sword from a prop one.