Pawn of Shadows

「祟りじゃ！」

『八つ墓村』

 

 "It's the curse!"

"The Village of the Eight Graves" 

Funny how the Chiikawa film ended up a better mystery film than this one...

Tatsuya, a young man struggling to find work in Tokyo, is informed by the police his mother died in what appears to have been a suicide. Tatsuya had been given up for adoption by his birth mother when he was young, and he never forgave her, but he reluctantly agrees to travel to Okayama Prefecture to identify his mother's remains. On a whim, he decides to travel the village where she died: the Village of Eight Graves. On his way there, he's "found" by private detective Kindachi Kousuke, who was hired to locate Tatsuya by the Tajimi family, the wealthiest family of the small, isolated mountain community. It turns out Tatsuya is the illegitimate son of Tajimi Youzou, the former family head, who disappeared twenty years ago.... after he went on a mad killing spree killing many of the villagers. Tatsuya's half-brother Hisaya is the family head in name, but his deteriorating health suggest he might not even outlive his twin great-grandmothers Kotake and Koume, who want to keep the family fortune within the bloodline: they fear that if Hisaya dies, Hisaya's cousins Shintarou and Noriko of the branch family will take everything. Therefore, they'd prefer Tatsuya, who carries Youzou's blood, to become the new Tajimi heir. Tatsuya stays a few days in the village, where he and Kindaichi witness a local kagura, a Shinto ritual ceremonial dance, about the goddess Amaterasu who feasts with seven animals who die one after another. Tatsuya is seen as an enemy by most of the villagers, as many still carry the trauma of the horrific mass murders Youzou committed and things immediately turn for the worse when one morning, someone is found murdered in front of the Tajimi manor. Villagers start to accuse Tatsuya, the newcomer in the village, and while the police is investigating the case, more people connected to the Tajimi clan are getting murdered. Who is the murderer and what is the mystery behind the name of this odd village? That is the driving question in the 2026 film Yatsu Haka Mura ("The Village of The Eight Graves"), a brand-new film adaptation of the same-titled Yokomizo Seishi novel.

And I have to specify it's a brand-new adaptation, because man, Yatsu Haka Mura has been adapted into a lot of media. A few years ago, I wrote a post on the 1968 manga adaptation of the 1949-1951 book and its relevance to Kindaichi Kousuke popularity in general. The manga was a landmark release: the popularity of this specific adaptation inspired publisher Kadokawa to release mass-market paperbacks of Yokomizo Seishi's novels starring the detective Kindaichi Kousuke in the late 60s-early 70s and to top off the "Yokomizo Boom" (Yokomizo Hype) came the 1976 film Inugamike no Ichizoku (The Inugami Clan), the very first film released by the newly established Kadokawa Studios, which was an adaptation of the same-titled Yokomizo book. Since then, we have seen countless of Kindaichi Kousuke adaptations, and many titles have seen multiple adaptations, but still, Yatsu Haka Mura is the king when it comes to how often it's been brought on screen. If we include the 2026 version (which released last week in theatres) there have been 4 theatrical releases and a whopping 7 different adaptations for television, and then there are the stage plays (yes, multiple), the radio dramas (yes, multiple), the manga adaptations (yes, multiple), the game (just the one...) and there's probably more.

And it is in this context, we should look at the 2026 film version. It is directed by Shimizu Takashi, a filmmaker best known for the Ju-On/The Grudge horror films. In fact, most of the titles on his resume are (occult) horror titles, so that should already give you an idea of the direction the 2026 version of Yatsu Haka Mura goes. For yes, this is not actually a mystery film, it is a horror film.

Of course, the original novel was already quite an anomoly within the series. It is not structured like a conventional mystery novel, as the main narrative mixes horror with adventure, being mainly the tale of Tatsuya as he slowly uncovers a secret that had been kept by his biological family, explores an underground cavern system, goes treasure-hunting and also slowly learns about a curse laid upon the Tajimi family by eight samurai warriors who were betrayed by, among others, his Tajimi ancestor. A lot of adaptations do lean on the scarier sides of this tale. The 1977 version, directed by Nomura Yoshitarou and arguably the best-known version of the tale (a lot of the parodies we see of Yatsu Haka Mura are actually parodies of the 1977 film) takes quite a lot of freedoms with the mystery plot and leans hard on the supernatural horror residing in the plot (especially as the film approaches the climax). So I don't think a horror-inclined Yatsu Haka Mura is bad per se.

The 2026 film is not ashamed to let you know it takes a lot of inspiration from the 1977 version, with some scenes being direct homages, so it is hard not to compare the two and in a direct comparison, I have to say the 1977 film wins easily in my view, and it comes down to a fundamental difference: the 1977, while incorporating occult horror themes, still follows the format and "rules" of a mystery story. The 2026, intentionally, gets rid of basically all of the mystery plot and is basically 95% a horror film, with the remaining 5% just using a mystery aesthetic. The novel uses suggestions of occult and supernatural themes (the curse) to explain the murders, but provides a non-supernatural, coherent answer at the end. The 1977 film provides a non-supernatural, coherent answer to the murders, but also provides a supernatural/occult twist to that answer. The 2026 provides murders, and then provides an answer that only works in a horror context. They do things in differing degrees, and while I think the 1977 manages to strike a very admirable balance with a rudimentary murder mystery that allows for some occult horror going on in a natural manner, the 2026 film simply does not even pretend to be a detective film, exemplified when near the end, Kindaichi basically cries out loud he's not the right detective for this case! 

However, I do like the horror direction of the 1977 edition much better than the 2026 version. Perhaps it's because regulations are different now, but even though the 1977 version is, by design, not trying to be a horror film as aggresively as the 2026 film, I think the overall vibe, and most of the specific scenes of the 1977 edition are a lot creepier than what we see in 2026. So despite 2026 aiming to be more of a horror film than the 1977 edition, I don't think it actually manages to surpass the 1977 edition in that aspect, while the 1977 at the same time still manages to bring a more coherent mystery plot. Director Shimizu has directed three occult horror films set in villages, all following the same title format of "Something Something" Village, and while I have not seen any of them, I have seen many comments on social media that see Yatsu Haka Mura as the fourth entry in that series, rather than a "Kindaichi Kousuke film", so if you go in what those expectations, you'll probably like it better than I do. The depiction of the Tajimi Youzou massacre is as scary as always though, and there is a mirrored scene that is surprisingly bone-chilling. 

The 2026 film greatly simplifies the novel's mystery plot, features a downsized cast of characters (though it does include Shintarou and Noriko, who are often exluded in adaptations!) and cuts down on the murders and focuses more on the mystery of the village curse that haunts the Tajimi family. Despite the plot being simplified, it still manages to introduce a few minor plot holes that occur because the story pretends to be a mystery story at first only to go full in on the occult, leaving quite a few things unaddressed (and if you know the original story, you'll have even more questions because some major reveals in the book just don't happen here...).The kagura dance ritual is an original aspect of this film to the story and on its own, it's actually a pretty cool addition, adding a new angle to Tatsuya and Kindaichi slowly learn about the village history and why it is exactly called the Village of Eight Graves. However, for people who already know the original story, this part might feel like unncessary padding: I personally liked it though, especially as it allows for a completely new role of the villagers in this version of the story, one that hasn't really been explored in other adaptations in this way. The 2026 film being set in the present however does raise some questions: Why would only villagers be aware of the massacre Tajimi Youzou committed just twenty years ago, as you can bet it would be all over the news and in more recent years, explored in social media. And whereas the original novel (and a lot of the original Kindaichi Kousuke novels) manage to present a convincing 'isolated village with local customs/beliefs' setting due to its period setting, it's a harder to believe so many villagers would still follow the old "isolated village mentality" in 2026. On the other hand, updating the "It's the curse!"-shouting nun of the original to a somewhat disturbed woman wearing child-like frilly fashion was brilliant!

One thing I liked a lot about the film though is kabuki actor Onoe Matsuya as Kindaichi. His Kindaichi might be quite different from what you'd usually expect Kindaichi to be, but he works fantastic in the context, in a film that takes a lot of cues from the 1977 edition. For Onoe's Kindaichi feels like an extension of Atsumi Kiyoshi's Kindaichi in the 1977 film. Because the mystery plot of the novel is greatly simplified/changed for this film, Kindaichi doesn't get to do a lot of mystery-solving (he does get to break and enter...) and ultimately, he is in way in over his head because of the nature of the case, but I still like this specific portrayal.

So by this point, it's clear I'm not a huge fan of the 2026 film adaptation of Yatsu Haka Mura. In theory, I don't mind it being deliberatly a horror take on the story: there have been countless of adaptations of the novel by now, we don't need another one that does what most of the others have already done. However, I do feel the strongest points of this film are ultimately better done in the better-known 1977 film version, so it leaves this 2026 in a weird spot, where it tries not to be mystery and is ostensibly pure horror, but it still gets outdone in that respect, in my opinion, by the 1977 version which at least still had a a more coherent mystery plot. If you go the theaters expecting just a 'horror film set in an isolated village' without a greater context, or when seen in the context of Shimizu's other films, then it might be more interesting. This 2026 Yatsu Haka Mura is obviously not the first adaptation of the novel you should see, but I guess if you have already seen a few and want something different, it might be worth a try, especially if you're more into horror than I am.

Original Japanese title(s): 『八つ墓村』

Dead in the Water

「何とかなれ！」

『ちいかわ』 

 

"It'll somehow work out!"

Chiikawa 

Today's post: the most anticipated mystery film of this summer. 

Chiikawa and their friends come across an invitation to a tropical island, which promises them a nice stay and great food, in exchange for a certain hunting mission. Despite their mentor having certain suspicions about an invitation to an island, as most people familiar with mystery fiction would be, Chiikawa, Hachiware and Usagi can't resist the lure of a stay at a resort island, so the following day, they join the long, long queue for the ship bringing them to the island, and they are not the only ones: most of their friends have seen the same invitation. Arriving on the island, everyone is warmly welcomed by the islanders, who offer their guests food, dance, music and a great time all together. However, their pleasure comes at a cost, as they learn what they must hunt as compensation for their stay: a gigantic Siren has been attacking the islanders, taking islanders away to eat them. The Siren is accompanied by mermaids, and their song can stop any brave warrior in their tracks. Chiikawa, Hachiware and Usagi however come across the Siren, and learn from her that she's actually looking for one islander specifically: someone has kidnapped and eaten one of the mermaids in her protection, and she swears revenge, taking the islanders one by one if she needs to in order to find the culprit. Chiikawa, Hachiware and Usagi are torn on what to do: do they help the Siren look for the mermaid-murderer, or will they protect the kind islanders from the ruthless killer the Siren has become in the animated film Eiga Chiikawa: Ningyo no Shima no Himitsu ("Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of Mermaid Island", 2026)

Chiikawa is of course a phenomenom in Japan that requires no explanation at all, for it is one of the strongest cultural icons of Japan at the moment, similar to Pokemon. One can't live a single day in the country without spotting the cute thing or one of their friends in some place or another. Chiikawa just is, and yes, that also means Chiikawa belongs on this blog.

Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of Mermaid Island has naturally been one of the most anticipated mystery films of 2026, being an adaptation of the same-titled arc of the original Chiikawa web comic. The theme is one quite familiar to mystery fans in this time and age: mermaids and the legends surrounding them (especially the Japanese legends regarding gaining immortality upon eating the flesh of a mermaid) have been becoming a recurring theme lately. The upcoming second entry in the Mystery no Arukikata (Path of Mystery) game series for example is about mermaids, as is The Mermaid Mask, the recently released fourt game in the critically acclaimed Detective Grimoire series. And of course, earlier this year I reviewed the overall excellent Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse, which brought Asian mermaid legends and the mythology of Ise together. Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of Mermaid Island is thus one of the many recent mermaid-focused mysteries, and I assume that financially and culturally, it will also be the most succesful and lasting of the mentioned titles.

Chiikawa the Movie takes on familiar tropes of the mystery genre, though also plays with them at times. As mentioned, most mystery fans would avoid the invitation to a remote island that sounds too good. Indeed, soon after their arrival, Chiikawa and their friends learn they are in fact caught up in the middle of a good old murder plot that could've featured in a Kindaichi Shounen story: Siren is the "killer out for revenge due to an injustice done to her" (one of the mermaids in her custody was taken), taking out islanders one by one in search for the culprit. The film thus turns the whodunnit aspect around: we know who the current threat to the islanders is (the Siren) and we also know why. we however don't know who took the mermaid and what they did with the mermaid. Chiikawa and their friends also show understanding to the Siren, as they realize the Siren has been wronged too, even if her reaction to the missing mermaid means the whole island has to suffer. This gives our detectives a moral dilemma, as they want to help the Siren, but also want to protect the islanders, and those are two opposite goals, 

A major part of the film is however not focused on the search for the culprit by Chiikawa and their friends, but on the relentless attacks by the Siren on the islanders, making surprisingly something close to a slasher film. Some of the action scenes remind of Detective Conan, in the sense that in order to ward off the Siren during these attacks, we see the heroes use strategies that have been properly foreshadowed. A lot of the Detective Conan film feature action scenes that are completely over the top, but they are structured as a mystery plot, featuring proper clewing, foreshadowing and set-ups. The same holds for the action scenes in Chiikawa the Movie, where the action is always interconnected to earlier scenes that set-up the exact means to how they will resolve their problems.

Ultimately, Chiikawa the Movie does have Chiikawa solve the mystery of who took the mermaid and why, based on some not-so-subtly placed clues. The manner in which they manage to arrange for the Siren to cease her attacks on the islanders is perhaps more based on action than on their wits, but as mentioned above, the action is properly set-up with clues and foreshadowing in the same way we see in other action-oriented mystery films. Furthermore, while the clewing for the whodunnit mystery could've seen some more cunning, there are some lines in the film that are actually really good examples of well-written and sly foreshadowing, lines that seem quite innocuous at first but take on a completely different meaning once the whole context is known. Here Chiikawa author Nagano, who also wrote the screenplay for the film, shows some truly clever mystery writing.

Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of Mermaid Island is the most important mystery film released on July 24th, and it is a must-see for the mystery fans, as a film that perfectly captures the current trend of mixing mermaid imagery with the mystery genre. While not all of the mystery is pulled off perfectly, the film does show some interesting subversions of the mystery genre and there are certainly moments that are truly well-setup in terms of mystery plotting. On the whole, Chiikawa the Movie is definitely worth watching, and considering how well it's doing in the theatres in Japan in just three days, it's definitely a mystery film you must catch this summer if only just so you'll understand all the memes and references!

Original Japanese title(s): 原作: ナガノ『映画 ちいかわ 人魚の島のひみつ』 

The Destructive Angel

We may have lost our wings with which we flew up so high

But now, even now, I can feel your true mystical tide.

"We Were Angels" (Kageyama Hironobu) 

Surprisingly, the title of this year's Detective Conan film doesn't do that thing where you have to read a kanji combination as an English word. I wonder why they didn't have you read the combination that means "Fallen Angel" as "Lucifer", or why they didn't use the kanji combination meaning "highway" and have you read it as the English word... 

On the suggestion of high school student Sera Masumi, Ran, her father, Sonoko, Conan, the Detective Boys and Dr. Agasa are going to visit a motorcycle exhibition held in Yokohama. Dr. Agasa and the Detective Boys visit Yokohama one day early and go out to see the stars at night in the mountains, but they witness a pitch-black motorcycle speeding through the mountains, with a.... headless rider. The following day, the rest of the entourage take the highway from Tokyo to Yokohama, when they too witness a black motorcyle (with a rider with a black helmet) chasing after a couple on another motorcycle on the highway. The couple can't shake off their pursuer and crash horribly on the highway. The black motorcyclist is chased by Hagiwara Chihaya, squad leader of the mobile unit of the Kanagawa Prefectural Police and while she comes close to nabbing the mysterious cyclist, a traffic incident allows the rider to escape. The motorcyclist appears more often both in Yokohama and Tokyo, chasing after certain people on bikes and making them crash, and the police investigation soon assigns the name "Lucifer" to the suspect. At the motorcycle exhibition, Sera is conducting an investigation of her own, as she's looking for a missing friend. Meanwhile, the police unveils the Angel, a newly developed police motorcycle with built-in AI features that provide balancing and control assistance, allowing for the police to move faster and safer. Conan and the Detective Boys soon realize the "ghostly headless rider" and Lucifer all drove motorcycles that demonstrated capabilities eerily similar to the Angel, but how did "Lucifer" get hold of this technology and what is their goal in the 2026 Detective Conan film Fallen Angel of the Highway?

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway is the 29th(!) animated feature length film in the long-running series Detective Conan originally created by Aoyama Goushou. Starting in 1997, a new Detective Conan film, with a completely new story not featured in the original comic, has been released in the theaters practically every year (COVID messed up the schedule...) and now we're at installment 29. The scriptwriter for this film is mystery author Ookura Takahiro, who wrote 2017's The Crimson Love Letter (probably my favorite of the "modern" films), The Fist of Blue Sapphire (2019), Bride of Halloween (2022) and The Million-Dollar Pentagram (2024), alternating years with the other film scriptwriter Sakurai Takehiro (so he was responsible for last year's One-Eyed Flashback). As have been the trend since about ten years, these films have become highly character-drama focused films, with specific characters from the manga becoming the main characters of the film. What is important to note is that while the manga creator Aoyama Goushou doesn't write these films, he does provide ideas to them, and the films, especially nowadays, all feature backstories, reveals and character relationship developments that are then incorporated back into the manga. This means that these films basically expect you to be more-or-less up-to-date about the characters in each film, and vice-versa, the manga eventually also expects you to have seen these films as certain character-related details are only explained in the film. Fortunately, Detective Conan: The Fallen Angel of the Highway doesn't require that much homework: Chihaya, first appearing in the collected volumes in 2022, hasn't been featured in that many stories yet, and while her plot relevance is also dependent on the fact she's the older sister of a character who has already died in the line of duty by the time this series starts, basically just knowing that is enough to get into the film. The other focal character, Inspector Yokomizo of the Kanagawa police, doesn't have that much of a backstory anyway.

So I'm explicitly naming Chihaya and Inspector Yokomizo now, because unfortunately, it is clear this film, as it is now, was not the film envisioned when the film first went into production. This is due to the tragic death of the voice actresss Tanaka Atsuko, who originally played Chihaya. Tanaka is best known for her role as Kusanagi Motoko in the legendary Ghost in the Shell, and it just so happens that Inspector Yokomizo is voiced by... Ootsuka Akio, the voice actor of Batou, Kusanagi's right-hand man in Ghost in the Shell. Casting Tanaka in the role of a squad leader, and having her team up with a grumpy middle-aged second-in-command with a soft spot for her voiced by Ootsuka is of course no coincidence and it is clear from everything, Chihaya and Yokomizo in Conan were supposed to mirror Kusunagi and Batou (with their voice actors), the same this series did with Amuro and Char from Mobile Suit Gundam in the characters of Amuro and Akai, who were also voiced by their original voice actors. However, Tanaka passed away in 2024 and ultimately, it was decided Sawashiro Miyuki would take over the role of Chihaya. And as good as Sawashiro does the role in Fallen Angel of the Highway, one can't help but feel this film would have been so much funnier if we could have heard Tanaka and Ootsuka taking on roles close to their famous Ghost in the Shell characters, but in a rom-com setting. That layer is now completely gone and what's left are just thoughts of "What if...".

But even without the voice actor issue playing, I think Fallen Angel of the Highway had some difficult obstacles to deal with. Picking Chihaya as the main character already limits the kind of mystery this film could bring, as she's not a homicide detective (which would give endless possibilities), but a traffic police officer, with her trademark being her police motorcycle, so of course this film would be about motorcycles and chases and all of that. The fact there haven't been that many Chihaya stories also meant a lot of the film is used to firmly introduce her and the characters related to her. This results in a film that feels much slower than the average Detective Conan film and also one that has a very small cast of film-original characters. Ultimately, the mystery of who the mysterious motorcyclist Lucifer is and how they got to use a motorcyle similar to the prototype Angel is just too small-scale to really make an impression, as the focus is very clearly more on casting the spotlight on the focal characters and see *how* they react to the events that transpire in this film, rather than focusing on the process of solving the case. It doesn't help most of the crimes feel... less "deliberate" than actual murder. Sure, intentionally chasing after someone on a motorcycle and making them crash is nothing less than an attempt at killing them, but it still feels different from someone actually stabbing the victim with a knife, or something like that. For me personally, the threat of the culprit felt not as serious as probably intended, so I had trouble getting really invested in the mystery and the solving of the case.

Of course, a lot of the more recent Conan films have relatively simple mystery plots, but they usually throw enough explosions at me to still leave me satisfied as I leave the theater, but it seems they also dialed down the action this year. Perhaps it's because a lot of the set pieces revolved around chases in cars or motorcycles, but there weren't really grand ones this time (compared to previous years) and even "Conan or one of his allies figure out a clever trick to turn a literally explosive situation around" scene in the climax seemed very subdued and less... "oh, that's a clever way to get out of that tight spot" compared to previous entries. Perhaps the setting of Yokohama didn't help much either: of course, if you want to feature Chihaya, you'll have to set the story in Kanagawa, and mainly Yokohama, but visually, it's not like it's that different from Tokyo, while in previous years we had Hokkaido, the mountains of Nagano, the sea, Singapore, an amusement park....

So I can't say I'm a huge fan of Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway. This is partially because it couldn't be what it originally set out to be due to unfortunate circumstances, but looking solely at the mystery and the spectacle I expect of a Conan film, I found this year's entry a bit lacking. If you're really into the characters featured in this film (Chihaya, Yokomizo, Chihaya's brother and his bestie), you'll probably find some cool character drama developments here, but otherwise I think it's my least favorite Conan film until now written by Ookura. As always, the film's credits are followed by a short teaser that confirm there's a new Conan film coming next year around the same time that give a hint as to what the film'll be about. The little shown at least has a lot of potential,so I'll be in the theaters next year too of course, especially as it's the thirtieth film then!

Original Japanese title(s):  『名探偵コナン　ハイウエイの堕天使』

Hoedown Showdown

"And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"

"The Merchant of Venice" 

I'll be seeing the new Detective Conan film of course, but I guess I also have to see that sheep detective film too in the spring...

The year: 1810. Location: The entertainment district Kobikicho (current-day Ginza) in the great, bustling metropolis of Edo (Tokyo). Behold, the Morita-za,  a popular kabuki theater that on one cold winter night, is holding its last performance of a popular play. As the audience slowly leave the theater, their eyes fall on the infamous Sakubei, a ruffian who has become somewhat of a known face in the district due to his frequent appearances in the gamble houses. He seems interested in a beautiful women dressed in a gorgeous red kimono, and follows her to the empty lot next to the theater... but then the figure turns around, revealing himself to be a young handsome man: he loudly announces himself as Inou Kikunosuke, son of Inou Seizaemon, retainer of the Tooyama Clan in the Land of Minou. He declares he's here to take revenge for his father, who was slain by his own servant samurai Sakubei, who then fled to Edo. The audience coming out of the kabuki theater next door are getting a new bloody show for free, with hundreds of onlookers. The duel becomes the stuff of legends: while Kikunosuke's skills with the sword are splendid for his age and he quickly manages to wound Sakubei several times, Sakubei possesses monstrous strength, allowing him to overcome such injuries and pushing straight through Kikunosuke's attacks, resulting in a surprisingly even match. Eventually, the two duelists stumble into an empty shed, with the duel continuing outside the view of the audience. A horrible cry follows and out of the shed comes... Kikunosuke, his garments bathed in red and in his hand, he holds... the cut-off head of Sakubei. He announces he has avenged his father's murder and continues to report this warranted act of avenge, approved by the warrior code, to the local magistrate's office and to the representatives of the Land of Minou in Edo. Having fulfilled his mission, he returns to his home.

One year later, the ronin (masterless samurai) Kase Souichirou arrives at the Morita-za theater. He was once a top-ranking samurai serving under Inou Seizaemon, and his sister is to marry Kikunosuke. Kase has travelled to Edo, for while he knows the legendary story of how Kikunosuke slayed Sakubei and avenged his master, he... just can't believe it all happened like that. He learns Kikunosuke actually lived and worked at the Morita-za theater for six months while he was staying in Edo: Kikunosuke had followed Sakubei's trail to Edo, and because the head writer of the Morita-za theater knew his mother, he was allowed to stay and work at the theater while he continued his hunt for Sakubei in the great city of Edo. Kase starts interviewing people who knew Kikunosuke during his time at the theater and who witnessed the fight. They all confirm the stories that go around about the fight, but Kase still can't shake away questions, like how Kikunosuke, the young gentle man he knew so well, could ever commit such a cold-blooded act as actually killing and decapitating Sakubei, a man who may have killed his father, but who was also a person he had known since he was a child. Kase also wonders why Kikunosuke dressed up as an onna-gata (a male actor playing a woman in kabuki) before his duel to the death with Sakubei, and why Kikunosuke, after his return to his home domain, refuses to tell more about his fight with Sakubei. The more Kase starts digging into the legendary fight one year ago however, he starts to see how things don't quite add up in the 2026 film Kobiki-chou no Adauchi ("Vengeance in Kobiki-Chou"), of which the official English title appears to be Samurai Vengeance. 

Kobiki-chou no Adauchi is a film released in February 2026, based on the 2023 book with the same title by Nagai Sayako. The book, originally serialized between 2019-2021 won two prestigious literary awards, the Naoki Prize and the Yamamoto Shuugorou Prize, but was also well received also among mystery/suspense/crime readers, as the book secured top ten positions in the Bunshun Mystery Best 10, Kono Mystery ga Sugoi and Mystery ga Yomitai rankings. The book hadn't really been on my radar to be honest, but the trailer of the film looked really cool: I first thought it was just a historical action film, as it showed the duel between Kikunosuke and Sakubei, but then we learn it's actually about an investigation into the duel, and I was actually imagining it'd be something like Rashomon, with all the accounts of the various witnesses not quite adding up or something like that. It wasn't like that by the way, and that's of course not the fault of the film itself, but yeah, don't go in expecting Rashomon.

What you can expect is a rather amusing film, both in the sense of comedy and simply being captivating. Kase is a seemingly simple warrior without master from the countryside, who is travelling to learn more about his future-brother-in-law and the legendary duel he had in the great city of Edo. But as he listens to the stories of each witness, he shows himself to be a lot cleverer than he appears, asking sharp questions that slowly undermine the legend. The people he interviews, all of them connected to the kabuki theater as they lived with Kikunosuke for half a year, are very colorful and provide quite some comedy as they interact with Kase, from a talkative and friendly barker who was great friends with Kikunosuke during his time at the theater to an aged onnagata who still seems mesmerized by how gracefully Kikunosuke looked as he entered the fight to avenge his father. These witnesses all focus on different aspects of the fight and their own interactions with Kikunosuke, giving a lot of depth to both their characters and that of Kikunosuke, who we never see "in real time" after the fight, only in flashbacks as everyone reflects on what happened that night and the events that led up to it. There is for example the swordmaster who teaches the actors how to handle weapons during a play who turns out to have actual military experience, so he taught Kikunosuke, aware of his mission to avenge his father, and we get an idea of how driven Kikunosuke was through his eyes. 

While the book did manage to rank into several mystery rankings when it released, and the film itself is also touted as a mix of the historical, human drama and mystery genres however, I would say they did downplay the mystery aspect of the story a bit, or at least, perhaps it was like this in the original novel too, but it focuses a bit more on the historical and human drama aspects, giving us an idea of life in the entertainment district in 1800 Edo. Which is alright on its own, but man, this story could have been presented as a much more solid mystery film with very few changes. It just decided to put the accent on different aspects of the (still interesting) story, making it easier for both Kase and the viewer to digest and make the connections. With just a bit more tweaks like requiring Kase to figure out more small contradictions or incongruities in each witness account, the film would have been definitely a more solid mystery film. A more Rashomon-esque approach could also have been cool, though a bit more difficult to pull with this story perhaps. Because the film puts its weight more on the human drama aspect, the moment when Kase realizes the real truth that was hidden behind Kikunosuke's duel comes surprisingly soon in the film, with the remainder more focused on seeing that truth's effect on those involved. It's not a long film though and I do think the payoff is good, but this is definitely a film I could imagine as a much tighter mystery story very easily and personally, I would have probably like that better, but I'd say the film as it is now will appeal to a much wider audience, and I still did enjoy the film.

Kobiki-chou no Adauchi is basically a borderline case of what I usually discuss here on this blog: it can definitely be seen as a mystery story, but tbe way the film was shot and written, I wouldn't describe it firstly asa a mystery story. It does have enough elements of the mystery genre to at least understand why it'd rank into several mystery-related rankings in Japan when the book was first released, and the film is definitely entertaining enough overall, so in this case, I can accept the mystery atmosphere being downplayed a bit to allow for a film that appeals to a wider audience. I had a fun time with the film despite being somewhat disappointed it wasn't presented as a pure mystery story, which means it did pretty well, if you think about it: being good enough to help compensate for my initial disappointment!

Original Japanese title(s): 永井紗耶子（原）『木挽町のあだ討ち』  

The Curse of the Golden Cross

Wake Up! The Hero

燃え上れ！

「仮面ライダーBlack RX」(宮内タカユキ) 

 

Wake Up! The Hero

Turn into a blaze!

"Kamen Rider Black RX" (Miyauchi Takayuki) 

As I usually have quite a lot posts written and waiting to be published, I generally just add a review to the queue if it's not a particularly timely post, while I do usually push posts on recent releases forward. I didn't watch today's topic immediately upon release like most people did, but still rather soon after it started streaming... and then forgot about actually writing the post. All well, it's still kinda timely, I guess...

After a troublesome career in boxing followed by a period of penitence and search for salvation, young Jud Duplenticy has become a Catholic priest, who is sent to become an assistant pastor in a church in a small New York town. Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude is a small church led by Monsignor Jefferson Wicks, the grandson of Reverend Prentice Wicks. Jefferson Wicks is charismatic in his ways, but his flammatory preaching style have basically driven everyone away but a handful of the most loyal and miserable of his parishioners, effectively resulting in a cult revolving around the vengeful Monsignor Wicks. The moment Jud arrives Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude, he feels he is not welcome as an outsider, and while he recognizes how Monsignor Wicks is in fact doing not the work of God, he is not able to convince the believers of Wicks that they are all walking down the wrong path. When Wicks finds out about Jud's attempts in undermining his authority, he soon turns his believers against Jud. Despite the trial, Jud remains in the parish.

Wicks holds another fiery service on Good Friday for his cult, and then moves into a closet off the side of the chancel for a short break, while Jud takes over. When an audible thud is heard coming from the closet, Jud approaches the alcove, followed by the other people in the church and to their great surprise, they find Monsignor Wicks collapsed on the floor. A quick examination shows the man is in fact dead, and very likely because there's a knife sticking in his back. His clashings with Monsignor Wicks give Jud a motive, but everyone in the church had his eyes on him between the time Wicks entered the closet alive and the victim collapsing on the floor, making it impossible for him to have committed the murder: likewise, Jud too knows none of the church-goers approached the closet on his side during his part of the service, and everyone is such a big believer of Wicks, so would any of them even have a motive for killing him...? The police struggles with pinning the crime on any specific person with actual proof, and thus enter Benoit Blanc, private investigator who may not strongly believe in the Church, but he does seem to strongly believe Jud is in fact not the murderer in the 2025 film Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.

I liked the first Knives Out film (2019), but for some reason I just never got started on Glass Onion, the second film and the first after Knives Out moved on to Netflix. Hype from the mystery community on Wake Up Dead Man seemed much bigger though, which may also be because of the overt John Dickson Carr-inspired plot, with not only a locked room mystery (well, technically the closet is not locked, but the entrance is being observed) and a seemingly supernatural event in the second half of the story, Carr's masterpiece The Hollow Man/The Third Coffin is directly referenced in the film, as a "guidebook" on solving locked room mysteries (though to be honest, the film only goes through the most basic forms from the famous Locked-Room Lecture, and the sequence is not even nearly as impressive as how they presented the Locked-Room Lecture in Detective Chinatown 3). So when I learnt I could safely skip Glass Onion for now, I did so, and I have no regrets!

For Wake Up Dead Man is indeed a fun classically-styled locked room murder mystery film. It brings the tropes and set dressing we know from a Golden Age novel and move it... well, to the modern world, to a degree, as the church-setting itself feels like it would've been the same whether it had been used in a 2025 film or one from 1930. Which is a good thing I guess for those looking for something that obviously tries to go for that vibe. Whereas the first Knives Out film gave us the oh-so-familiar set-up of a murder on a wealthy family patriarch and his whole family as the suspects, this one focuses on the churchgoers as the main suspect (if we believe Jud to be innocent), resulting in a slightly more disjointed cast (as you get a group of random cult members), though most do fall in familiar mystery "suspect" roles (a doctor, a loyal help, etc.). Jud as a leading man is a joy to follow though, a man who went through a dark place in his life, found a new path in life only to be thrust into a basically hopeless situation by becoming the assistant-pastor in the most impossible parish ever. He forms a nice contrast with the far more cynical Benoit, especially when Jud is confronted with situations that could practically mean choosing between either his own beliefs, or his own freedom. Thematically, Wake Up Dead Man is far stronger than the first Knives Out film I think, and the highlight of the film as a mystery, as the themes of religion and personal beliefs pervades throughout the plot and motivate the actors to play their role in this mystery. The cinematography in general is pretty strong, especially in the scenes set within the church, and it really helps strengthen the religious themes, literally constantly casting new light on the setting.

The main locked room murder mystery itself is not very surprising on a technical level though. If you have come across a few of them in your life, it's very likely you will have seen some variation of the basic fundamentals already, so, in that sense, I was a bit disappointed in what was supposed to the main attraction. Fortunately, the second half of the story adds a few more developments that also intertwine with the locked room murder, and that adds some well-needed complexity to the mystery. I also like there's some synergy between all these elements, i.e. elements of the main locked room mystery are intertwined with the why or how events of the second half, and they're not just distinct, seperate events that happened to occur one after another. The film plays the game fair and does some of the crucial clues are shown on screen with some audicity, though very briefly. It kinda reminded me of some of the sneakier moments in Anraku Isu Tantei (a show written by Ayatsuji and Arisugawa where viewers could win money if they guessed the culprit), where the clues were like on the screen in a small corner for a brief moment, but Wake Up Dead Man is fortunately never as vexingly mean as Anraku Isu Tantei (like having to see how shadows in the backgrounddiffered slightly depending on the scene... in a show that was shot in standard definition and broadcast in a time when lots of people still probably had a CTR at home). There is also a secondary plotline revolving the hidden legacy of Reverend Prentice Wicks, grandfather of Jefferson, which could be a motive for the murder. This plotline also ties neatly into the whole mystery as well as the underlying theme of the film, making one nice neat package.

I do have to say I think Wake Up Dead Man was rather long and I certainly wouldn't have minded a shorter experience, but still, Wake Up Dead Man is an entertaining and highly competently-created mystery film. Its themes are its strongest points, as they tie in meaningfully with not only the characters and the overall story, they also interact on a crucial level with the main mysteries plot-wise, offering strong synergy overall. It definitely elevates the technical aspects of the mystery, which may come across as a bit too familiar to some viewers. Between Wake Up Dead Man and the original Knives Out, I think Wake Up Dead Man is the stronger story and cinematic experience, though as a viewer, I do have to admit the slightly shorter runtime and the more overt story dynamics of "detective vs a criminal trying to hide her crimes" of the original Knives Out offered me a much more easier film to just watch and enjoy.

As for Glass Onion. Errr, perhaps in the future? Should I? 

Murder in Retrospect

"Who does not remember that, at such a time as this, the eye, like a shattered mirror, multiplies the images of its sorrow, and sees in innumerable far off places, the wo which is close at hand?"

"The Assignation"

This is the first time I actually caught a Detective Conan film on opening day. And I of course know Conan, especially the films, are huge, but when I arrived at the theater, they had seven films scheduled in the coming hour, and six of them were Detective Conan, with a new screening starting every ten minutes, which is insane.

Detective Conan manga & movies:
Part 1: Volumes 1 ~ 10
Part 2: Volumes 11~20; The Timebombed Skyscraper (1) / The Fourteenth Target (2)
Part 3: Volumes 21~30; The Last Wizard of the Century (3) / Captured in Her Eyes (4)
Part 4: Volumes 31~40; Countdown to Heaven (5) / The Phantom of Baker Street (6)
Part 5: Volumes 41~50; Crossroad in the Ancient Capital (7) / Magician of the Silver Sky (8) / Strategy Above the Depths (9)
Part 6:  Volumes 51~60; Private Eyes' Requiem (10) / Jolly Roger in the Deep Azure (11)
Part 7: Volumes 61~70; Full Score of Fear (12) / The Raven Chaser (13) / Lost Ship in the Sky (14)
Part 8: Volumes 71~80; Quarter of Silence (15) / The Eleventh Striker (16) / Private Eye in the Distant Sea (17)
(You will find the links to the reviews of volumes 70, 72~76, 78, 82~105 and the films Quarter of Silence (15), The Eleventh Striker (16), Private Eye in the Distant Sea (17), Dimensional Sniper (18), Sunflowers of Inferno (19), The Darkest Nightmare (20), The Crimson Love Letter (21), Zero the Enforcer (22), The Fist of Blue Sapphire (23), The Scarlet Bullet (24), Bride of Halloween (25) and The Black Iron Submarine (26) and The Million-Dollar Pentagram (27) in the library or via the Detective Conan tag)

The "sleeping detective" Mouri Kogorou receives a phone call from Sametani Kouji, a former co-worker who unlike Kogorou is still with the Metropolitan Police Force. He is investigating a shooting incident in the mountains that occured ten months ago involving Inspector Yamato of the Nagano Prefectural Police, and because Wani learned Kogorou has worked with him on a few cases in the past, he wants to ask Kogorou a few questions. The two are to meet in Hibiya Park the day after tomorrow, but when Kogorou, daughter Ran and Conan (the high-school detective turned into a child) arrive in the park, they are witness to Sametani being shot by a hooded assailant. While Conan gives chase on this turbo-powered skateboard, the assailant manages to escape in the hustle and bustle of the city. The Metropolitan Police Department suspect it was Sametani's investigation into the Nagano case that led to the attack, so Inspectors Satou and Takagi are sent to Nagano Prefecture, with Kogorou inviting himself to the team. The Tokyo inspectors meet with their Nagano colleagues Inspector Yamato, Uehara and "Koumei", and learn about the case ten months ago: Inspector Yamato had been chasing a convicted criminal on the run deep in the mountains of Nagano, near the Nobeyama Radio Observatory, when a third party suddenly shot at him. A terrible avalanche followed immediately, which swept Yamato away. While a search was initiated, they could not find the inspector, and he was initially assumed missing in action, but some time later, it was discovered Yamato had survived the avalanche and had been recovering in a local clinic. He had however lost the use of one eye after being shot, and he had also lost his memories initially, though he eventually recovered most of his memories and is now working again full-time as a police detective. Yamato however has no precise memories of who or what he saw the second before he was shot and the avalanche occured. However, if Sametani was shot because he was investigating this case, it seems likely Inspector Yamato himself too will become a target too because he is an actual eye-witness and involved party. Can they find out who the mysterious attacker is sealed within Inspector Yamato's memories before it's too late in the 2025 theatrical release Detective Conan: One-eyed Flashback?

Detective Conan: One-eyed Flashback is the 28th film in the long-running Detective Conan series originally created by Aoyama Goushou, with Sakurai Takeharu, a veteran in the animated adaptation of the series, once again responsible for the script. He was previously responsible for Private Eye in the Distant Sea, Sunflowers of Inferno, The Darkest Nightmare, Zero the Enforcer, The Scarlet Bullet and The Black Iron Submarine, and One-eyed Flashback shares a lot with especially the last four titles on the list: these films feature stories that build a lot on storylines and character arcs of the main series, and if you are not up-to-date with those storylines, you might feel left behind because these films are not really accessible without the proper prior knowledge (though they are generally fun as action films anyway). This is especially the case for One-eyed Flashback, where a large part of the story revolves around an untold episode from the main series: when we first met Inspector Yamato in the Fuurin Kazan case in volume 59, we heard bits and pieces about his backstory: he had been missing for some time after a certain incident in which he lost the use of his eye (hence the cross-shaped scar across his left eye) and had only recently recovered and returned to his work as a detective. In subsequent stories, we'd learn about his Chinese proverb-spouting rival/friend Morofushi Takaaki aka "Koumei" (Kongming) and how he'd been involved in finding Yamato, but exact details about what caused Yamato's disappearance, and how he lost his eye, were never given in the original manga. So to get the most out of this film, you ideally want to have seen/read the previous stories involving the Nagano Prefectural Police. If you are invested in the Nagano Prefectural Police trio, I do really recommend watching this film, as it clears a lot up regarding Yamato's background. While the events in the film-series of Conan are not "canon" per se for the manga (buildings don't blow up every week in the manga), series creator Aoyama Goushou does always provide the basic ideas for each film, and offers "stories he can't tell in the manga medium" to the film production committees, and ever since the first film, characters and pieces of backstory told in the films are considered as "canon" for the manga. 

And also watch this film if you're a Kogorou fan. It's been a while since he's been featured so prominently in the films (certainly not fter his original voice actor Kamiya Akira had been replaced by Koyama Rikiya starting Lost Ship in the Sky). Though to be honest, due to certain scenes in the film I really wished Kamiya Akira was still in this role... And regarding another voice change: while I had already heard Kusao Takeshi as the new voice of Amuro in the television anime series a few weeks ago, he had more "significant" scenes in this film as someone who helped Conan keep up to date with the police investigation, and I got used to him pretty quickly.

As a mystery film though, One-eyed Flashback is very simple, presenting itself as a police procedural. We realize very quickly that the assailant is trying to keep something that happened in the Nagano mountains ten months ago a secret, and that they are willing to go very far to keep it a secret, even targeting active police detectives. Meanwhile, the Tokyo detectives, in cooperation with their Nagano and Yamanashi Prefectural Police colleagues and Kogorou, hope to get a clue regarding the assailant's true identity by investigating the incident that occured ten months ago: Yamato had been chasing after a convicted armed robber, who had previous robbed a hunting rifle store with a conspirator. Ultimate this case is very simple in structure with few characters involved, and that leaves also little room for the current case to become interesting mystery-wise, as the accent lies on "somebody's shooting at these police detectives!!". The few attempts at misdirection are feeble, though I do really like the most direct hint pointing at this film's culprit: a very simple one, but it was implemented very competently. And I wonder whether something they did in regards to the culprit was a coincidence or not, but that was pretty funny too as a meta-clue in hindsight. Funnily enough, I can almost imagine this as one of those longer lore-based stories we see in the Conan manga lately, where the core mystery plot is just a vehicle to allow Aoyama to develop the underlying storylines/characters, as the last few years, these stories have featured simpler and simpler mystery plots. With the plot being less bombastic than previous film, the main story of One-eyed Flashback feels more like it could have been in the manga, if you ignore the ridiculous action scenes. So don't be watching One-eyed Flashback for the mystery, as it's nothing special. When scriptwriter Sakurai pulls out his old "political thriller" card (something he uses a lot in his Conan films), the story does become a lot more interesting to be honest, as he gives a certain character a fantastic scene in the post-credits, but the political angle not really deeply connected with the mystery save for informing us of the culprit's motive. 

A large part of the film is also set at the Nobeyama Radio Observatory by the way (as it's near where the avalanche happened ten months ago), which is not only a place Dr. Agasa and the Detective Boys visit in the film... I happened to have visited it myself too earlier this year. After the initial trailer of One-eyed Flashback was revealed last year, it became clear the Nobeyama Radio Observatory, and its 45-m radio telescope would be featured heavily in the film, so I visited it in January when I was nearby, figuring I should probably have a look at it because there was a non-zero chance it would get blown up in the film considering that's generally what happens in Conan films with structures with an iconic look! Picture above was taken by me by the way! It was cool to have seen the real place first, and then reproduced in the film again, as it was really the exact same place and layout... well, except for how it's depicted in the climax of the film, but that's artistic licence for you...

While I did enjoy my time in the theater a lot, I do have to say Detective Conan: One-eyed Flashback is probably best seen if you have done your homework first, and don't come here for mainly the mystery. It is a story that feels like it could have been a "somewhat drama/moviefied" adaptation of a manga episode with a somewhat subdued police procedural as its main framework to tell a story that had gone untold in the manga until now, focusing on Kogorou (who wants to know why his friend was shot) and Inspectors Yamato, Koumei and Uehara of the Nagano Prefectural Police, whose lives are still obscured by the shadow of the avalance ten months ago. So very much recommended for those who liked cases like Fuurin Kazan from the main series. The film ended, as per tradition, with a teaser for the 2026 film. Not super excited because it appears we'll have another character-focused film again and I am not particularly a great fan of this character, so not sure where the story will go, but whatever it'll be, I'll be sure to watch it!

Original Japanese title(s): 『名探偵コナン　隻眼の残像（フラッシュバック）』

The Faulty Stroke

"Trust the train, Mademoiselle, for it is le bon Dieu who drives it."
"The Mystery of the Blue Train"

I am a fan of mystery fiction, by which I mean I am not solely into mystery literature. While I mostly discuss books here, you'll also see me talk about video games, stage plays, audio dramas, comics and more, as long as it features a mystery plot. And while I generally don't have too much interest in other genres, my attention is quickly drawn if I learn something completely unrelated to the mystery genre, does in fact involve stories that could be interpreted as mystery fiction. That is why I had no intention of watching Oppenheimer at first, until someone told me it could be watched as a proper mystery film, and to my surprise, he was completely right.

And that is why I have longed to watch the 1985 "pink" (= basically softcore porn) film Chikan Densha: Seiko no Oshiri ("Molester Train: Seiko's Tush") for some time now. Yes, you read that title right. I first heard about this film in a mook on locked room mysteries edited by Arisugawa, which featured an article about locked room murder mysteries in the visual format: several prominent Japanese authors were asked about their favorites, and Abiko Takemaru's recommendation was this film. Later I learned Yamaguchi Masaya also recommends it as a locked room mystery. Of course, that seems a bit strange, as Seiko no Oshiri was just an entry in an extremely long-running series of pink films about...well, molesters groping women in the train among others. There's some story to connect the scenes with sexual content, but you'd hardly expect one of these films to be hiding a locked room murder mystery classic, right? It turns out that because the series (which ran from the eighties until the 2010s) is so insanely long (there are apparently more than a hundred of them), the series covers a wide variety of different genres from comedy and suspense to political thrillers, though the scenes with nudity/sex are of course the main attraction. Though apparently, most films aren't even about molesting in the train, as they eventually move away from that setting and might only include one such scene... Anyway, the more I learned about Seiko no Oshiri, the more I became interested in it: the film is actually directed by Takita Youjirou, who directed many of these Chikan Densha films, but would become internationally renowned with his 2008 Okuribito/Departures film, which would become the very first Japanese film to win the Oscar for the Best Foreign Language film. So yes, this is a softcore porn film by an Oscar-winning director which also features a locked room mystery. The whole story about all of this sounded just unbelievable, so I had to see the film.

Chikan Densha: Seiko no Oshiri starts the year after the infamous Glico Morinaga case, in which "The Fiend With Twenty-One Faces"  (a nod to Edogawa Rampo's Fiend with Twenty Faces) extorted the confectioneries Glico and Morinaga. Now, a different industry is threatened: the rice industry.  Someone calling themselves "The Fiend with Twenty-One Faces" has announced they have poisoned the rice of the koshihikari variety sold at a rice store, and threatens to repeat this act. The culprit however is in fact a corrupt chairman of the Miyagi Agricultural Association, who wants to scare consumers into moving away from koshihikari so they'll consume the sasanishiki variety. However, he himself receives a call from "The Fiend with Twenty-One Faces", who threatens to expose the whole deal, unless he pays up a hundred million yen. The chairman hires his old acquaintance Morizou to do the drop-off: Morizou is a chindon-ya: someone who dressed in excessive loud clothes and makes music to advertise for shops, but he also spends a lot of time just molesting women in packed trains. Morizou's orders are to follow the blackmailer's instructions, which is to carry the money onto a certain train. On the way, he's instructed to throw the container out of the window of the train: the container falls off the bridge the train was on at the time, landing besides the river where a figure was standing ready to pick the money up. A chance video recording allows Morizou and the chairman to figure out who this man was, and they report his identity to the police.

Acting on this information, the police detective visit the suspect at his apartment, but as there's no answer at the door, they ask the building's caretaker to open the door for them with his spare key. Inside, however, they stumble upon the suspect lying dead on his bed. As the door was locked from the inside and the key was found inside a closed drawer of the desk, the police conclude it must have been suicide: even supposing the man was killed, how could the murderer have escaped with the door locked from the inside? While one window was only slightly open, the apartment is located many floors up, with no high buildings directly besides it, meaning a hypothetical murderer couldn't have gone anywhere from the window. However, while the case seems to end with the blackmailer having committed suicide, the money is nowhere to be found, and Morizou himself becomes the suspect, so he tries to figure out who has the money now.

Oh, and that's the story when you cut out all the softcore porn segments, and that would probably halven the length of this film easily. These scenes are always awkwardly long and really add nothing to the story (oh, we need to wait until we arrive at the drop-off point with the train? Let's casually sexually assault a woman then to pass the time!), but I guess for the long-time viewers of a series called Molester Train, these scenes are actually the main part and the mystery plot is the unnecessary filler. The overall tone of the film is very lighthearted, with acts like groping treated as something minor and something to laugh about and the non-sexual jokes are also... of a certain quality, so it might be a challenging view for some.

But to get to the locked room murder mystery (for yes, the suspect indeed didn't commit suicide, but was murdered and left in a locked room): this truly has no right to be in a softcore porn film. I wouldn't call it a classic by any means, but it is honestly way more complex than some pure locked room murder mystery novels are, and it is actually one that becomes more convincing on the screen, compared to if you had just read the trick behind this locked room. The visual qualities of the medium really do make the trick seem more convincing, even if it's a bit ridiculous. Of course, this film isn't really structured as a proper mystery story, so there are barely hints and you're not really intended to solve this yourself (the person solving the locked room murder basically *just* figures it out), but the actual mechanics behind how the murderer managed to leave the suspect in a locked apartment, with the only key (besides the caretaker's master key) being found inside a closed desk drawer, is pretty impressive. I can't even imagine how it was written down in the screenplay, and what everyone on the staff on this softcore film would have been thinking as they were shooting this, because it honestly should have been done in a pure mystery film, and not used as... binding material to connect the sexy scenes. The core, underlying idea of how this locked room murder was committed isn't anything special per se, but the execution is... insanely complex and not even a lot of actual mystery films/television shows will ever show anything as mind-boggling as this, and that indeed makes Seiko no Oshiri a strangely memorable mystery film.

But Chikan Densha: Seiko no Oshiri can't be called a good film by any means, so it's really up to you whether you should watch this film. The locked room mystery part is interesting because it really has no business being in a film like this, but the rest of the film is incredibly tedious to get through if you're only interested in the mystery part.

Original Japanese title(s): 『痴漢電車　聖子のお尻』

Mystery of the Glowing Eye

"His gaze pierces cloud, shadow, earth, and flesh. You know of what I speak, Gandalf: a great Eye, lidless, wreathed in flame."

"The Fellowship of the Ring"

Some years ago, I reviewed the animated film Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum, and I started the post by saying how weird it was I was going to explain what Doraemon was. Doraemon has been so immensely popular for decades not only in Japan, but the whole of South-East Asia, so having to explain what it was, was basically the same as having to explain who Mickey Mouse. In a way, having to explain GeGeGe no Kitarou today feels the same. GeGeGe no Kitarou is a series created by manga legend Mizuki Shigeru and has been very popular since it was created in the late 50s. Or is it the 30s? Originally, the story of Kitarou, a young boy with otherworldly roots who fights supernatural evil, was created in the thirties by Itou Masami and Tatsumi Keiyou as kamishibai, a form of street art where storytellers would use illustrated boards to tell serialized stories while selling candy. After World War II, Mizuki Shigeru, a talented kamishibai illustrator, was asked by the original publisher to continue the series known as Hakaba Kitarou. He would later also create comics-for-rent starring Kitarou of the Graveyard and eventually, Mizuki was given the offer to do a serialized manga series in Shounen Magazine in the late 60s, which came with the new title GeGeGe no Kitarou it is best known as now. 

While there are differences across the various iterations of the series, the core remains the same: Kitarou, born at a graveyard, is the last of the Ghost Tribe and together with his father (who after some hardships in life is now a walking & talking eyeball), the two of them help humans in need whenever they face supernatural danger. With his remendous supernatural powers and the help of other friendly ghouls & ghosts from mainly Japanese mythology, Kitarou faces youkai who prey on helpless humans and want to disturb the balance between the human and supernatural world. The series led to a genuine youkai boom in Japan at the time, reacquainting children with "old" Japanese youkai and mythology. GeGeGe no Kitarou is one of the earliest anime series to be made, but has never been gone from the Japanese pop culture consciousness since: new anime series are created every few years and multiple generations have been brought up with the knowledge Kitarou and his posse have always been there protecting them.

As GeGeGe no Kitarou is of course all about the supernatural adventures Kitarou and his friends have, I honestly never expected I'd be writing about this series here, as the franchise honestly doesn't even aspire to anything even remotely close to a detective.... until late last year. For in November 2023, the animated film Kitarou Tanjou GeGeGe no Nazo ("The Birth of Kitarou ~ The Mystery of GeGeGe") was released to commemorate what would have been Mizuki Shigeru's 100th birthday and it turns out this film is actually.... a detective film. Up to a degree!

Set in 1956, the viewer is first introduced to Mizuki, an employee at the Imperial Blood Bank who desperately wants to climb the corporate ladder. When he learns that Ryuuga Tokisada has passed away, he knows this is his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: Mizuki is in charge of the account of Ryuuga Medicine and close to Ryuuga Katsunori, the president of Ryuuga Medicine and Tokisada's son-in-law. Mizuki expects Katsunori will become the new patriarch of the Ryuuga clan, controlling the vast fortune of the family, so he decides to travel to the very remote lake village of Nagura to convey his condoleances to the family, but more importantly, to secure himself a comfortable place in Katsunori's pocket. Arriving at the village, Mizuki meets Katsunori's daughter Sayo and her weakly cousin Tokiya, who have never left the village and dream of seeing the great capital Tokyo. Mizuki is allowed to attend the reading of the will, but to everyone's great surprise, it's not Katsunori who inherits everything, but Tokisada's son Tokimaro, a recluse with a few screws loose in his head. The will also stipulates that in the case of Tokimaro's death, Tokiya will inherit everything. The following day, Tokimaro is found brutally murdered, but the mayor and his men soon arrest a wandering stranger, who refuses to say his name, though Mizuki comes to call him Gegerou. The mayor wants to execute Gegerou on the spot, being convinced this stranger is the killer, but Mizuki insists the police should investigate Tokimaro's death properly. Gegerou eventually confides to Mizuki that his wife disappeared many years ago and that he has been looking for her since: sources have revealed to him she was seen in this village before her disappearance. Meanwhile, more people within the Ryuuga clan are killed in horrid manners, but while Mizuki is at first convinced the police must handle these incidents, he soon learns via Gegerou that supernatural powers are at play here, and while Gegerou turns out to be in possession of tremendous spiritual powers himself, solving these murders and the mystery of his missing wife is no easy task...

Let me temper your expectations right away: the finale of this film is not a denouement where Gegerou and Mizuki use logic to solve all the murders: it's all about youkai and other supernatural powers and there are more than a few battles where the combatants all have inhuman powers. This film is not really created as a fair-play mystery film, so don't come in expecting exactly that. That said, I did really enjoy this film, which delves into the story of Kitarou's father before he became a walking eyeball and as a buddy film with Mizuki and Gegerou, Kitarou Tanjou GeGeGe no Nazo is honestly a great watch with a fantastic dark atmosphere. Don't let the poster with Kitarou fool you: while this film is technically tied to the sixth anime series in terms of character designs/voice actors, this film can be surprisingly gory and it's definitely meant for an older audience than the core audience of that series (in fact, it is PG12 in Japan I believe, whereas the series is probably for all ages).

But on the whole, it is clear the production team behind Kitarou Tanjou GeGeGe no Nazo had Yokomizo Seishi in mind and certainly the first half of the film, you could honestly be fooled into thinking you were watching a film based on Yokomizo's work. The remote village is a familiar trope from the Kindaichi Kousuke novels, and the reading of the surprising will in the manor with all the family members all coveting a large share of the pie is very similar to the famous scene from Inugamike no Ichizoku, as well as the unique conditions of the will which seems to spark a series of gruesome murders among the family. The incredibly dark atmosphere, the horrifying underlying motive behind the murders and the whole "something is off about this family and the community" vibe and the sense of how everything slowly seems to crumble as more and more murders are committed, is done splendidly in this film, and I would love to see this team work on an actual Kindaichi anime adaptation, because they absolutely nailed the atmosphere they should be going for. But again, Kitarou Tanjou GeGeGe no Nazo however is not meant to be a fair-play mystery using those elements: it's not like youkai X having this or that power is meant to be a clue about how a certain murder was committed, nor does it expect you to deduce a certain youkai's identity based on the supernatural happenings in the film, so in that sense, it's very different from the other supernatural mysteries I discuss here. But the film's plot structure and main story is taken straight from a mystery story and it's fantastic in its execution of those elements. Guessing who the murderer is, might not be very difficult, but I do love some of the folkloristic clues given in the film, and of course, with talk about youkai and other religious visual imagery going on, at times you're also reminded of the work of Kyougoku Natsuhiko (who has worked on the GeGeGe no Kitarou franchise) and Mitsuda Shinzou, and that's never bad company when it comes to mystery stories involved folklore!

While the murders are the main worry of the people in the Ryuuga clan, Gegerou is of course more interested in the disappearance of his wife, and while this part follows familar mystery tropes less faithfully, I do have to say I really appreciated how this plotline ties back to important themes in Mizuku Shigeru's works, themes that are also partially reflected in the fictional character of Mizuki (who is not meant to be Mizuki Shigeru per se). The film is its own original story by the way, but does take cues from the very first Hakaba no Kitarou story from the rental comics, which tells the story of how Kitarou was born at a graveyard. Because the film features a mostly original story, set before the main GeGeGe no Kitarou series (which doesn't really have a strong chronology anyway), the film can be watched without any prior knowledge of the franchise, I think. The book-ending parts are set in the present with Kitarou, but these parts are short, and other references to the main series in the story set in the past are minor.

I doubt I will ever be writing about GeGeGe no Kitarou on this blog again, but that is also why I decided to discuss Kitarou Tanjou GeGeGe no Nazo this time, because it's just such a unique work within the franchise. I saw the film quite a few months ago, and initially I wasn't planning on writing about it, but after some reflexion, I thought: why not, actually? The film is without a doubt in essence the kind of mystery film I do like to see. It got the atmosphere down perfectly and setting aside the matter of it really being a mystery film or not: As an animated film, it's a visual and auditory delight and the relaxed Gegerou and really stressed out Mizuki work great as reluctant buddies working together. Definitely a must-see for fans of the Kindaichi novels!

Original Japanese title(s): 水木しげる（原作）『鬼太郎誕生 ゲゲゲの謎』