The Hollow Man

「いいわよ、いいわよ。美人は人殺しなんてしないのよね。嘘もつかないし、おならもしない」

"So beautiful woman don't kill. They don't lie. They don't fart. Right?"

"The 8 Murders"

I am still not sure whether it is a smart idea for my thesis topic (which I am supposed to work on here), my hobby and my club to all be about the same topic. But there are of course good parts to it. I spent the whole day reading a book, but at least I can sorta say that I worked on my thesis. And prepared somewhat for the Mystery Club meeting on Friday. And that I have something to write about on my blog.

It is no coincidence that I read Abiko Takemaru's 8 no Satsujin ("The 8 Murders") after Arisugawa Alice's Gekkou Game. For both of these writers are 'founding' members of the New Orthodox movement and these two books also happen to be their debut works. If you take a look in the library, you'll notice that I have reviewed a couple of Abiko's works, most of the being original scenarios for videogames (including the awesome Kamaitachi no Yoru). Yet I was never sure whether the scenario's he penned for videogames were similar to his novels, so I was interested in seeing how 8 no Satsujin would turn out. The story opens with the murder (by crossbow!) on Hachisuka Kikuichirou, the son of the director of Hachisuka Construction. The murder was committed in the Hachisuka mansion, commonly known as the "Eight Mansion", because of the strange design featuring an inner courtyard, resulting in an 'eight'-like shape when viewed from above. Eyewitnesses claim to have seen the murderer shoot from the room of the son of the mansion's caretaker, but the son naturally denies having commited the murder and to be honest, even the eyewitnesses themselves don't believe he could have done it. But the fact remains that his room was locked (and he was sleeping there), so it was not possible for someone else to have entered that room to shoot the crossbow.

Well, unless the murderer could fly and walk through walls, which would account for the second murder, where forensics say the arrow was shot from a place only someone with wings could have been! And because police inspector Hayami Kyouzou is having troubles solving the case himself, he allows his younger brother and sister, Shinji and Ichio, two self-professed mystery freaks, to help him with this case. Because who besides mystery fans could solve these kind of crimes?

First thing that I noticed: Abiko really likes teasing his characters. I thought it was just something specific to Kamaitachi no Yoru, but Abiko seems to like to put people in awkard situations and see them suffering. The things Hayami's subordinate Kinoshita has to suffer through are just horrible, but Shinji and Ichio are just as happy to tease their big brother about everything. There is a distinct humorous tone to Abiko's writing and while I prefer the comedy-mystery fusion Higashigawa Tokuya offers, Abiko's stories should appeal to those with a want for a humorous (and slightly sadistic) tone to their stories. His writing style is also very easy to read through, and it should take not that much time to go through.

As a debut work of someone from the Kyoto University Mystery Club, it is tempting to compare it to books like Gekkou Game and Jukkakukan no Satsujin. What is funny is that 8 no Satsujin feels quite different from those books actually: there is no university mystery club featured heavily in the story, no closed circle setting, students don't feature as the protagonists. Heck, while Shinji and Ichio are the brains of the Hayami siblings, Kyouzou is still part of the team and he is an actual police detective, so they can't even be considered 100% amateur detectives. Is 8 no Satsujin different from the other two, or are the two books mentioned just very similar? There is of course a lot similar too: most visible in the distinct meta-conscious writing style. We have tons of references to the classics here (including a couple of references that sadly enough border on the spoiler-ific) and we even have a genuine locked room lecture, which Shinji himselves considers a continuation of especially Carr's famous one from The Hollow Man. Carr is actually referenced a lot in this story, which is understandable seeing the (seemingly) impossible crime situations here.

The impossible crimes are... perhaps somewhat easy to solve however. The first one is very easy to see through, because it is based on a very old trick. It only becomes more confusing if you add in the second murder, which again is not that surprising as a stand-alone murder, but it can work quite effectively if you manage to add it in just the right impossible-looking ingredients. Abiko is relatively successful with that, but I have the same feeling with this book like I have with Kamaitachi no Yoru and the other stories I've read of him: he can write very entertaining, his tricks are not bad and he is certainly knowledgable about the genre, but the elements on their own are not surprising. I've yet to see something as imposing as Sensei Jutsu Satsujin Jiken or Jukkakukan no Satsujin. Abiko is certainly an above average writer, but I've yet to see a trick that moves the heavens. Or something like that.

Oh, and going back to the closed circle thing I mentioned (sorry, I write these reviews just as I go, without making drafts and I really hate having to re-arrange everything again). In their debut works, Ayatsuji and Arisugawa both went through the troubles to create closed circle situations, cutting the people off from modern day forensics / police forces / other information lines. By doing this and explictly addressing this, these two writers showed that there was indeed the problem of technology and other things that upset the 'old' model of the detective novel and while their 'solutions' were kinda artificial (though Ayatsuji's approach certainly has its merits), it showed that both writers were trying to get the old model to work in modern times. Abiko's 8 no Satsujin hardly shows such ambitions and it could have been set in any time and place. Heck, I am not even sure whether it was set in contemporary times!

8 no Satsujin is thus a pleasant  (and especially funny) read, but at times struggles to be truly surprising, though it keeps up a high, consistent level.  It is a 'safe' story, doing the things it should do as a locked room murder mystery in a more than adequate way and it also offers some of the distinct meta-conscious, New Orthodox storytelling, but it lacks a bit of the unexpected other writers of the same generation had.

And now I need more sleep. Why does it always takes weeks for me to get back to a normal sleeping routine in Japan?

Original Japanese title(s): 我孫子武丸　『８の殺人』

「め・・・めっちゃ好っきゃねん！！！」

運命のルーレット廻して

アレコレ深く考えるのは Mystery

ほら 運命の人はそこにいる

ずっと 君を見ていた

「運命のルーレット廻して」 (Zard)

Turn the roulette of destiny

All the things I think deeply about are mysteries

Look, the person of my destiny is here

I've been looking at you all the time

Turn the Roulette of Destiny (Zard)

Finding this note wedged between the pages of a second hand copy of Ayatsuji Yukito's Suishakan no Satsujin ("The Water Mill House Murders") made my day. It says: "The identity of the murderer is revealed beyond this point.Try to deduce it yourself first!".

It's half April, which means it is time for the annual Conan-media barrage here in Japan. The 16th movie, The Eleventh Striker, was released Friday, but sadly enough I still haven't found anyone to go together with... (I don't like going to the theaters alone). I did pick up the newest volume of the manga however and next week I'll pick up the new videogame. And I hope to find 'ways to obtain' the live action special broadcast in the weekend (I don't own a television here). Aoyama Goushou totally owns my wallet.

Anyway, Detective Conan 75! Which was actually released in two varieties: a normal release and a limited release with a small Conan figure based on the movie. I was glad to see that although it might take weeks to read a book here compared to the couple of days back home, at least my Conan-Reading-Speed (we will see whether the abbreviation CRS will be used on a regular basis from now on) is still the same. Which means a couple of hours. The newest volume starts with the continuation of the last case of volume 74 (And for sinister reasons, the case name has actually changed on the official Conan web database, between the release of volume 74 and now). The police is still trying to figure out who poisoned the son of the design bureau's president when the president herself is also poisoned in her home office in Design of Poison and Illusions (initially known as The Distorted Optical Illusion Murder Case). It is a double poisoning case here and the trick behind the first one (the son's poisoning) is actually quite neat, as it is a simple yet very effective and believable one. The mother's poisoning however is rather hard to believe. I think the trick is based on an actual scientific concept, but it just seems so... unrealistic. And it makes for a really uncertain poisoning method. Too bad, as the main theme of this story (optical illusions) is really fun and some things done here are neat, but the final poisoning leaves a slightly disappointing aftertaste.

The premise of The Great Deduction of the Fake Mouri Kogorou mirrors the concept of a story in volume 31. This time though, the fake Mouri Kogorou turns out to be not so evil (and dead): a young man has been visiting an old granny pretending to be Mouri Kogorou because his girlfriend asked him to watch over her grandmother. Having recently been the victim of a burglar, she has grown suspicious of everything, but thanks to 'Mouri Kogorou' solving all kinds of mysteries for her, she has been able to sleep well again. And then coincidence brings the fake Mouri Kogorou, Ran, Conan to a murder scene in the apartment complex next to the grandmother's house. The case itself is not too complex, though fun as a simple, yet believable alibi trick is used that almost seems to have sprouted out of the head of a creative child, while the way everyone (and in particular, the fake Mouri Kogorou) tries to keep up appearances in front of the grandmother and the suspects is very amusing.

Man, I wish I could translate. The Japanese title of The Case of Shuu, the Red Oil is actually a play on words on Char (Sha), the Red Comet, the main antagonist of the original Mobile Suit Gundam series (which has been featured in Conan quite often the last few years actually). An unknown person has been vandalizing cars, breaking into them and writing "Die" with graffiti on the inner roofs of the cars. The latest victim is officer Chiba, who joins forces with Yumi of the traffic police and... Naeko, Chiba's childhood love introduced in volume 71. Naeko is aware of Chiba's identity (he remembers his first love, but doesn't realise that he is actually working with her now) and the Detective Boys try to make Chiba realise that Naeko is his first love. In short, this is another classic Metropolitan Police Love Story. Which actually also often seem to be connected to missing link stories. Here, the police has troubles finding out what the common point is between the vandalized cars. The main mystery itself is not very exciting (and the missing link is quite obvious), but this story works if you're into Metropolitan Police Love story arcs.

The Mysterious Detective and the Nails of Destiny introduces us to another possible Bourbon candidate,  (a Black Organization member who supposedly has infiltrated the cast). The private detective Amuro Tooru lends his name of the Gundam protagonist Amuro Ray (whose voice actor is Furuya Tooru) and makes his first appearance as a suspect of the murder on Kogorou's high school friend's bride-to-be. The bride-to-be supposdely called her fiance, saying only goodbye, before she blew up her own car (and herself), but traces show that she might have been in a fight just before the explosion, which would mean that it might have been murder. I am not a big fan of the mystery, mainly because it does not seem to work with this length. It is a short, three chapter story, but I think this is one of those cases where blowing things up, making the case bigger and larger would have been benifical to the story. As it is now, the story seems to lack direction as all things had to be tidied up by the last chapter. The conclusion however, is heartbreaking.

A bit of a bland volume. The Hattori case is not that great, and while I certainly had fun with the fake Mouri Kogorou, Chiba's love story and the new character Amuro Tooru, I wasn't too impressed by the mysteries. Which should always stay the main focus of this series. All well, I hope the movie/game/TV special manages to satisfy my needs!

Original Japanese title(s): 青山剛昌　『名探偵コナン』第75巻

「月恋歌」

月と太陽なら私は月

君がいれば輝けるよ

「キミがいれば」 (伊織)

If I had to choose between the sun and the moon,

I'd be the moon

I only shine if you are next to me

'When you are here' (Iori)

Finally a review of a Japanese novel again! But first, something completely different.

Or not completely different maybe. As I've mentioned in a couple of posts before, I am studying for a year in Japan at the moment. And I happen to be doing that at Kyoto University, which in turn happens to be the host of one of the best known / respected mystery clubs in Japan. Activities of the club include organizing little deduce-who-the-murderer-is quizes, book discussions and a yearly big publication featuring original stories and commentaries and the club has been around since 1974. Writers like Ayatsuji Yukito, Abiko Takemaru and Norizuki Rintarou actually originate this club, which explains why it is so well known to those into new orthodox detective novels.

And I think I am a member of the club now. At least, like Rouletabille said, '"I have eaten all your caviar. I am your guest. I am your friend'. Well, they didn't buy me caviar, but like most clubs the Kyoto University Mystery Club did take potential new members out for dinner, trying to convince them to join their club. Which I wanted to do anyway, so I got a free dinner and I got into a club I wanted to enter in the firt place. And I had a nice chat with people about Japanese detective novels. Which is actually really awesome. Really, really awesome. I don't think I've ever had an oral discussion where I could say that I like Queen-school writers, and having everyone nodding at that. People who have read mystery novels featuring mystery clubs might have an idea of how those conversations go (probably mostly Japanese novels), but it was really like in those novels. I will probably write more about the club later, when I've actually attended to more meetings.

Anyway, among the other new members (and old members), there were also a lot of people who were fans of Arisugawa Alice. Last week I picked up his debut work, Gekkou Game - Y no Higeki '88 ("Moonlight Game  - Tragedy of Y '88"). It is the first volume in the Student Alice series, featuring Arisugawa Alice as a young student at Eito University as the fourth and newest member of the Eito University Mystery Club (EMC). The head of the club is the enigmatic student Egami, who serves as the main detective of the series. In this first story, the EMC heads out to camp on Mount Yabuki  during their summer holiday, where they meet three other groups of students (of various universities and clubs) who had the same idea. The 17 people have a great time at the camp site, until Mount Yabuki, which is actually an dormant volcano, has the fun idea of erupting for the first time in 200 years. And that is not all, because with the eruption, people start to disappear at night and they have the nasty habit of being dead, murdered when they re-appear. And what is that dying message "Y" that keeps popping up? How is the EMC going to get out of this mess?

Obviously through pure Queenian logic. Arisugawa's debut work simply screams Queen. It naturally starts with the pen-name Arisugawa Alice, which is also also the name of the protagonist of the story, but the Queenian influence is also obvious from the dying message that seemingly defies interpretation and the closed circle situation mirroring The Siamese Twin Mystery with the forces of nature forcing the groups of students to hide in the forest every once in a while. There are even several scenes where the group decides to search through each others possessions, in the hopes of finding proof of who the murderer is, mirrorring the classic big searches often seen in early Queen novels. And besides these tropes, we have the actual logical method employed by detective Egami, whose explanation of who the murderer is and how he deduced that fact could have fitted neatly in any Queen novel.

What was interesting was that the cover of the edition I own really emphasized the "Y" dying message (as does the subtitle of the novel, by the way), but the dying message definitely fails to carry the whole plot. It is a cool dying message though, reminiscent of one of Queen's more famous dying message short stories, but quite hard to translate to English I think. Arisugawa uses a neat little trick to keep the reader in the dark regarding the meaning of the message (or at least: I was definitely in a blind spot that was a result of that 'trick'/way of writing) and that was really well done. But it is hard to center a novel-length story around one dying message, which explains why the students also have to deal with a lot more mysterious events (and the vulcano eruptions). As a result though, the importance of the dying message weakens. In fact, it is not even the decisive clue that points to the murderer. Which was kinda surprising. It is more a clue that works in hindsight. I can almost see Arisugawa coming with this cool dying message, only to be forced to diminish its role in the story in order to make it work.

This novel actually does feel a bit unpolished, or maybe I should refer to it as signs that this really is a debut work (something a member of the Kyoto University Mystery Club also mentioned to me). First of all, you really, really don't need 17 students in a closed circle situation. That is overdoing it. Especially as they are all students. Yes, Arisugawa tries to keep them apart by giving them nicknames and placing them in different faculties and stuff, but seventeen is really overdoing it. Arisugawa might have fun writing them and it might have reminded him of his own experiences as a student, but it does not really work on paper (I was glad someone told me that even Japanese readers have trouble keeping all those students apart). I also had a bit of problems with the pacing. The story does start with an in media res prologue, but it takes long before things actually start, and the whole middle part is kinda slow and not very convincing (yes, it might be dangerous to move on an active vulcano, but it is probably more dangerous to stay on an active vulcano with a murderer. It doesn't take days to figure that out). Finally, there were several subplots and theories refered to which.... didn't go anywhere. Some of them might be considered red herrings, but others might have been addressed in more detail to actually strengthen the atmosphere of the story (the occult moon theories for example).

Anyway, as a debut work, Gekkou Game is not without its flaws, but it is definitely an amusing story written in the Queen-school. It's the second Student Alice novel I read and while not nearly as cool as Soutou no Akuma, I think Gekkou Game is decent enough to start with if you are into that whole reading-in-chronological-order thing.

Original Japanese title(s): 有栖川有栖『月光ゲーム　Ｙの悲劇 '88』

「フィルムの中のアリバイ」その１

"That's not fair. That's not fair at all. There was time now. There was all the time I needed...! That's not fair!"

"The Twilight Zone: Time Enough At Last"

Where I pretend to make a meaningful post by showing books I've bought the first week since I've returned to Japan. I've only started in one of them though.

I've been quite modest actually (hey, I also need to eat!), so the 'damage' after one week is just:

Nikaidou Reito, Soumenjuu Jiken ("The Double-Faced Monster Case")
Shimada Souji, Ihou no Kishi ("A Knight In Strange Lands")
Nikaidou Reito, Yuri no Meikyuu ("Labyrinth of Lillies")
Mori Hiroshi, Joou no Hyakunen Misshitsu ("God Save the Queen")
Takagi Akimitsu, Ningyou wa Naze Korosareru ("Why Was The Puppet Killed?")
Kyougoku Natsuhiko, Ubume no Natsu ("Summer of the Ubume") (1+2)
Kyougoku Natsuhiko, Mouryou no Hako ("Mouryou's Box")
Arisugawa Alice, Gekkou Game - Y no Higeki '88 ("Moonlight Game - The Tragedy of Y '88")
Higashigawa Tokuya, Misshitsu ni Mukatte Ute ("Shoot Towards The Locked Room!")
Higashigawa Tokuya, Kanzen Hanzai ni Neko Nanpiki Hitsuyou Ka ("How Many Cats Are Needed For A Perfect Crime?")
Higashigawa Tokuya, Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de ("Mystery Solving is After Dinner")
Higashigawa Tokuya, Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni ("After School, Together With Mystery")

All second-hand by the way. And half of them only 105 yen. I love Japanese bookstores <3 Oh, and about the 'normal' review posts: I still intend to make them, but it just takes longer for me to read here, so I think even one post a week is going to be a challenge. But I'll figure out something. I can always do more movies/series reviews. And the worst case scenario: I'll post a picture of the backlog every week to show how much the pile is not shrinking.

『帰ってこさせられた33分探偵』

「えー、『あの泥棒が羨ましい』 二人のあいだにこんな言葉がかわせるほど、そのころはーって渋いね、菜緒ちゃん、こんなの読んでるんだ」

鞄の中に江戸川乱歩の『二銭銅貨』を忍ばせている女子高生。どうやら僕は高林奈緒子という同級生に対する認識を改めなければならないようだ。この娘、只者ではないのかも。 

「霧ヶ峰涼と見えない毒」

"Hmm, 'That's one lucky thief'. During the time these words which passed between those two.... Hey, that's sneaky, Nao! You read this too!"

A female high school student who hides a copy of Edogawa Rampo's The Two-Sen Copper Coin in her bag. It seems like I will have to revise my image of my classmate Takabayashi Naoko. This girl, she might not be just an ordinary person.

"Kirigamine Ryou and the Invisible Poison"

Still alive! I think. Reporting live from Japan. Have I ever mentioned how I always suffer quite a lot of jetlag? The last time I had it this bad... I made my first translation for this blog. It's not that bad this time, but I'm still 'off' a couple of hours from my usual schedule. Anyway, it's been a long time tradition that first days back in Japan include a search for (preferably second hand) book stores in the neighborhood. The closest one I've found at the moment is five minutes away with the bike, so I'll be swinging by often. Unless a storm suddenly decides to visit Kyoto, like two hours ago.

And the first book I bought here... is a familiar one. By now, we've seen Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni pass by at this blog as a radio drama, a CD drama and two translations (based on the radio plays). Which is quite often, considering the original work is just a single volume (and not that big either). But yes, the reason why it is featured here so often is because I absolutely love this short story collection starring the tomboy Kirigamine Ryou, the vice-president of the Koigakubo Academy Detective Club who despite being the protagonist of the stories, never seems to be able to solve a case on her own. I am not going to review all the stories again, as I already did that in my review of the radio drama, but I did mention there that the radio drama had left out two short stories from the book. Which is just enough material for a short review.

Kirigamine Ryou to Mienai Doku ("Kirigamine Ryou and the Invisible Poison") has Ryou and her friend Naoko trying to figure out whether somebody is trying to kill old man Kadokura. Kadokura is a distant (and rich) relative of Naoko and she lives with him (and his family) because it is closer to school. Some days ago, a roof tile just barely missed falling on Kadokura's head and Naoko suspects that someone in Kadokura's family, consisting of his son, daughter-in-law and his grandson, doesn't have the patience to wait for the old man to die a natural death. Just as Ryou and Naoko are investigating the case, the old man is poisoned (though he survives!) as he was drinking his coffee. His last words before he passed out were 'poison in the coffee', but forensics show that the coffee wasn't poisoned at all. So how did the would-be murderer introduce the poison to Kadokura's body and who is (s)he?

Like many of the stories in Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de, this story hinges on customs, movements and other little things that are part of what we call 'common sense'. In Higashigawa's stories, the clues often hinge on either a situation that doesn't seem to comply to 'common sense', or even erratic situations that become perfectly understandable if you just apply common sense to it. The same holds for this story, though I have to admit that the story doesn't feel as satisfying as some of the Nazotoki stories.

I had high expectations for Kirigamine Ryou to Ekkusu no Higeki ("Kirigamine Ryou and the Tragedy of X (Ekkusu)"). Why? Higashigawa himself said that it took him ten years to write the short story, as he just couldn't find a way to make his initial trick work. Anyway, the final version starts with a meteor shower party at school, organized by the geography teacher Ikegami. The party is not really a succes, but Ikegami and Ryou suddenly spot a strange flying object that emits a greenish light and flies in an erratic pattern. Ikegami immediately decides that it is an UFO (the alien kind, not the literal definition) and starts chasing it (taking Ryou along with her). The UFO disappears though and in the middle of the field where they last saw it, the duo spot the body of a unconscious woman. The woman presumably lost her conciousness because she was strangled by someone (as seen by the marks on the neck), but the only footsteps on the wet field are those of the woman. The only logical explanation? The UFO dropped the woman off in the middle of the field!

Well, there is another explanation too, of course. I have no experience in writing stories and plotting, but I have to admit that my reaction was 'did this really take ten years to write?'. Which doesn't mean that this is a bad story. Actually, it is a very good impossible crime story that is quite dense for the short page count and the atmosphere of the story is also entertaining. Strictly speaking, the solution is a (much altered) version of a well-known impossible situation, but it's done so well and originally that it really doesn't matter. A very cool story, but it doesn't need the 'ten years' story. I am sorry I brought it up.

I'm still not sure how things will work out with the blog as I'm in Japan now. There is certainly no lack of material unlike the last three months (hoho, books of 800 pages, double columns for 200 yen?), but I need time/intention to read and write. Which might be the bottleneck this time.

Original Japanese title(s): 東川篤哉 『放課後はミステリーとともに』:  「霧ヶ峰涼と見えない毒」 /　「霧ヶ峰涼とエックスの悲劇」

番外編： The Fiend With Twenty Faces

What? The post title is not the title of a book or a quote? There is no introducing quote? Shocking! But there is a reason for that.

Because this post is more like a service announcement. Or a commercial. Some might have noticed that Kurodahan Press, who has published some interesting Edogawa Rampo novels / essays in the past, has released The Fiend with Twenty Faces a couple of days ago, the first volume in the Shounen Tantei Dan ("Boys Detective Club") series. The children's literature series stars masterdetective Akechi Kogorou and his assistents the Boys Detectives in their battles against the criminal mastermind Twenty Faces and quite famous in Japan and can been seen as the main inspiration for modern detective comic series like Conan and Kindaichi Shounen.

I had the pleasure and honor of writing the introduction to Kurodahan's The Fiend with Twenty Faces actually. Which was fun! And entertaining! Readers here might have noticed that I 1) like Edogawa Rampo and 2) I like writing about him and his works and to actually do it for an official release, well, I couldn't wish for more! It also means that I actually have the honor of having my name next to Edogawa Rampo's name on sites like Amazon. Which is really weird.

So for people interested in modern detective manga, 1930s children literature, Edogawa Rampo, Arsene Lupin and grand battles between good and evil, masterdetectives and masterthieves (not all of the above per se), take a look at Rampo's famous novel!

And now to solve the puzzle of packing for a year without making my luggage too heavy.

「殺しの際は帽子をお忘れなく」

Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?

- That depends a good deal on where you want to get to

I don't much care where.

- Then it doesn't much matter which way you go.

…so long as I get somewhere.

- Oh, you're sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

Those who can read Japanese (or those who are adept at using translation websites), might have seen it in the comments already. Or you might have deduced it from the fact I kept mentioning I don't have any unread books left, yet didn't went out to purchase them. Anyway, I will be leaving late next week for Japan to study there for a year. Yes, again. In fact, this blog started in 2009 just as a personal blog to keep the home front up to date when I went to study in Tokyo and Fukuoka, but somewhere along the way it transformed into the.... thing that it is now. So the reason I didn't buy new (Japanese) books was because it would be cheaper to buy them there.

I have to admit though that I am not sure what I will do with this blog. I will keep updating with reviews and stuff (I think), but experience has taught me that my post-amount will drop (significantly!), because life tends to get a bit busier as an international student (which is why I made sure that I at least have more posts this year than in 2010!). The other thing is that I am not sure whether I will post non-detective/personal posts here. At one hand, this blog did start out as such, so I might just return to the origins. On the other hand, it might not be very interesting if you're mainly here to read about (Japanese) detectives (I guess that most people only know about the reviews) and you're suddenly reading about ramen. There is a big chance I will write about food.

Anyway, I will keep posting about detective fiction, just not as regularly as now I think.

And now that we have gone over that: short shorts! Where I write short pieces about detective fiction because I couldn't come up with longer texts. Today's victims: the 1946 movie Green for Danger, the 2011 movie Joseon Myungtamjung : Gakshituku Ggotui Bimil and once again an audio drama of Houkago wa Mystery to tomo ni!

Green For Danger (1946) is based on Christianna Brand's novel of the same name and widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best movie based on a Golden Age detective novel. And I have little to add to that. I haven't read the original book, but this is really a neat movie that oh, I don't know, deserves a Criterion Collection release. Oh, wait, that exists already? Great, great! Anyway, the story is set in England, 1944. The country is suffering under the V-1 bomber attacks and the people at Heron's Park Emergency Hospital, a rural war hospital, have quite busy days taking care of their patients. One day, their local postman is brought in having been injured by a flying bomb and has to undergo surgery. The postman never survived the operation, because he died on the operating table before the operation could actually start. Later, one of nurses claims that this was not just an accident or natural death, but she gets killed off before she is able to say more about it. Inspector Cockrill is brought in to investigate the case.

Like I said, I am not familiar with the original novel, but this movie really brought a nice puzzler, combined with captivating characters and especially the setting of the hospital is very memorable. Furthermore, Alastair Sim as the inspector Cockrill is just a delight to look at and he alone is enough of a reason to recommend this movie (though it is a great movie overall). The mystery behind the postman's death is somewhat easy to solve though, but this is just a splendid production.

It reminds me a lot of Team Batista no Eikou ("The Glory of Team Batista"), a popular Japanese mystery novel that has been turned into a movie and TV show amongst others. The main mystery there is also a series of death on the operating table of the elite Team Batista, experts in a very complex procedure. They pride themselves on a perfect record, but then more and more patiens of them die on the operating table, leading to the suspicion that one of doctors might be sabotaging the operations. It relies quite a bit on medial knowledge, but the movie is pretty awesome, starring Abe Hiroshi as the official in charge of investigating whether the deaths were accidents or deaths. Abe's usually stoic, yet at times very playful (almost mean), detective also reminds of Sim's inspector Cockrill.

From England to Korea. I finally got a chance to 2011's Joseon Myungtamjung : Gakshituku Ggotui Bimil ("Joseon Great Detective: Secret of the Wolfsbane Flower"), which has the international title of Detective K: Secret of the Virtuous Widow. The movie is based on a novel by Kim Tak-Hwan and is set in 1782, 16 years after king Jeongjo took the throne. A series of murders on magistrates and other officials, combined with rumors of large-scale embezzling force the king to appoint a secret agent to investigate the case. The unnamed detective (though apparently called "detective K" outside of South-Korea) starts off his investigation rather roughly (resulting in being accused of murder himself and leading to assault on soldiers and such) and the king is forced to 'punish' his detective by sending him off on another, less important investigation (which luckily is strongly related with the serial murders). Helped by a dog thief, the detective start to uncover an intrige of unbelievable scale. And he finds a lot of hidden Christians. Hmmm.

This movie was pretty fun to look at, but it really needed polishing. The overall plot seems too complex at times, but not for the right reasons. Some scenes show some interesting detective work by the protagonist, or Conan-esque emergency escape plans, but it never feels like one coherent story. The plot seem little more than a easy way to glue the scenes to each other, instead of the plot dictating the way the movie progresses. The plot also gets unneccesary complex at the end with plot-twists and reveals that add little to the story, but for the fact that they are so totally surprising and unexpected. Oh, and they could have made the subplot of the Christians suffering under the Confucian rule a bit less... obvious. Yes, I know that a large part of the South-Korean population is Christian, but this was waaaaay too obvious a religous agenda.

Overall, this movie seems highly influenced by Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes movies, providing a lot of comedy and action, but it is just less polished. Like those Holmes movies, it is possible to set your mind at cruise control and enjoy the scenery. A special mention for Kim Myung-min, who plays a wonderful unnamed protagonist though. At times sharp and brave, but mostly a coward: which means he is similar to Houshin Engi's Taikoubou. Which is never a bad thing (seriously, any protagonist who loudly proclaims that 'I need to find more friends. To have them do the fighting for me', is genius). The international title of this movie by the way seems highly influenced by Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame.

And finally, once again Higashigawa Tokuya's Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni. First of all, a drama series based on the book (and I suspect some of the uncollected stories) will start late next month! Yeah! And secondly, I finally listened to Momogre's audio adaptation of Houkago wa Mystery to Tomo ni. Yes, I have already reviewed NHK's adaption of the book, but I was also interested in hearing how Momogre did their version, as their adaptations of Swiss Dokei no Nazo, 46 Banme no Misshitsu and ABC Satsujin Jiken were fun. And I am just a big fan of protagonist Kirigamine Ryou, the vice-president of Koigakubo Academy's detective club (who never seems to be able to solve a case herself).

Momogre's version is based on the first two stories, Kirigamine Ryou no Kutsujoku ("Kirigamine Ryou's Humiliation") and Kirigamine Ryou no Gyakushuu ("Kirigamine Ryou's Counterattack") (translation available for the latter). For a review on the stories themselves, I refer to the NHK version review, as the stories are identical and even the scripts are very similar (even though Momogre's version of Kirigamine Ryou no Kutsujoku is a bit unfair because of something important is mentioned at a later moment). So if they are so similar, why discuss Momogre version? Well, I wanted to convey the feeling of surprise when I, halfway through the drama, finally noticed that this was a Men Only version, i.e. there were no female voice actresses here. Ad yes, Ryou is a girl, but she has a speech pattern similar to a boy anyway, so I wasn't really bothered by the voice. It gets a bit distracting when women who talk like... women are voiced by a man. Momogre's Ryou was also quite different from NHK's Ryou: the latter was an energetic, almost hyperactive girl who wanted to be a detective. Momogre's Ryou.... was a man trying to speak like a girl, resulting in a nagging voice who never seemed as powerful as NHK's Ryou. Which is a big part of Ryou's charm. So in short, NHK's version is superior. In all aspects.

So, I think that this will be the last post of this month and next month... might bring food. Or detective fiction. Maybe detective fiction and food.

Original Japanese title(s): 東川篤哉 (原)　『放課後はミステリのあとで』
Original Korean title(s): 조선명탐정 : 각시투구꽃의 비밀