The Murder of Kuroido is a 2018 adaptation of Christie’s classic. The writer is Kouki Mitani, a prolific film writer. This is actually his second Christie adaptation; he’d written an adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express three years before. And of course, he’s the creator of the Colombo-inspired Furuhata Ninzaburou. Christie’s classic hasn’t been well-served by previous adaptations, so how would Mitani’s hold up?
The film is set in 1952 Japan, in the small village of Tonosato. The town is abuzz with news of the recent suicide of Sanako Karatsu. Her abusive husband died the previous year, and the more gossip-minded members of the village believe that she killed him. All of this is dismissed as nonsense by the village doctor, Dr. Shiba (although his sister Kana is one of the gossip-minded). One night, Shiba is invited to the home of Mitsuru Kuroido, who had been pursuing Karatsu’s hand in marriage. He tells Shiba that she was being blackmailed by someone who knew she’d killed her husband, and he’s determined to destroy them. His chance comes when he receives a letter from the dead woman. He shoos Shiba out so he can read it in peace.
It should come as no surprise when Shiba gets a call a couple of hours later, saying that Kuroido has been murdered! Shiba rushes to the house to find it oddly calm; the butler denies making any such call. But Kuroido is indeed sitting at his desk, a dagger buried in his back. Suspicion at once falls on his estranged son Haruo, who’s been in the village but now can’t be located. His fiancée, Hanako, insists this can’t be the case. But who did it? The shady housekeeper? The secretary? The writer staying on the premises who has a thing for Hanako?
Luckily for her, the Shibas’ next-door neighbor is the
The Murder of Kuroido is mostly flashback; the bulk of the film is recounting Shiba’s written record of events. He’s a fun Watson-figure, put on by his sister but caring deeply about her, observant enough of his fellow villagers but often blindsided by Sugero’s insight. His exasperation with Sugero’s seemingly random actions is amusing, and like any good Watson he voices his belief that Sugero is just messing around, letting us, the audience, feel intelligent for knowing that Sugero is up to something. Not that I knew what he was doing, but I knew he was doing…whatever it was.
The mystery plot is pretty good. The clues really are all there, whether you’re a book fan or have never heard of it. Some clues take advantage of the format, and you have to be paying attention to the background or what characters who aren’t the focus of the shot are doing. The timing element isn’t as smooth as I suspect the book is, but again, that’s an issue of the medium. There’s one part that feels very, very clunky. Like, as soon as this is mentioned, you know it’s going to be involved in the crime, but I think that was a problem with the original too. But these are minor gripes. *Roger Ackroyd is really a solid village mystery, even outside of its reputation, and that carries over here.
For the most part, the movie sticks pretty close to the original book. There are a couple of changes, like the great white hunter Major Blunt getting turned into a successful writer. The killer is also a more sympathetic figure than in the novel. I read that some of the events were shuffled around as well, but I can’t speak about that in detail. The biggest draw is Sugero himself. His actor, Nomura Mansai, plays him very broadly. He constantly has a smile plastered on his face and has a very odd way of talking. He’s always speaking like thiiiiiiiiis~ And he does this through the whole mooooooooovie~ At first it made him seem more creepy than eccentric, but once I got used to it, I thought it worked pretty well. And it makes the end of the film, when the jovial mask drops completely, much more impactful.
Of course, there’s the main element of the book that everyone who’s read it is breathlessly waiting to read about. I’d say the movie handles that part very well. It’s pulled off a little differently than in the book, but the movie preserves the emotional and dramatic impact of that element.
So all in all, The Murder of Kuroido is really good. Die-hard fans of the book will be impressed at how it preserves some of the most essential parts of the original, while those who’ve never read it will get a really cleverly worked out murder mystery. Honestly, I’m tempted to watch some more of Mitani’s work based on this. Excellent stuff. Recommended.
Other Reviews: Criminal Musings (contains spoilers), The Case Files of Ho-Ling.
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