內海薰 最後の事件

After Kaoru has some doubts in herself, she comes to find Ugawa to get some help.

This is one of the episodes of  Galileo, which I introduced before. Because this is a special episode of this drama, in this episode the main character is Utsumi Kaoru (內海薰), and the associate professor ,who has always given help to the police, doesn't have much lines in this episode.

In the beginning of this story, we can see that Kaoru has encountered some difficulty in her work. In the patriarchal working environment of policeman, no one believe in her competence and her boss even recommend her to go to America for training, but he actually wants to send her away. She starts to doubt whether she should still be a policeman or not. 

One day, Kaoru sees a care-giver,named Jyounenn, pulling a wheelchair for an old woman. However, the old woman has been dead for a while. And then she even finds out that he has been suspected of being involved in the murder of the old woman's daughter. When Kaoru interrogates Jyounenn, he confesses his guilty at first. Yet, when he is taken to the other police office, he claims that he has extorted a confession and it make this case go into a puzzle.

Kaoru tries her best to find the truth and in the end she does it. Her boss finally identifies her capacity and wants her to stay in Japan, but she decides to go to America instead.

Different from other episodes, in this episode there are no Physics elements, but it is still deserved to take a look. The actress who plays Kaoru is Shibasaki Kou. She is very beautiful and good at acting. 

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is one of the masterpieces by Agatha Christie and it features Hercule Poirot as the lead detective. It is one of Christie's best known and most controversial novel, its innovative twist ending having a significant impact on the genre.

【Most of the information is gain from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia】

The book is set in the fictional village of King's Abbott in England. It is narrated by Dr. James Sheppard, who becomes Poirot's assistant. The story begins with the death of Mrs. Ferrars, a wealthy widow who is rumored to have murdered her husband. Her death is initially believed to be an accident until a distraught Roger Ackroyd, a widower who had been expected to marry Mrs. Ferrars, invites Sheppard over to his house, Fernly Park for dinner, having something urgent to tell him.


After dinner, Sheppard is brought into Ackroyd's study, where Ackroyd tells him that Mrs. Ferrars had confided in Ackroyd that she was being blackmailed by someone about killing her husband. Moments later, Ackroyd receives a letter that Mrs. Ferrars had posted, but he decides to finish reading it later, once Sheppard leaves.


On the walk home, Sheppard bumps into a stranger outside the gates. After returning to his home, where he lives with his gossipy spinster sister, Caroline, Dr. Sheppard receives a telephone call just before going to bed, and he rushes out, telling Caroline that Parker, Ackroyd's butler, had found Roger Ackroyd murdered. Upon arrival, however, Parker claims to have never made such a call, but finds that Ackroyd has indeed been stabbed to death.


Hercule Poirot, who happens to be cultivating vegetable marrows next door to the Sheppards, comes out of retirement at the request of Flora Ackroyd to investigate the murder, since Ralph Paton, who stands to inherit his stepfather's fortune, is the primary suspect but is nowhere to be found. Paton's footprints are found on the ledge of the window that Ackroyd had previously asked Sheppard to bolt. Raymond and Blunt both report overhearing Ackroyd speaking to someone from his study, and Flora's testimony of having spoken to her stepfather before leaving for bed place Ackroyd's death into a narrow time frame for which Parker, Raymond, Blunt, Mrs. Ackroyd, and Miss Russell, the housekeeper, all have alibis. The telephone call placed to Dr. Sheppard is traced to King's Abbott station.


While the police are convinced that Ralph is the killer, Poirot is uncertain, focusing his investigation on several small details, such as the representative of a Dictaphone company who had visited Ackroyd some days previously, the exact time at which Dr. Sheppard met the stranger at the Fernly Park gates, and the repositioning of a chair in Ackroyd's study. Poirot also finds a goose quill and a scrap of starched cambric in the summer house, as well as a ring with the inscription "From R." in the backyard pool. Poirot also notices that Ursula Bourne, a parlormaid who had resigned earlier in the afternoon, had no alibi for the murder.


Poirot brings together five people related to the case -- Sheppard, Flora, Mrs. Ackroyd, Raymond, and Blunt -- and states that all of them have been concealing something from him. Dr. Sheppard aids Poirot in finding out what these secrets may be, as well as conducting research into Ursula Bourne. Raymond and Mrs. Ackroyd both soon reveal that they were in debt, which Ackroyd's death would have resolved, and Flora eventually confesses to having stolen money from Ackroyd's bureau, but had to tell Parker she was there to bid her uncle goodnight in order to cover up what she was really doing. This leaves Flora, Blunt, Raymond, and Mrs. Ackroyd without alibis.


More issues are resolved -- the goose quill was a heroin holder belonging to the stranger that Sheppard has met, who is actually Miss Russell's son; the ring belongs to Ursula Bourne, who had secretly married Ralph Paton. Dr. Sheppard, unbeknownst to the reader, had been helping Ralph hide the entire time. Peculiarly, although Poirot claims to know the killer's identity, he does not reveal it to the assembled group before he dismisses them.


The book ends with an unprecedented plot twist. In fact, Dr.Sheppard, who has not only been Poirot's assistant, but also the story's narrator, had stabbed Ackroyd just before leaving the house. 

The reason why I totally recommend everyone who loves detective novels to read this novel is that whenever you pick up this book to read, you can't stop reading it until you finish the whole story. Even if I follow every step of how Poirot solves this complicated puzzle, when I know who is the murderer, I am still very surprised. Also, I admire Poirot for the methods that he used to solve this case. One is the use of ratiocination; the other is the gossiping practiced by almost all of the inhabitants of King's Abbott, especially Caroline. Last but not least, Poirot never omit any details and he takes everything, some of which may seem unimportant, into account. Sometimes, those negligible things are the key to solve the case.

After reading this novel, I also have interests in the film which was adapted from this movie. I hope I can get some time to watch the movie and experience this interesting journey with Poirot again!

Detective Conan: The Fourteenth Target 名探偵コナン 14番目の標的

The Fourteenth Target is the second Conan movie, which was released in 1998 and is also one of my favorite Conan movies. And I am going to introduce this story briefly.








People who related to 毛利小五郎 are attacked by someone and  a playing card is left at the scene after every raid. The murderer uses playing card's number to symbol who's going to be killed. From the clue they all think that the murderer must be 村上丈, who was arrested by 小五郎 before and he might want to revenge.

辻弘樹

They follow the sequence backward to save people from being killed. The first one is 辻弘樹, whose name has a ten. The murderer replaces 辻弘樹's eye drops with mydriatic medicine to make him be blinded by sun and tried to kill him when he drives his helicopter. Fortunately, he is saved by Conan. 

The reason why the murderer wants to kill him is that the murderer was insulted by 辻弘樹 about his job at a party.

After they visit a person named 澤木公平, whose name has a eight, they follow him to go to a meeting with the owner of Aqua crystal, named 旭勝義, whose name has a nine, about the restaurant over there. At there, they meet 小山內奈奈,whose name has a seven, 宍戸永明, whose name has a six, 仁科稔, with two, and Peter Ford, whose name has a four. They also realize that 白鳥警部, whose name is 任三郎, has a three in his name. Almost every one except 工藤新一 are the victims who have the chance to be killed.














At Aqua crystal, 旭勝義 is killed first and is drowned in the aquarium. The reason why he is killed is that he owns tens of thousands of wine; however, he doesn't take good care of them, After him is 小山內奈奈, who is killed when the light turns off by an explosion. 小山內奈奈 hit the murderer as she driving so fast then caused the murderer to gained Dysgeuisa and also influence his ability to do his job as a wine steward, so the murderer wants to revenge on it. The last the murderer's target is 仁科稔. Because 仁科稔 can't swim so the murderer causes the restaurant to flood and try to drown 仁科稔. 仁科稔 is a food critic; however, he is totally not good at this area and he even wrote the wrong information in his books and misled his readers.

仁科稔

旭勝義

小山內奈奈

In the end, Conan reveals that the murderer was not 村上丈 due to the fact that 村上丈 is left-handed, but the murderer was right-handed. He reveals that 澤木公平 is the murderer.

澤木公平

村上丈

My favorite scene is that when the restaurant is full of water, everyone all comes to the surface but only 蘭 doesn't make it. When Conan tries to save Ran, he ends up getting his leg stuck and running out of oxygen. However, Ran gives the oxygen that Conan had given to her in the form of a kiss. Conan then quickly uses the elastic suspenders to move the car, and save 蘭. I think this scene is very romantic.

 

I really like the author using playing cards as an idea to symbol who to kill. Hope you will like this movie! 

Detective Conan: The Lost ship in the Sky 名探偵コナン 天空の難破船

This time I am going to introduce another Conan movie, which was released in 2010: The Lost ship in the Sky. This movie is the 14th Conan movie and is one of my favorite movies. The reason that I love this movie is not only the whole story is set on the airship but also one of the famous character named 怪盗キッド appear in this movie.




The movie begins with the scene that a terrorist group invades a laboratory containing a deadly bacteria and destroys the lab with an explosion. They later announce via the internet that they have gained possession of the bacteria and declare themselves to be the Red Siamese Cats, a terrorist group that was eradicated a decade ago.

Lady Sky

One day, Conan, 毛利蘭, 毛利小五郎, 阿笠博士 and Detective Boys are invited by 鈴木園子's uncle, 鈴木次吉郎 to fly in his airship to witness his attempt at capturing 怪盗キッド by baiting him with the jewel called Lady Sky. 怪盗キッド replies to 鈴木次吉郎's challenge with a letter announcing that he will steal Lady Sky when the airship approaches Osaka. On the airship, besides 鈴木次吉郎's employees and the police, there are also four people who works for the media.

At first, their main mission is to capture 怪盗キッド; however, thing starts to change when a waitress finds an ampule with the logo of the Red Siamese Cats under the sofa in the smoking room. Two people have been found having rash over their body. To prevent them from passing the disease to others, the two people are quarantined in a separate room. When Conan try to find Detective Boys, who are looking around in the airship, to warn them about the disease, he also witness someone unlock the roof to allow Red Siamese Cats to enter and hijack the ship.Their leader announces that they plan to get revenge on 次吉郎 and that they will detonate the bombs on the ships, or release a second ampule containing the bacteria, if they resist.






Because Conan disarms the bomb and tries to disturb their plan, he is thrown out through the window by the leader and is saved by 怪盗キッド. After that, Conan and 怪盗キッド use a police helicopter to re-board the airship. Meanwhile, with the help of his friend 服部平次, Conan know the Red Siamese Cats' true motive: using the airship to evacuate the city in order to steal the priceless Buddha statues. Therefore, he asks 服部平次 to 奈良 to protect the Buddha statues.

怪盗キッド disguises as 工藤新一

In the end, Conan discover the truth that the Red Siamese Cats have never released a bacteria and the real mastermind behind the heist is the man who gets a rash first. Also, they using the terrorist name Red Siamese Cats as a cover up.




In this movie, the funniest part is the time when Conan is thrown out from the airship and he stays with 怪盗キッド.

When Conan is asking for help from 服部平次,
怪盗キッド is feeding the goat.

I really like this movie that I not only watched this movie in the theater but also buy the DVD of it, so I can watch it again and again. :)

All About Agatha Christie

"Agatha Christie,
1890.09.15~1976/1/12,
Crime of Queen"

When we think of those famous crime novelists, we will never omit Agatha Christie, whose novels has been translated into at least 103 languages, and were adapted for so many movies. Since her sister read some stories of Sherlock Holmes for her when she was little, she had long been a fan of detective novels. And she was inspired by those detective novels to write her own ones. Although, her sister didn't back her up to write this kind of topic, however, this situation pushed Christie to write detective novels and she would never glance back.







The two main characters in her novels are Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. 

David Suchet,
who was cast as Hercule Poirot in
television series since 1989 until
in June,2013. 

Poirot was a long-running character in many of Christie's works, and appeared in 33 novels and 54 short stories. Poirot was a retired policeman from Belgium. He came to United Kingdom as a refugee during WWI and started his second job: a private detective. He was hardly more than five feet four inches but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he had a mustache which he is very proud of and take good care of. Also, he had green eyes that were repeatedly described as shining "like a cat's". The neatness of his attire was almost incredible and a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound. In addition, among Poirot's most significant personal attributes is the sensitivity of his stomach. Poirot operated as a fairly conventional, clue-based and logical detective and it reflected in his vocabulary by two common phrases: his use of "the little grey cells" and "order and method".

Joan Hickson, 

who played the character in 

all twelve Miss Marple novels, 

and was nominated for 

two BAFTA awards for 

her accurate and charming portrayal

Miss (Jane) Marple was introduced in the short stories The Thirteen Problems in 1927 and was based on Christie's grandmother and her "Ealing cronies". Miss Marple appeared in 12 of Christie's novels. She was an elderly spinster who lived in the village of St.Mary Mead and acted as a consulting detective. The early version of Miss Marple was a gleeful gossip and not an especially nice woman. The citizens of St. Mary Mead liked her but were often tired by her nosy nature and how she seemed to expect the worst of everyone. In later books she became more modern and a kinder person.Miss Marple solved difficult crimes because of her shrewd intelligence, and St. Mary Mead, over her lifetime, has given her seemingly infinite examples of the negative side of human nature. She also has a remarkable ability to latch onto a casual comment and connect it to the case at hand. In several stories, she was able to rely on her acquaintance with Sir Henry Clithering, a retired commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, for official information when required. Miss Marple never married and has no close living relatives. 









The reason why I love her detective novels are that: the stories are very meticulous; you will never know who is the murderer if you don't read until the end. Among her detective novels, I like "And Then There Were None", also named "Ten Little Indians" the most. This novel is widely considered Christie's masterpiece and described by her as the most difficult of her books to have written. It was first published in the United Kingdom on 6 November 1939.


In the novel, ten people are enticed into coming to an island under different pretexts, for example offers of employment or to enjoy a late summer holiday, or to meet with old friends. All of them have been complicit in the death(s) of other human beings but either escaped justice or committed an act that was not subject to legal sanction. The guests are charged with their respective "crimes" by a gramophone recording after dinner the first night and informed that they have been brought to the island to pay for their actions. They are the only people on the island, and cannot escape due to the distance from the mainland and the inclement weather, yet gradually all ten are killed in turn, in a manner that seems to parallel the ten deaths in the nursery rhyme. Nobody else seems to be left alive on the island by the apparently last death. A confession in the form of a postscript to the novel, unveils how the killings took place and who was responsible.


This is the nursery rhyme, which sounds a little bit creepy:


Ten little Indian Boys went out to dine;
One choked his little self and then there were nine.

Nine little Indian Boys sat up very late;
One overslept himself and then there were eight.

Eight little Indian Boys travelling in Devon;
One said he'd stay there and then there were seven.

Seven little Indian Boys chopping up sticks;
One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.

Six little Indian Boys playing with a hive;
A bumblebee stung one and then there were five.

Five little Indian Boys going in for law;
One got in Chancery and then there were four.

Four little Indian Boys going out to sea;
A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.

Three little Indian Boys walking in the zoo;
A big bear hugged one and then there were two.

Two little Indian Boys sitting in the sun;
One got frizzled up and then there was one.

One little Indian Boy left all alone;

He went out and hanged himself and then there were none.






Read this novel and you will definitely be charmed into Christie's detective world! 

Galileo ガリレオ

This time, I want to introduce another Japanese television drama, which is named Galileo. This drama is based on a novel, Detective Galileo, which is written by a famous mystery writer,東野圭吾. There are two seasons of this drama and there were also two movies related to the story released in 2008 and 2013. I think this drama is a little bit different from the common detective dramas that we usually think. In this drama, there is no detective in it; in contrast, the two main characters are a rookie police, 岸谷美砂 and an associate professor in Physics Department, 湯川学.

Some interesting parts in season two of this drama.

The main character, 湯川学, is a handsome professor who teaches Physics in 帝都大学. He is a brilliant but eccentric person who is not interested in anything but Physics. He helps the police, 岸谷美砂, to solve the cases only when he thinks that there are somethings interesting. He has some pet phrases such as "さっぱり分からない", which means that it doesn't ring any bells; also "実におもしろい", which means that he thinks it is very interesting; the most important one is "現象には必ず理由がある", which means that everything comes for a reason. He doesn't believe there are supernatural phenomenon 
and impossible things in the world and he thinks that he can use his knowledge from Physics to solve all of them.








The heroine in this drama in season two is 岸谷美砂. She is a rookie police who is very confident in herself and she is sometimes very rude to seniors, such as the assistant of Professor 湯川, who is older than her. When she encounter some difficult and mysterious cases, she will come to Professor 湯川's laboratory to ask for help. However, Professor 湯川 is only interested in what the criminal tactic is, therefore 岸谷 always has to find who is the murderer by herself.









In this drama, there is one funny scene appearing in every episode. When Professor 湯川 thinks of the physical methods that can solve the case, he will gesture his left hand like Fleming's left-handed material in front of his face, and use anything he can get to write Physics formula somewhere around him.

His funny pose

The Physics formula

The reasons why I think this drama worth watching are that each episode talks about different and interesting topics; using Physical method to solve the cases which seem like supernatural
phenomenon at first is quite an innovative idea. In addition, because Professor 湯川 is an odd and rational person and 美砂 is quite perceptual and a little bit noisy, when they get along with each other, their conversations are always very interesting. It is really a great drama that you will totally fall in love with it.

名探偵コナン : ベイカーストリートの亡霊 Detective Conan: The Phantom of Baker Street

The Poster

The second Conan movie that I want to introduce to you is Detective Conan: The Phantom of Baker Street. This movie was released in 2002 and the main part of this movie was set in London in late 19th century. In late 19th century, it was the time when Sherlock Holmes and Jack The Ripper exist. You will know why these two characters are important later.








At the beginning of the movie, it briefly introduces a child prodigy,named 澤田弘樹, who is only ten years old and is able to develop artificial intelligence. After he finished the development of artificial intelligence, he commits suicide. The reason why he commits suicide is that he knows the big secret of his supporter, 湯瑪斯·辛多拉. 辛多拉 is afraid that 弘樹 will tell everyone that he is the descendant of Jack The Ripper and this scandal will have a big impact on his own business, so he keeps monitoring 弘樹. In the end, 弘樹 can't stand this kind of life, and then commits suicide.

After two years of 弘樹's death, 辛多拉's game company holds a demonstration of a virtual reality game, called Cocoon. Conan, 毛利蘭 and Detective Boys are also invited to the demonstration. Before the game starts, in another room, the inventor of Cocoon, 樫村忠彬, is killed by someone. When Conan tries to find some clues to help him know who is the murderer, he finds the dying message on the keyboard: J-T-R. Conan thinks these three letters is the abbreviation of Jack The Ripper. To understand what was the victim trying to convey, Conan decides to play the game and then gets some clues about the murder by going back to 19th century.








When the demonstration begins, 弘樹's artificial intelligence system, named Noah's Ark, takes control of the game system Cocoon. It tells the audience that if all fifty kids in the Cocoon lose the game, it will kill the kids with a large electromagnetic burst. Hence, every kid should chooses the stage that they can survive easily. Because Conan likes Sherlock Holmes very much and he wants to be in contact with him to know much more about Jack The Ripper, Conan,蘭 and Detective Boys all choose the stage of London in late 19th century. 









At first, they go to Baker Street 221B to find Sherlock Holmes, however, Sherlock Holmes and Dr.Watson are not in London by chance. So they just skim through some documents about Jack The Ripper that Sherlock Holmes had collected and then go to find Professor Moriarty. Moriarty tells them that he will request Jack The Ripper to kill someone at someday and he will post this information on the newspaper so that they can arrest Jack The Ripper at that place.

After they successfully save Irene Adler, whom Professor Moriarty planned to kill, they follow after Jack The Ripper onto the train. They have a fight with Jack The Ripper on the roof of the train. Before Conan is killed by Jack The Ripper, 蘭 saves his life by jumping off the cliff with Jack The Ripper. (because Jack The Ripper tied his leg together with her leg.) In the end, Conan successfully solves the case and saves everyone's life. In the meanwhile, his father, 工藤優作, 
also knows who murdered 樫村忠彬.

蘭 thinks of one words that 新一 had told her before she decides to jump off the cliff, which is "If I were assured of the former eventuality I would, in the interests of the public, cheerfully accept the latter." I was so touched when I saw this scene, and I so admired her courage.













Briefly introduce some important character:

湯瑪斯·辛多拉, who is 弘樹's foster father, indirectly leads to 弘樹's death and murders 樫村忠彬. He is the descendant of Jack The Ripper, and he tries to cover up this secret.

樫村忠彬, the designer of the virtual reality game, who is 弘樹's father. 

澤田弘樹, a talented ten-year-old boy, all he can do everyday is working and working, so he didn't have the opportunity to play with other kids. In addition, the main reason why he interferes in this game is that he wants those children who come from wealthy family to be more independently and to make Japan better.

Hope you will like this movie, too!