[Weekly Update] Murder Mysteries

Alright, movie season is finally beginning. Cocaine Bear, Creed 3, Shazam 2, John Wick 4.

I'm also odd interested in 65, as well as Dungeons & Dragons. Yeah they look bad, but they look fun bad. I mean, have you played DnD? All campaigns are fun bad. I'll die on this hill, I tell you.

CHANNEL UPDATE

The next video will have to take a bit longer. Watching and analyzing 4 movies turn out to be quite a task, especially when 3 of the 4 are all decent. I'll get it done as soon as possible, sorry for the wait.

I'll be taking another short break in March as my continuing plan to catch up with work and rest up from last year's insane schedule. However, I may upload a smaller, 5 minute review on films that I want to talk about but don't have enough materials to make full videos on.

A new video is also currently being worked on: American stereotypes in non-American media. Some of the examples I currently have is the politicians from Shin Godzilla and Metal Gear Rising, the depiction of racial discrimination in Godzilla Final Wars, the American Military leader in Wandering Earth and Three Body.

If you know any non-American films that features an American character, let me know!

MEDIA TALK

If you haven't watch the bonus video, we talked about Knives Out and Glass Onion, and I mentioned that I love detective stories and murder mysteries. Specifically, Japanese ones.

What do I mean? Well, after Sherlock Holmes and other related novels were translated into Japanese, the literary genre exploded in popularity in Japan.

From there, writer Edogawa Ranpo and his peers gradually developed the characteristics of Japanese Detective Fiction, create the genre and its rules.

From Kindaichi to Detective Conan, the orthodox Japanese detective fiction has one key rule: The viewers must have all the require information to solve the case, before the truth is revealed.

This rule is inherited from the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, but is taken to a much greater extreme. Nearly all Japanese detectives have a certain catchphrase they'd say when the case is solved, indicating to the audience that they may pause the story if they wish to solve it.

In the Kindaichi Case Files, the protagonist even has a catchphrase for BEGINNING his investigation.

Other less rigid rules and tropes within the "New Orthodox" genre includes:

• The case must happen inside an enclosed space, and must be solved before the space is opened back up. No one is allowed to leave and come back. (Murder on the Orient Express follows this rule.)
• All characters must be introduced at the beginning, and the killer is always among them.
• Within this enclosed space, characters often each have their own room that can be locked.
• Often, although not always, the detective begins his investigation while the serial murder is still on going. The detective's goal isn't to solve the case, but to prevent more tragedies.
• A successful story is the ones where the killer's identity surprises the reader. (Over half of the killers in both Kindaichi and Conan series are women)

With these rules explained, you can kinda see why I'm not very satisfied with Knives Out at first.

It has a classic location: A mansion in a remote area. But it's not enclosed. People comes in and out. It becomes rather difficult to determine what is an evident and what is not. (In fact, Western detective stories often focus a lot more on witness testimony than object evidence.)

There is only one murder, and the identity of the killer is not a surprise at all. The most blatantly suspicious character has the most obvious motive. Knives Out has an anti-twist.

Heck, the killer isn't even introduced properly until halfway through the movie.

Does this mean the movie is bad? No. It just means I'm overly familiar with the formula of one genre, and is unable to enjoy something outside of it. Glass Onion also did an "obvious killer is obvious" anti-climax. But that is a lot more blatantly intended.

The funny thing is, I also have trouble enjoying orthodox detective fiction nowadays. I remember watching Detective Chinatown 2, and the moment a character is introduced, I yelled "That's the killer".

I have no evidence or anything. I was simply too familiar with the rules, I've developed a sixth sense for the narrative pattern.

Anyway, that's the update this week. Do you like detective stories? What is your favourite ones? My favourite has always been the Kindaichi animated series (Especially the "R" series). I'm thinking of watching the Murder She Wrote TV shows after this.

I'll see you soon, either with a video or another update!