Murder Of The Inugami Clan – A Detective Story That Triggers Childhood Memories

Woke up at 7am on a Friday morning, I switched on my phone an hour later and a text message arrived at my inbox: Murder Of The Inugami Clan?

Not a big fan of the genre of crime but I am happy to do a bit of give and take.  Who knows, one day the rest of the Movie Review Squad may yield to the genre of horror – something I love, and often watch alone.

Do you remember the days when you were still a young adult, grew impatience, and started to read books for the adults?  And you might have struggled to finish reading the books like me?  I remember vividly what types of books I read when I was very young: the genre of Wuxia and the Japanese detective novels translated in Chinese.

What hindered me back then hindered me this evening.  Japanese detective novels usually involve quite a number of characters and it is not easy to memorize who is who (in Japanese) as the stories develop.  “Murder of the Inugami Clan” triggers my childhood memory because the story is so similar to those that I have read when I was young: the sheer number of characters, the mystery, and the indescribable dark mood that overshadows the entire story.  The Japanese can be so creative, however illogical the stories can sometimes be.

Notable Japanese director Kon Ichikawa’s final piece of work (he passed away this year at the age of 92) has a certain darkness and bleakness within but not without a dose of humanity.  The story is set after the World War II and the wealthy Inugami patriarch passes away leaving behind a strange will with strange conditions.  A series of murder take place even before the will is announced; a series of past history begin to surface as the plot unfolds.  It is our detective’s job to put the pieces together and solve the puzzle.

I believe what Kon Ichikawa wished to retain is the traditional approach to film making as “Murder of the Inugami Clan” is a remake of his own movie created 30 years ago.  Some audience may chuckle at how unrealistic some of the murder scenes are.  I doubt if any such scene was at all realistic three decades ago.  Pockets of humor are scattered in making the film relatively more uplifting.  I personally enjoyed watching the acting.  Very old school.  (Yes, I did at times allow to watch TV when I was young and my favorite was and still is Japanese dramas).

Not necessarily a film to entertain but a film to admire without having to think too hard.  When our main character Kosuke Kindaichi, the detective, first checks into his hotel room, he looks out of his window, captivated by the beautiful greenery scenery of the mountain behind the lake,and he said something like: where a nation is defeated, nature endures.  So subtlety describes the feeling of people after the war.