Agatha Christie's Seven Dials

 Recently Netflix dropped this british mini-series based on the 1929 novel by Agatha Christie, so Noshi and me sat down and binged straight through the 3 episode series.

 

Now, I have read a LOT of Christie's books, but mostly all her Hercule Poirot works, so I didn't know how this would pan out.

 

Central in the story is Lady Eileen "Bundle" Brent, a great performance by Mia McKenna-Bruce, and her group of friends.  And it includes some big names as Helena Bonham Carter as her mother Lady Caterham, or Martin Freeman as Superintendent Battle.  And "leftenant Gruber", albeit without his little tank, as the butler.

 

The story turns around Bundle's betrothed being murdered during a party at their house, and Eileen suspecting it wasn't an overdose of sleeping medicine but actual murder.  She sets out to investigate, which results in another one of her friends being fatally shot, while uncovering a secret society called "The Seven Dials".  

Further digging, and witnessing a meeting of the mysterious Seven Dials, she is contacted by superintendant Battle from Scotland Yard, who warns her to stop her digging as it might threaten her life.  Which of course, like any central figure in a series, she throws into the wind.  Kudos to Battle, he already realises this before she walks out of his office door.

 

She attends a party hosted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where a Cameroonian (is that an actual word?) attends to negotiate a deal with the government about a special metalworking formula he created.  Eileen suspects the Seven Dials want to stop this, and finds her friend Jimmy shot in the arm, and the formula stolen by her betrothed's sister.  Setting chase, they find her at the station with Jimmy, as she connects the dots that they work for the Seven Dials and they need to meet up with their handler on the train.

 

But so wrong she was, as it turned out to be none other then her mother behind it all, who still holds a grudge against the government for having her son killed during World War 1, and wants the fornula to get make her a profit.  Bundle learns later as she is invited to a meeting of the Seven Dials, that this is actually a secret service branch (basically, an interbellum stand in for MI:7), headed by Battle, and she is invited to join them to take her father's place, who was one of the members, which she accepts.

 

Now, before the third episode, I had deducted most of the plot to be honest, that Jimmy shot himself, that the Seven Dials "open spot" would be for one of her parents (I thought her mother), that Battle was part of them and that mom was behind it all.  I only had thought her mom had gone rogue, but the number 7 had ringed my bell for James Bond's branch of the secret service, the no longer existing at the moment (or is it) MI:7 whom was a spionage and information service during the wars.

 

Guess I really read a lot of Christie's indeed, but this was a very, very enjoyable series to watch, and well produced.  The visuals are stunning and the acting performance up there, so it is certainly worth a watch.  Even early in the year, this might even be a runner for my Best Of list in 10 months!

 

Go watch it! 

Wake up dead man: A knives out mystery

 Sometimes, a good who dunnit movie is ideal for a lousy evening of television.

 

And so Noshi and me sat down to watch Wake up dead man on Netflix, the latest instalment in their A Knives Out Mystery series.

 

Starring Daniel Craig and Josh Brolin, this one is about an eccentric priest that rules, and blackmails, people in his parish.  A young priest, former boxer, is send to the parish to help out and observe what is actually happening there, and he immediatly gets an idea because the cross is removed from the wall.  It seems the father's mom was a whore, and he interprets faith "slighty" different.

 

Now, it is actually quite a fun way how it builds to the setting of the murder with all the flawed parishians, like a writer down on his luck, a depressed alcoholic daughter, a bastard son for the priest and more.  This all gives them motive (of course, at first the young priest is the suspect), and the flamboyant Daniel Craig out there to solve the mystery.  

 

But as the story progresses and more mysteries unravel in the small village, it soon becomes apparant that not only it was all a set-up that was manipulated into a true murder, but that it was the maid behind it all.  Because of course, it's always the house staff is it not.  She was a witness to what transpired all those years ago, and as she saw the priest stray from true faith took it all in her own hands.  Especially because a fortune is also on the line, an inheritance of the priest's father and something everyone seemed to be looking out for...

 

So while the actual murderer might be a bit predictable (great performance by Glenn Close), the story is actually really enjoyable to follow, and you might get sidetracked once or twice during the chase and the reasons behind it.

 

So that makes it for me an enjoyable murder mystery film! 

Boku Dake Ga Inai Machi

 Time to try and scrape off another of Noshi's already watched anime of the list, and this time it's one found on Netflix under it's english title, Erased.

 

Released in 2016, this is a 12 episode series, and it was, I can already say, good... 

 

It takes place in 2006, where 29 year old Satoru is a struggling mangaka in Chiba.  He has a special power that he calls Revival, and when a fatal accident is about to happen near him he rewinds a little in time to prevent it by seeing a bright blue glowing butterfly.  When his mother visits, he remembers an event of his childhood in Hokkaido where someone he trusted, Yuki, was arrested for the murder of three local children, two of them being classmates.

 

When his mother witnesses a man trying to kidnap a child, she deduces he is the true killer from 18 years ago, but before she can inform anyone she is murdered in Satoru's appartment, who needs to flee as he is the prime suspect.  He forces his conscious back to 1988 when he was an eleven year old student.  Back in his past, he goes about trying to prevent the original murders, and find out who was the culprit to change the future.

 

He confides with his teacher, Gaku Yashiro, who thinks Kayo, one of the girl's who would become a victim, is abused at home.  But all his efforts do change the sequence and dates of events, but not the outcome and Kayo is still murdered.  Back in 2006, his friend Airi is trapped in a burning house for helping him, making Saturo realise the killer is back and trying to prevent discovery.  

 

He returns to 1988, and goes about differently now to try and prevent it all, including exposing Kayo's mother as an abuser and have Kayo go live with her grandmother.  As he slowly starts preventing the murders, it is revealed Yashiro, his teacher, is actually the killer and wants to kill him aswell for foiling his plans.  He survives, but spends years in a coma as a result.  When waking up, he at first has no memories, but when Yashiro comes to visit they return and he tricks Yashiro in being arrested.

 

 He meets with all his friends, including the ones he saved by preventing the murders, and meets Airi again under a bridge from where he disappeared...

 

A really intriguing and good series, and definitly worth the watch if you like some mystery and time travelling loops!

 

 

A Haunting in Venice

 After Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, it is time for the thrid instalment of the Kenneth Brannagh series of Hercule Poirot movies.

So as soon as it came on Disney+, Noshi and me sat down for another evening of suspense and murder mystery.

Now, contrary to the earlier two movies in the series, this one is loosely based on a novel NOT by the same name, Hallowe'en Party, from 1969.

Shortly after the second world war, Poirot is retired and living in Venice, employing ex police officer Portfoglio as his bodyguard for all the people that want him to solve cases.  On halloween evening, an old acquintance, mystery writer Ariadne Oliver, comes to visit and convinces him to join a Halloween party with a sceance at the palazzo of famed opera singer Rowena Drake.  She wants him to expose the medium, former world war I nurse Joyce Reynolds, as a fraud.  

But the palazzo is claimed to be haunted, as in it's former use as an orphanage, many children where locked in it during the plague and left to die, and their spirits torment any doctor or nurse that dares to enter.  Amongst the guests are doctor Leslie Ferrier and his son Leopold, Joyce's romani assistant Desdemona, chef Maxime Gerard who is the ex-fiancee of miss Drake and her housekeeper Olga.  And then there is the tale of miss Drake's daughter Alicia, who seemingly commited suicide after her engagement with Maxime broke off.

During the sceance, Poirot deducts that Joyce actually has two assistants, with Desdemona's half-brother Nicholas hiding in the chimney, but then Joyce suddenly speaks in Alicia's voice and reveals one of the guests actually murdered her.  When an unknown assailant tries to drown Poirot during a game of apple-bobbing, Joyce is found impaled on a statue in the courtyard.

During a storm which cuts off the palazzo from the outside world, Poirot makes some discoveries amongst the guests, tying them together in various ways.  When the guests come across an underground hidden cellar, containing the skeletal remains of children and proving the tales of the orphange where sadly true, Leslie suffers a panic attack nearly killing Maxime.  He is locked inside the music room to recover, with Poirot getting possession of the sole key.  Poirot figures out Maxime is there because Ariadne actually invited him, and conspirated with Portfoglio in the hopes of Poirot being unable to solve a supernatural murder case as the plot for her next book, but Leslie is found stabbed to death at that moment.

Gathering everyone together, he exposes Rowena is the actual murderer of her daughter.  Obsessed with keeping her for herself and preventing the marriage, she slowly poisoned her using hallucinating honey.  One night, when Alicia was ill, Olga unknowingly gave her to much of a dose and having Rowena make it look as suicide.  When Rowena received blackmail letters, she suspected either Leslie or Joyce, killing both of them during the night in the hope of passing it off as the children's curse.  Poirot confronts her at the roof of the palazzo, where the ghost of Alicia seems to appear before the both of them, pulling Rowena into the canals, drowning her.

Poirot later confronts the true blackmailer, the young Leopold, who tells him how he figured it all out where his dad missed some clues.  His faith restored, Poirot returns home and starts accepting cases again.

So this was a really good movie to be honest, with that feel of impending doom and ghosts lingering over the whole Halloween night, and the mystery if Poirot might have met his match in getting the case solved.  Truly worth a watch and I hope Brannagh makes more Poirot movies, he really takes my liking as our perhaps most famous inhabitant of this little country.

Zaregoto: The Kubikiri Cycle

 We made it, we are down to the last letter, the Z, of our alphabet challenge, and still have a month left to watch other stuff.

And the Z is for Zaregoto, the Kubikiri Cycle of which I read and enjoyed the first light novel.

Numbering 8 episodes, it does start different from the book, in a sort of interdimensional debate about the girls on the island and how humanity functions, as well as where genius begins and ends.

On Raven's Feather Island, a group of women has been gathered together with our hero, Kunagasi Tomo's assistant, in the Akagami residence.  As we learn the rooms and the inhabitants, like Akame, one of the 7 brightest geniusses in the world, we learn that the mistress of the house isn't allowed of the island anymore.  To that end, she offers invitations to the smartest out there for company during their stays, like great painters, master chefs and more.

 

He meets with the painter,  Kanami Ibuki, who wants to talk with him in order to be able to make a painting afterwards.  The island allowed to spend time as they like, except they all needed to eat supper together as the sole rule.  During dinner, some of the girls enter a discussion about being only mediocre instead of a genius.  While sitting in the salon with Maki, a psychic, an earthquake takes place shaking the house, as Kanami's assistant rings her, assuring she is okay.  But a day later, her decapitated body is found in the atelier.  

They are now faced with the investigation of the murder, with Akane not having an alibi.  But with a three meter wide paint river across the room due to the earthquake, things don't add up about the time of the murder.  And apparently, it wasn`t the first murder to ever happen on the island... Akane is locked up in a storeroom until the dtective Aikawa arrives in 6 days in the form of a famous detective.  But Tomo and Li-chan wonder, where did the head go?

As they continue searching for clues, Li-chan goes to talk with Akane.  This gives him fresh insights not only into himself, but into humans as a whole, as well as his feelings towards Tomo.  One of the maid's, Akari,  assaults him, being out of control for something happening again apparently.  A second decapitated corpse, Akame, is found in a sealed locker room.  After discussing the events at the table, they find Tomo's computers smashed up when they return to their room.  Li and Tomo do their onw investigating into the matters, even having Teruko, one of the maids, actually speaking to them.  

When talking to the genius cook yayoi, Il starts connecting the dots, now only needing to find the proof for his theories to be supported.  Li is attacked in a dark room by the assassin, only to be saved by the maid Teruko.  However, she is shot, but as Tomo enters the room, the light reveals it was Akame after all.  The corpse of Ibuki had been dug up and used to fake her own death, together with Ibuki's assistant and he deducted that Ilia is actually one of the maids.  But as the police wasn't called, they walked free.

Back on land, Li is taken along for a ride by Aikawa who traced him down.  She knows something bothers Li in how he made the case, and explains a lot of things, like Kanami actually not being able to paint at all despite being a famous artist.  But that Akame and Kanami had actually traded places, and Shinya didn`t work with Akame at all, but actually with Kanami.  To Akame, it seemed like a fun prank to see how long it would take the geniuses to notice, but to Kanami, there where other motives...

So this was a great adaption of the light novel, and don't expect an action packed series.  Instead, expect a series that resolves like a movie of Hercule Poirot, with a shocking ending...

Murder on the Orient Express

 I thoroughly enjoyed Death on the Nile, and the form Kenneth Brannagh gave the famous belgian detective Hercule Poirot (I read all his 33 novels and 50+ short stories as a teen), so Noshi and me sat back to watch the actual predecessor of the franchise he is making.

Perhaps the most famous of Poirot stories, Murder on the Orient Express was released back in 2017, based on the novel from 1934 of the same name by Agatha Christie.

When Poirot solves a theft at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, he is approached by the British police to solve a case for them in London.  Thanks to his friend Bouc, he gets a place onboard the Orient Express together with a heap of excentric passengers like american business man Edward Ratchett, american man-hunting widow Caroline Hubbard, austrian professor Hardman, russian princess Dragomiroff, and spanish missionary Pilar Estravados (she replaces the swedish nurse from the books).

To give an impression of the star cast, read those characters again but replacing their names with Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Willem Dafoe dame Judy Dench and Penelope Cruz... you get the idea.

Ratchett offers Poirot to become a sort of bodyguard for him during the trip, as he made enemies during his business ventures and fears retaliation.  But Poirot refuses, as he sees Ratchett for the crooked business man and swindler that he is.  That night, Ratchett is murdered, Poirot having seen as the only one a person in a red kimono running through the train.  Mrs Hubbard claims someone was in her compartment that night, and Poirot starts an investigation.  He gets some additional time for this as an avalanche blocks the trains journey, waiting for it to be dug out by railroad workers.

Poirot finds a partly burned note that connects Ratchett to the murder of a young girl called Daisy Armstrong.  He had received a letter from her father asking for help, but colonel Armstrong took his own life before he could answer.  Her mother had died after giving birth to a stillborn baby, making it in essence a double crime.  He discovers Ratchett was indeed her kidnapper and murderer, John Casetti.  The family's nursemaid was wrongly blamed and took her own life in custody, while being proved innocent later on though.  

When he uncovers more evidence, Hubbard is stabbed but luckily none lethal.  He discovers that in one way or another, many of the passengers are connected to the Armstrong family or case, as he is shot in the shoulder by doctor Arbuthnot who claims responsibility for the murder.  Knowing he was a former army sniper, he realises he never actually wanted to kill him.  He confronts the passengers offering two possible theories, and also revealing all their connections to the case, and they all had motive, while the other is a simple exterior assassin boarded and escaped the train.

He predicts they all acted together, which Hubbard, who really was Daisy's grandmother, confirms.  She had planned the murder and enlisted all the others to help with it, and everyone took a turn stabbing Casetti.  He challenges the passengers to shoot him as he can`t let the truth be covered up, as he, obsessed with truth and balance, simply cannot lie.

With the train back on track, Poirot decides justice is just impossible in this case, and for the first time he will have to live with a lie and imbalance, as he decides to go for the lone assassin theorem instead, letting them all go with the murder...

While I already knew "who" had commited the murder from the books, this was a nice adaption to the modern time silver screen, and now I just have to wait for the adaption of the third movie, A Haunting in Venice, to be released on Disney+

Spy X Family part 2

 The Forger family is back in action as Operation Strix continues.

And the family gets a new member this season!

As a reward for obtaining her Stellar, Anya is allowed a pet dog.  But at the dog adoption event, she sneaks out and is caught by some terrorists Loid is chasing.  She escapes with a big white dog with precognitive powers, which she can pick up with her telepathy.  Yor saves her from them, but they see a vision of Loid dying in a bomb attack, and Anya races off to prevent this from happening.  As Loid manages to capture the ringleader by masquerading as it's target, his Handler makes it happen Anya can adopt the big dog.

The mid-term exams are on the horizon though, and Anya, with the help of Yuro for one, studies hard.  But Loid sneaks in to try and bump her grades, discovering an amateur spy called daybreak forging the Desmond grades.  He restores them, but also discovers that Anya, albeit barely, passed the exams on herself and leaves the grades as such as they are.

Anja joins Loid for a trip to his work on a school assignment, which leads due to her interpretations of his thoughts that he has to be summoned to school.  They think he is engaged in frauduleus activities as a result, so he has to straighten that out.

But the agency sends in another spy, Fiona Frost aka Nightfall, to assist Loid on his next mission.  She goes to check out Yor though however, as she is incredibly jealous and ambitious.  She was foreseen to become Loid's wife in Operation Strix, and while as cold as her name implies, struggles with the fact he chose Yor, being in love with him herself.

In order to get a vital piece hidden in a painting, Nightfall and Twilight have to go on a mission together, playing in an underground tennis tournament, the Campbelldon.  They overcome various opponents, and face off the ruling champions, Campbell's siblings, in the finale.  Despite several dirty tricks, they manage to defeat them and win the tournament, but the code on the painting turned out something less spectacular.  Nightfall challenges Yor to tennis to prove she is the better wife, but is severly defeated.  Yet Yor looks down as Loid doesn`t praise her win...

Feeling depressed, Yor goes binge drinking, confessing to Loid.  But in a drunken bout, she floors him as he can't follow her feelings anymore.  But during the Eden College's Social Gathering event, Loid finally comes face to face with chairman Desmond, allowing him to get a better idea to form a plan...

But that will be for the second season, which I hope comes as soon as possible!  This continues to be very loveable anime series, with strong characters and heaps of fun, really living up to the hype of when it was finally announced.

Death on the Nile

 So, this classic 1937 book by Agatha Christie has been brought to the screen for the third time.

After the Ustinov film in the 70s, the Poirot series starring David Suchet (still "my" Poirot), there is now Kenneth Brannagh taking on the mantle of the famous Belgian detective for the second time after Murder on the Orient Express.

Now, first things first, this film looks amazing in a retro styled way, so let's put that clear first and foremost, so it is a feast on the eye to watch.

Poirot encounters his friend Bouc in Egypt, after meeting up with him in a nightclub in London before.  here, they attend the upcoming wedding of Simon Doyl, and a rather suprising bride.  Linnet, youth friend of the Jackie with whom Simon was engaged last they met.  They board a cruiseship, the SS karnak, for a the couple to escape a scorned Jackie, and Poirot also finds out that his friend Bouc is dating a girl named Rosalie, despite her mother's objections.

But Jackie has also boarded the ship, and the morning after Linnet is found shot in the head, with a precious necklace stolen, while Simon has been shot in the leg.  Poirot begins the investigation, looking into the possible motives of all those who would benefit of Linnet, a heiress's, death.

Poirot actually reveals he was hired before the trip by one of the passengers to investigate Rosalie, whom he concluded was more then worth of the relationship.  Rosalie storms off angry by this reveal, and as Poirot follows her they find the body of Louise, who distrusted Simon.

Bouc, confronted by Poirot, confessed he witnessed the murder, but is shot before he can say who did it.  All the pieces in place, he confronts all the other survivors, and reveals Simon is actually the murderer, with Jackie his accomplice and mastermind.  They are still in love, and they did it for the money.  Faced with the proof, Jackie embraces Simon, and shoots him through the back, killing them both.

So okay, this was a good movie, but for certain for me mr Brannagh isn't that good a Poirot (see intro) to me.  He plays the role well enough, but contrary to David Suchet, his accent is off a lot (and being Belgian, I can say that in all honesty).

More are rumoured to be made, and tbh, I kind of like the idea of a "Poirot franchise" to be honest...

Zaregoto book 1: The Kubikiri Cycle - Nisoisin

 A light novel I had lying around for years, I finally started the book.  There wasn`t any real reason before why I didn`t, it just, well, just didn`t get round to it.

But now I started the first book in the series, and curious what it will bring me.

Li-san finds himself on a stay on a fancy island, in the near future Japan.  Here, he is surrounded by a plethora of geniusses, each in their own field.  Painting, fortune telling, computer expert, cook, ... they are from all fields while Li finds himself terribly ordinary.

When master painter, and wheelchair bound, Ibuki Kanami is found decapitated after an earthquake, a traditional who dunnit adventure begins as the other residents try to figure out who the murderer was.  A day later, Akane, who was locked away voluntarily as she didn`t have an alibi, is also found decapitated.  As tensions rise, it turns out the mistress of the mansion has a seemingly dark past, but is it the truth or is someone diverting attention?  When Li's best friend, the computer hacker / progeny Tomo Kunagisa, finds all her pc's and equipment destroyed, it seems some clues are to be covered up.

As Li starts connecting the dots of the various mysterious entries, he is assailed by an unknown person, only to be saved by the maid Teruko, who overpowers the attacker.  But she shoots Teruko instead, and is revealed as Kunagasi arrives to be none other then the apparently dead and decapitated Akane!  Together with Kanami's caretaker, she had set up an elaborate plan to kill all those present on the island.

 

A fun read that starts really grabbing about halfway in, it has some clever plot twists in it.  Now, to start searching online for the other books of the series...