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FlorisX92
Reviews
The Favourite (2018)
Meh ... Wouldn't be rated this high if it weren't a costume pic.
Good cinematography, nice Baroque music. Olivia Coleman has a reliable comedic style that goes as far back as Mitchell and Webb Situation and Peep Show. So there's the three plus.
But it's not an historically accurate film - and that's fine. Creativity is, after all, encouraged. And there's the polarized portrayals of men and women - women are witty, fully developed, ambitious; men are shadowy caricatures - and that's fine. Get the message, even though that's not exactly a new message. My biggest problem with this story is that the story itself is not compelling at all. Difficult to care for any of them, and I suspect that few would care for it if labels such as "true historical characters", "costume drama", and above all "royalty", are not glued to it, if it happened in some random old spinster's household in ... Milton Keynes. If so, then this film is playing to a low common denominator - sensationalism without sensation.
Kindaichi shônen no jiken bo (1997)
A Must Watch for Detective Fans.
The basic premise of this series is simple: a high school detective helps the police solving cases (usually murder), with a side-theme of young love. I think this is the best of the genre, for several reasons.
Firstly, all cases are well-developed (at least the original series, the reboot - Kindaichi R may be less so), usually having a 3-5 episodes arc and intricate methods.
Secondly, the characters are well-developed. There is no superhero rescuer (well, one of them is, but he usually took a supportive role), which makes the story ... more relatable, if not actually more plausible.
Thirdly, audiences are usually given full information as the detective, allowing themselves to work out a plausible theory.
Fourthly, and perhaps most admirably, each action serves a pragmatic function and is acknowledged as such. Many shows of this genre offer exhilarating plots just to serve a underlining theme and stimulate viewers' senses (e.g. murders happened in vampire castles involving people being drained of blood). The genius of Kindaichi is that these actions all serve a practical function which is explained at the end (i.e. blood had to be drained because it serves so and so purpose, while simultaneously playing into the underlining theme). This makes the whole series more realistic and looks extremely rounded. I'm sure true fans of detective fiction would appreciate the last two qualities very much.
Meitantei Conan (1996)
After 20 years, it has lost some of the edges.
This show used to be thrilling when it premiered in the late 90s - esp. to kids of the 90s. But after 20 years, it is running into too many problems that it cannot overcome.
On the one hand, the cases (the plots, the methods, the motives) have become somewhat repetitive. In some cases, old cases are adapted in a new setting (sometimes as part of the official tourist attraction program featuring places of interests outside of Tokyo). In this way, it lost the thrill it once had for young viewers.
On the other hand, the premise of the show is extended too far that it becomes, i) too silly to be taken seriously, and ii) too inflated to come to a satisfactory conclusion in a couple of shows (one kid vs. an international criminal conglomerate?!).
The first couple of years of the show are excellent (the earliest shows are wonderfully dark and superbly scary) and are rewatched again and again. But later shows I only watch sporadically. For truly thrilling, well-developed, and not over-inflated, detective anime (a limited genre in the West), I watch The File of Young Kindaichi.
Columbo: How to Dial a Murder (1978)
Trying too hard to be niche ...
I guess the plan for murder is considered somewhat novel and unexpected. That may be, on paper, but in reality it is extremely stupid. The whole case could be solved within the first 5 minutes of discovering the deceased had been answering a call because, whoever the killer is (and there must be one as the sleuth explained), he is aware that someone is at home at this particular time. And as the victim is only there at the behest of the Williamson character (also established), only the latter could be the murderer.
Thus, the smoke-screen of clues and suspense were just there for their own sake, entirely useless to the plot. The whole business about referencing Citizen Kane serves no practical purpose (other than giving a niche impression), and having the murderer accidentally slipping out "Rosebud" just seems a bit ... desperate for the writers. Altogether, not an example of effective use of screen time, and the best scene for me is the one where Columbo scorned the murderer for incompetence and stupidity ... raised a lot of empathy in me.
Furuhata Ninzaburô (1994)
Excellent; A must-watch if you enjoy Columbo-type detective shows
As said in the title, the format of this show is inspired by Columbo (which I do not really care for), but with important variants. The most important difference is that, while Columbo is serious detective drama, this show is intended as light-hearted dramedy, and great care is taken to showcase the talents and inidividualities of the stars of the day who, of course, featured as the criminal. That it is made as Columbo-style show meant the audiences know the crimes and criminals from the start, and are guaranteed maximum screen time of the intellectual battle between the detective and the criminal.
Most of the methods are not ingenious, and some of the motives are insignificant, thus a truly lighted-hearted show. The main challenge, however, is to compete with the detective to identify as many, and as quickly as possible, clues that lead to the final conviction. In a way, it's the intellectual race between the audience and the sleuth. However, where Columbo often spot the most-minute-bordering-on-absurdity clues (e.g."not greeting your wife when coming home" equals "knowledge of the murder"), this show usually has the criminal commit one or two humorous slips and is not ruined by the ambition to create a superhuman braniac. On top of it all, the scripts are well-written and humorous, and the acting superb. You always feel refreshingly entertained (never burdened which is surprising for sleuth shows).