"Hide the leaves in the forest."
- Kindaichi Hajime
I've decided to bring a new old school anime series to my blog called Kindaichi Case Files (Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo) and what better way to do it than write about the animated movies created by Toei Animation. The first Kindaichi movie that tells a similar story to the Opera House Murders from the manga actually aired before the TV series, and that's the film we'll be talking about today. The first film of the series is called Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Movie 1: Operazakan - Aratanaru Satsujin or Kindaichi Case Files Movie 1: Opera House, The New Murder where Kappei Yamaguchi (
Shinichi Kudo and Kaito Kuroba from Detective Conan) is acting as a voice actor for Kindaichi.
What the series is about is a teenage boy solving gruesome inner circle crimes in classic and modern settings for the most part. It's an episodic series very similar to golden age detective fiction and most obviously the series takes after the Kindaichi Kousuke series by Seishi Yokomizo. Similar to Ellery Queen's series, Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo also has the Challenge to the Reader format in which Kindaichi always takes his time to tell the viewers that all the clues have been laid out, and it should at that point be possible for the reader to piece all the clues together to pinpoint the culprit (about 2/3 way to the end of the case). I've been analyzing in-depth the anime series but it actually fails in many aspects and leaves some big clues out while acting as if the clues were shown during the explanation portion of the case.
The idea of my blog is to go through every nook and cranny of whatever cases I want to write about literally in order to gain experience on the genre. I'm also aiming to be a mystery writer so I analyze how these different authors plan their most notable cases to get inspiration from them. Now, even though there's a
1994 Light Novel of the same case and that this is supposedly the adaptation of the novel, the movie itself actually isn't written by the original authors as the script isn't really done justice here. It's still important to see how good of a scriptwriters Toei Animation used to have in their hayday. Nowadayays they're actually pretty terrible from what I've seen. In this case Miyuki and Kindaichi are going to Usa Island to watch opera, but the place they're going to is the same as where a case happened in the canon series and the movie also references to that.
Anyway, my post is basically going to be an overview of the whole film.
The Story of Kindaichi Movie 1: Opera House, The New Murder
The movie begins with dark orchestral music and a similar feel to movies such as the Hunchback of Notre Dame except not quite as grand. A group of people are shown watching a drama at a theatre of opera as a chandelier falls down.
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| The Case Cast of The Phantom Opera (Movie) Murder Case |
Kindaichi Hajime and his long-time friend Miyuki Nanase are on their way to Makinohara on foot. The problem is that they've been walking for a while now in the blistering summer heat under the sun and they've got another 30 minutes left until they arrive. Kindaichi complains about the heat and takes an info chart on what they're supposed to be doing - we don't really know where they're going and why at this point. Kindaichi says that they have to take the last train and then the jet bus. Kindaichi is surprised at how long their trip takes. Miyuki says that the jet bus is available only on the days when there is a "performance" being held.
We learn that Hajime and Miyuki are going to check out a rehearsal of an opera play called The Phantom of the Opera. Why? Because apparently they're opera fans, although Hajime doesn't agree with that notion.
Miyuki then says that she wants to meet the famous opera stars when they get there and we get some name reveals, in particular
Nojyo Kosanro, Naue Seico and Kanai Rio - all young genius actors.
Kindaichi tells Miyuki that he wants to go back home as he doesn't want to go to Usa Island to watch opera because a cruel case happened there last spring. Miyuki says that the owner of the opera, Kurosawa, is holding these events at the island because he wants people to forget about terrible things like that. Kindaichi tells her that Kurosawa is also holding an opera play at Tokyo, so he wants to just watch the play there and Kindaichi then starts to leave but Miyuki stops him and explains that if he doesn't come to Usa Island he'll never get to eat the lobster food he always wanted to taste. Hajime then starts to get annoyed as a police car arrives.
Inside the police car a familiar face is driving. Inspector Kenmochi is going to watch opera and enjoy some fishing on his day off. Kenmochi and a fodder policeman then give Kindaichi and Miyuki a ride.
At a shore the travelers need to take a boat to the island and they notice two people they're familiar with -
Mr. Takizawa Atsumi and Midorigawa Yukio. They are opera actors that are trying to carry something fragile and heavy to the island on the boat; a wooden fram with a painting on them.
The actors then inform a woman
, the dark-haired
doctor Kibagi, to come to the boat as they're leaving soon.
After Kibagi comes aboard, the group starts to sail towards Usa Island. We get information on the history of the place:
During the Meiji dynasty a hermit built a hotel on the island, although there were no residents. Ten years prior to present time the hotel was bought and re-furnished. The Opera will be shown on the hotel as the entire place is planned to be re-opened.
Inspector Kenmochi questions Dr. Kibagi on whether or not she came to watch the Opera on the island, to which she says yes.
We get to hear some tense tunes being played as a man looks at the arriving Phantom boat - and then falls down to the sea from a cliff. The boarders are surprised at this act but then Miyuki notes that the man who jumped off the cliff on his clothes into the sea is one of the young actors called Nojyo Kosanro. Miyuki tells that he's loved Nojyo since she was a child and Dr. Kibagi also tells that she's a fan of him.
At the shores of Usa Island one of the performers asks another person called Rukuro to help him move the frame, but he won't as he will first show the island to the visitor and the other performer get annoyed at this. Then, a servant of the hotel arrives to carry some of the bags.
The servant says that the opera house used to be locked but now it's open at all times. We get to see the outlook of the opera house. From outside it looks pretty normal, but inside it has some locks on the doors and stuff like that along with the opera hall.
At the opera hall, a rehearsement is going on. An angry woman asks why she's not being let to sing. She thinks she's the best singer. Miyuki talks about the woman and says that her name is
Naue Seico and she's playing the role of a famous 19th century woman named Carlota on the Opera play. There is also another woman,
Kanai Rio, who's playing the role of a princess named Christine.
In the play there's a man named Clerk who loves Christine. The one who plays Clerk is the man who jumped from the cliff, Nojyo Kosanro. The play continues as the audience gives loud applauds to Christine, she vanishes without a trace. In the play we see them talk about someone spreading the rumors of a ghost in the opera. The large sized man Lar wants to find Christine and apparently the ghost as well but ends up taking his own life by jumping to the water of a river or something.
Then we get to see Nojyo Kosanro play another character in the play, a character with a mask on his face.
Naue Seico starts to laugh all of a sudden and says that Kanai Rio's acting is pretty pathetic. She's not able to express emotions. Naue is angry that she's not being let to play Christine, the lead female character. Naue also reveals that she should have the spot of Christine because she's the daughter of the president of the Opera and the fiance of Nojyo Kosanro- but Nojyo stops her from talking and asks the Opera helper to get him a glass of water.
One of the performers ask Seico Naue that he's not like a person named Midorigawa who's being worked like a slave. No one talks to him as he will talk back.
The director Kurosawa then claps and says that Kanai as Christine is acting better and better, she just needs to get more experience. Naue tries to talk back but Kurosawa just says that the roles will not change. Naue leaves while angry.
Miyuki notes that Kindaichi is missing. Naue walks angrily and hits Miyuki who falls down then.
we see Kindaichi walk outside. There's a grave with purple flowers and a hut on top of one of the cliffs of Usa Island. Kindaichi goes in the hut and smells nostalgic food or something but a man with a beard named
Mabu Masaji came to the hut to accidentally scare Hajime. The man then asks Kindaichi to help him carry a large painting to the Opera house.
After carrying the painting to the building, director Kurosawa says that the painting depicts a woman named Mika, who's now deceased. The director always wanted to have a large painting of her in the Opera house. Kindaichi asks the director if she used to be an actress as well to which he answers that she died when she was about to be a top-class actress. Mabu Masaji then tells Kindaichi to never come to his room again as he leaves. The director explains that Mabu Masaji used to take care of the deceased Mika a long time ago. Nowadays, he's simply taking care of designs in the background of the stage.
Kindaichi notes that on top of the Opera stage there's a massive chandelier. Apparently the Opera company wants to refurnish the old opera house and Mabu and Midorigawa did their best to install the chandelier.
The director closes the stage and Kindaichi notices that a net appears. It's a protection net made of iron. The director then shuts the large lights and lights up with large flashlights towards the net. The net is painted with fluorescence paint, so with the light's reflection it helps make the atmosphere of the plays more exotic in the dark stage.
Two of the actors then start to carry the painting to the Opera room and try to put it on the wall but they keep stumbling. Kindaichi asks isn't the painting kind of lightweight but the men say that can't he see how large it is. Kindaichi wonders about it as when they had three people it was light enough. The men then ask Kindaichi to stop talking and help them instead.
There seems to be a small transition here as we see a person with gloves on manipulate the lights of the Opera house on an oldschool computer etc. This suspicious person is also shown raising the chandelier to the air, so he must've done something bad to it as he had lowered it in the first place.
Later, Kindaichi, Miyuki, Dr. Kibagi, the servant Rokuro and couple others are at a dinner table. Kindaichi asks Rokuro if they're having lobster tonight and that seems to be the case. Inspector Kenmochi happened to be able to catch a lobster apparently.
Nojyo Kosanro and the waiter Rokuro look each other in the eyes angrily. Nojyo then tells him that the knife is dirty and Rokuro picks the knife up and points it angrily at Nojyo. Rokuro tells Nojyo to remember that his name is Yinco Rokuro before giving it back to him.
A new character appears to the dinner table. His name is Wutzen, a Real Estate Owner. Wutzen explains that he's working at a company in Tokyo and they're going to be willing to spend a lot of money to build a resort, which is why Wutzen wants to talk with director Kurosawa that they're going to buy the land to which Mabu wonders how something like that's possible - it's probably supposed to be a scene where Mabu doesn't want the island to be sold.
Nojyo asks where Seico is and the others wonder that she's probably angry and doesn't want to come to the dinner hall. Nojyo asks Midorigawa a cigarette and he agrees. Midorigawa is clearly being bossed around by Nojyo all the time and Kindaichi pays attention to this fact. At the same time Miyuki notices a paper on the dinner table and it reads as follows: Does Carlota die on the stage, the P of the Opera. Everyone wonders what this means and inspector Kenmochi asks who plays Carlota on the stage to which Miyuki answers that it's Naue Seico, who's still not at the dinner hall.
The group goes to the opera house which is very dark. There's a tile wall on the opera stage this time. Nojyo thinks that the paper was just one of Seico's pranks this time and tells everyone to go back to the dinner hall as everything seems to be alright in the opera hall.
Kindaichi looks at the opera hall and wonders as they close the room. The director then puts a lock on the door.
Everyone's kind of depressed as the rainy storm gets worse outside and Kindaichi eats a lot of lobster while they're at it. The group is spending time playing cards. Kanai asks one of the other opera actors - the overweight one - who's on the computer if he's writing his novel that no one wants to buy. He leaves the computer and Kanai puts it on and starts writing something more on it, fixing whatever the guy had already written.
Kanai goes to sit with Kindaichi and co. as we see a mysterious person walk outside in the storm. The group is playing cards and the inspector says to the Tokyo investor that law prohibits people from building parks next to the sea.
Miyuki asks Nojyo if he's memorized his lines and he answers that he's just finished writing them down. Nojyo seems to be deep in thought but he asks Midorigawa to give him some whisky. There's also talk of a pig bank.
Kenmochi tells everyone to drink until they get happy and we see a shadowy person run outside in the darkness of the storm. A glass is shown falling as a rope is being pulled or something. Then everyone hears the sound of glass being broken. Kindaichi tells everyone that it's the sound of the chandelier in the opera hall and everyone runs there, but there's a lock on the door. Nojyo tells everyone that the key to the lock is in director Kurosawa's room and some of the others on the door go to get the key.
We get some flexible animation on the scene as they try to get into the opera hall and get in there. Nojyo walks inside as others put the lights on. Nojyo notices the chandelier on the ground as a pool of blood falls towards him - it seems that the chandelier had crushed Seico. It's a pretty awful scene as we see Seico's head all smashed and the chandelier all over her as the blood flows down.
The doctor is then asked to perform an autopsy. She says she doesn't really have experience but she'll do it.
At the dining hall Nojyo is pretty angry, he asks everyone who went and killed Seico. Kindaichi tells him to calm down as they'll get the autopsy soon. The director tells Nojyo that Kindaichi has a good chance at solving the case as he's solved a pretty hard case before it on the island.
Rio then talks about something like a killer entering the island unnoticed but the overweight actor Takizawa then starts to talk about how the servant Rokuro must be the killer because he was outside the dining room. Rokuro tells him that he didn't have a motive to kill Seico.
The fattie Takizawa says that he doesn't know if Rokuro had anything to do with her death - she could've been his girlfriend in reality, no on known - but he also says that the real estate businessman could've been the culprit as well as Seico seemed to know him well. The businessman explains that Seico's father used to come to visit his place often. The others then say that he could have a hidden motive to kill Seico as well.
Anyway, the group then starts to talk about how the entrance to the room where Seico was found was completely locked. The killer would have to be a ghost to enter. The claim that a ghost would be running around the place would be bad for the businessman who tries to buy the island and make it into a resort, so the group then starts to blame Kanai Rio for killing Seico because Seico hates her as Rio became the lead actress in the Phanom Opera play.
It's also revealed that Seico hated old man Mabu. Mabu claims that he's used to be hated by others. The overweight actor then claims that Mabu is used to killing others and he gets angry but the director of the opera then stops everyone from fighting and blaming each other for Seico's death.
Kindaichi then brings everyone back to reality and says that it's impossible for a ghost to be the killer but it's true that both the main entrance and the entrance in the back of the opera hall were locked. It's the perfect locked-room murder.
Nojyo doesn't take Kindaichi's words for granted and claims that it's clear to him who the culprit is - Director Kurosawa.
Kindaichi then asks what Nojyo's reasoning is for pointing at Kurosawa.
Nojyo explains that Director Kurosawa used to have a daughter, Mika, with a bright future ahead of her, but because she died her future role went to Seico who was the daughter of the president of the hotel. Nojyo believes that the director hated Seico and Nojyo himself with all his heart and that the director must believe that the two of them were the ones who killed Mika.
Mabu then butts in and says that he'd also have motive to hate everyone and Nojyo just answers him that Mabu must be the accomplice and the person to design the stage of the murder. Mabu then claims that Nojyo should stop blaming others as he had a motive to kill Seico just as well but Nojyo doesn't care and asks the Director to confess for the murder as well as Mabu to confess for being an accomplice to the murder for making up a situation for the crime.
Kindaichi once again stops the actors from fighting and asks Nojyo hat even if the director and Mabu had a motive for killing Seico, how in the world could they have done the deed. Nojyo answers that only the director had the keys to the locked room so he could've easily done it. Nojyo brings out that the director was missing the whole time after all. Nojyo tells the director to ask the devil who killed Seico to tell him who the culprit is and the director then attacks Nojyo but stops before things get bad. Nojyo still keeps blaming everyone for Seico's murder (but he doesn't feel too bad for it himself..)
Inspector Kenmochi and Dr. Kibagi enter the room. The doctor had finished checking out the corpse; it seems the cause of death for Naue Seico was strangulation with a rope. That's surprising because she was hit by the chandelier. In other words Seico was first strangled, then moved to the Opera Hall in which the culprit let the chandelier fall on her. The doctor says that her time of death is somewhere from 6:00 to 7:00 pm. The chandelier fell on Seico at 9:00 pm. It was 7:30 when everyone went to check the Opera Hall and there was nothing there, meaning that the corpse must've been moved here after 7:30. Kenmochi asks everyone to tell their alibis after 6:00 pm.
The businessman asks to let him make a call but the butler says that he has to wait as all the phone lines are dead - furthermore, the boat to the island is also broken. The culprit attempts to keep everyone on the island as the island has now become isolated from outside world (overused trope & setting in detective fiction not gonna lie).
Kindaichi and Miyuki then feel that someone else might die. We get to see a flash of lightning in the darkness of the rainstorm along with a flash of the gravestone that resides on the island (don't really understand why the perspective is on the gravestone when no character has ever pointed it out - it's most likely the daughter of the director but it's just not natural feeling to have the movie focus on the gravestone without any reason other than "ooh look at this").
Later on Kindaichi is in his hotel room thinking things through but decides to go to sleep. Miyuki however keeps asking him to come to the door. Miyuki tells Hajime that she's feelling scared to sleep alone and Hajime makes his usual perverted jokes. Miyuki tells Hajime that she will sleep in his room. She tells Kindaichi to go sleep on the sofa as she goes under the blanket and starts to sleep. This is a pretty nice scene but a bit too short.
Kindaichi decides to take a stroll on the hallways as he doesn't really have motivation to sleep on the sofa but he notices Nojyo and Dr. Kibagi talking with each other. The doctor says that "
I think this day was meant to come". Nojyo asks her if she means Seico's death and the doctor tells him that Seico was always far too arragant and wanted to own everything herself. The doctor says that Seico's death was for the better and she also says hat she's had her eyes on Nojyo for a while. Kindaichi is surprised at hearing this conversation from the corner. Nojyo then walks the doctor to her room and time moves forward.
Kindaichi is outside taking shelter from the heavy rain as inspector Kenmochi appears. Kenmochi is angry at mosquitos biting him all the time and he doesn't even have mosquito coils that director Kurosawa handed out. Kindaichi then thinks about Kurosawa and realises something - inspecor and Kindaichi and director Kurosawa then arrive above the opera hall. Three of them go to the ceiling via steel ladders. It seems that for some reason no one else has investigated the place and Kindaichi is there first.
At the ceiling level Kindaichi notices couple of things: the smell of mosquito coil and a piece of nylon fishing thread. Kindaichi explains that he got the trick that made the chandelier fall: The chandelier is held up by powerful metal cords. The cords are heavy and connected to a motor to lift and lower the chandelier. Kindaichi theorises that the nylon thread was connected to the reel or the cords. After some time that apparently broke either of them and made the chandelier fall down.
The director wonders how the reel would have broken from the nylon thread and Kindaichi explains that the thread was put up with the cords so that the nylon was set on fire from infriction by using mosquito coil on the threads.
The trick on the chandelier means that there is no point on trying to find any clue of anyone being in the room at 9:00 PM when the chandelier fell. There is a problem though - the trick seems too simple; almost as if they were meant to be found.
Inspector Kenmochi asks the director whether or not the hotel still uses mosquito coils. The director tells him that they used to but due to the smell the hotel's changed to electric coils nowadays. The storage that the guy with the beard,
Mabu Masaji, is in charge of, holds older coils however. Kenmochi suspects that Mabu is behind Seico's death but the director doesn't believe that to be the case.
Kindaichi goes to check the pieces of the chandelier and he sees the butler of the hotel in front of a drawn painting of directors deceased daughter Mika who aimed to be a famous actor. The butler says that he used to be classmates with Mika in high school. He believes that Nojyo killed Mika.
Kenmochi arrives at the hut where Mabu Masaji is. Inside the hut there's a burning coil. Mabu brings a box of coil that was bought in the morning to Kenmochi and says that he didn't open it although the box has been opened. Mabu explains that one of the actors, Midorigawa, was the one to buy the box. The screen goes back to Kindaichi and the butler.
The young butler pours tea or coffee or something at the kitchen and explains to the eating Kindaichi that Mika's performance was so great that it always filled the opera house with people. But it seems that on the 4th last day of performance Mika suddenly vanished into thin air. After looking for Mika the search squad found her on the Opera stage on Usa Island. She was found hanging while her father, Director Kurosawa, was abroad for another show. Mika died without telling anything.
Kindaichi questions whether the butler believes that Mika did a suicide, to which he agrees and claims that Kurosawa also believes so. According to the butler Nojyo was engaged to the daughter of the President of Opera, and the daughter was Seico who was now killed on the same stage where Mika was found.
Midorigawa appears at the kitchen and says that he doesn't feel like sleeping, but at the same time Kenmochi also appears to the kitchen and asks to talk with him after he's finished eating. Midorigawa then says that he wants to wait until the next day because he's tired from rehearsal. There's some banter about suspecting Midorigawa as well but because there's no way to escape the island, Kenmochi agrees to talk with him in the morning instead.
In the middle of the nightly storm we (the watcher) can hear someone faintly pleading for help: "help...me..." as he director watches out the window.
It's about midnight. Kindaichi is walking around in he hallway from the entrance to the hotel and he hears faint sounds of footsteps mixed up with the sound from lightning strikes and rain. He notices a person and walks after him but doesn't see anyone. Then he looks back and we get this jump-scare moment with a guy in black robes and a white mask standing behind Kindaichi. Then we get this supernatural scene where the masked guy grabs Kindaichi by the throat and lifts him up with one hand. The person takes their mask off and it reveals a woman with a bleeding face shouting for help and she throws Kindaichi through a window like he was a ping pong ball.
Then Kindaichi all of a sudden wakes up in an Opera Hall where the watchers run away while screaming. An Opera song plays as Kindaichi sees that he's sitting alone in the hall and the chandelier falls down as the person with black robes and white mask is riding it down. The white mask flies away and reveals the face of a skeleton. That's when Kindaichi really wakes up and it's revealed that he's been sleeping on the sofa while seeing nightmares while Miyuki is on the bed and we get this "accidental groping anime trope" moment as both of them wake up.
The next day
It's finally morning. Fog is taking over Usa Island after the heavy rain and lightning storms of the previous day. Miyuki leaves the room after arguing with Kindaichi. It's time to dress up and go for a dinner. Kenmochi checks outside and the director arrives to the kitchen where the butler is for a drink of water. Director Kurosawa explains to the butler that his main purpose now is to fix the broken down sailboat that they used to come to the island. The director asks the butler that he felt like beating Nojyo up and asks if the butler felt the same way but he answers that he doesn't.
Miyuki decides to take a shower and we see water drip, drip, drip to the floor until it turns red. She opens her eyes to see her take a shower of crimson liquid. It takes a while for the situation to kick in her head but when it does she starts screaming which causes Kindaichi, the inspector and the director to run to her room. Kindaichi breaks her room's door with surprising ease and notices Miyuki all shocked in her room. The blanket she's wearing is filled with red splatters. Kindaichi then goes to the bathroom to see the shower run with crimson liquid. The director then notes that the problem must come from the water tower.
The director and co. go to the water tower and open the lid up to see Midorigawa floating in there.
Miyuki is still shocked but spending time with Kanai Rio, one of the actors. Rio brings Miyuki a hot cup of coffee with some alcohol mixed in it. The two of them talk about opera plays and we get to hear this soothing soundtrack play over it all. Miyuki asks Rio why she wanted to join the opera in the first place. Miyuki assumes it was for the head actor Nojyo to which Rio answers that she's correct. Everyone seems to be able to tell that she's after Nojyo. Rio explains that after Mika Kurosawa's death Nojyo has become distanced from everything, and he's pushing people away. Rio says that she joined opera after Mika's death. Mika was much better than her. Kindaichi arrives to the room and sees a box with some kind of green cube in it but we don't get to learn much more of the contents of the box.
Outside in the warehouse we get to see a suspicious person pick up an axe. At the coast of Usa Island the director is fixing the boat while talking with the businessman. The businessman explains how everyone hates rumors and talks of people being killed, so the resort business would most likely not work. Both the businessman's and the director's plans seem to have gone in thin air now with the murders.
At the hut on the island we see the bearded man Mabu paint another drawing but the scene doesn't lead to anything really.
Dr. Kibagi has finished her autopsy on Midorigawa who was the second victim. She explains that Midorigawa's cause of death was the same as Seicos - he was strangled by a rope and suffocated afterwards, but he was stabbed in the throat and breast area as well which caused the water in the tower to be mixed with blood. The time of death this time was from around 1:00 am to 4:00 am.
Director Kurosawa explains that he's become too tired now, so much so that he doesn't have the will to continue with the opera plays after his best performers have died. There is still a play in Tokyo that should happen. If they would do that play they'd manage to get big in opera.
Kindaichi tells the inspector that he feels like the culprit is playing them. It seems that the culprit is going by what happens in the Opera Play. That means that he should've thrown Midorigawa into the bathtub - but that didn't happen and Midorigawa was thrown into the water tower instead.
Outside a suspicious character is hacking a lock with the blunt side of an axe. The person enters a room with opera costumes after breaking the lock.
At the same time Kindaichi wonders if the culprit wanted the corpse to be found ASAP for some reason. Kindaichi wonders if the perpetrator wants to finish his plans before the director fixes the sailboat and then he asks Miyuki where the opera personnel keep their costumes and props. Miyuki answers that they're in the warehouse. Kindaichi then asks who's in charge of the warehouse. We get a reminder that there are five actors in the Opera Play.
The suspicious person leaves the costume warehouse as Miyuki tells Kindaichi that Mr. Takizawa should be the one in charge in of the room. Then the suspicious person with white gloves lifts a tile outside the hotel and smashes the tile through a window, hitting one of the actors - Nojyo - in the process.
Kindaichi, the doctor, director Kurosawa and inspector Kenmochi go to Nojyo who is bleeding and Kindaichi runs outside. Hajime picks up a wallet with a ticket in it and then shouts at the inspector to immediately go and find Mr. Takizawa, who is the overweight guy. It seems the wallet was Takizawa's.
Nojyo and the rest then go to Takizawa's room but he's not in there. Kenmochi notices a paper on the floor. The paper is printed from the processor. Kenmochi picks up a bunch of papers. It's called The Murder in the Opera House by Takizawa.
[Note: I think I can get what's happening here already as soon as I saw this. We know Takizawa was writing a mystery novel. Now he's most likely dead. The novel is going to be a play by play of the murders, except the novel parts that Kenmochi found now are most likely going to be notes that have been altered by the killer (Who seems to be Nojyo most likely). Anyway, the fact that Kanai Rio altered some words of the novel in the beginning of the movie are going to play into how this ends for sure. Maybe the culprit thinks that Rio's altered script was the real one. Also, I believe these scripts in detective fiction are usually based on events that have occurred in their respective fictional realities. Takizawa himself may have killed someone - like the director's daughter - and based his novel off of facts that only a killer would know.]
Kindaichi asks Kenmochi to read some passages of the novel. The novel reads as follows:
"Title:
The Case of the Three People in the Phantom Opera, by Takizawa Azumi..."
Takizawa's confession?
Instead of getting to immediately hear the rest of the novel, we get to hear inspector Kenmochi narrate like Hercule Poirot. Kenmochi narrates as follows:
"After Takizawa strangled Naue Seico, he was afraid of us finding out and decided to admit everything via the printer as he wrote the murder process that took the lives of Naue Seico, Midorigawa and Takizawa himself. The "serial murder" made him blame himself very strongly so he finally decided to commit suicide."
Kenmochi says that on viewing the notes left behind by Takizawa, they can all understand how he felt.
[Note: Okay so I was wrong, the notes are instead clearly a fabricated confession from the culprit. I can see now how this goes. I can guess that the culprit is just making it seem as if Takizawa's novel is a confession. The words altered by Kanai Rio must have something to do with why the 2nd victim was in the water tower, maybe the culprit knew the original contents or doesn't know the original contents of the story if he's only read the altered version.]
Miyuki asks the inspector why Takizawa would've killed Midorigawa who was a close friend of him. Kenmochi explains that he must've had no other choice
. When Takizawa left the island to buy something, Midorigawa was with him and saw the lock that Takizawa bought. Apparently the lock was used to kill him? (don't understand the translation, it's obvious that he supposedly used the lock on Seico's death trick) Anyway, the inspector explains that after Opera rehearsal Takizawa had asked Seico to the Opera house and killed her. He used the mosquito coil to burn the wires of the chandelier to create an alibi for himself. Furthermore, after finishing dinner, Takizawa left to break the lock to the Opera house and then moved Seico's body to the stage. After moving the body in he changed the locks. When the chandelier fell, Kenmochi, Kindaichi and co. rushed to the locked door of the Opera Hall. Takizawa Azumi changed the key in the directors room with the key that he'd bought with the new lock apparently.
[NOTE: Not sure why the lock trick even matters here, it actually doesn't feel relevant. There is actually no logical reasoning behind this need to change locks and kill a guy because of a lock. The lock doesn't affect anything, the key does. There is only one key which means the body couldn't have been brought in and the timeframe for the murder is hidden by alibis because the chandelier fell at 9 PM.. but she wasn't murdered at 9 PM.. It's kind of obvious that the corpse was in Opera Hall all the time while the group checked it out at like 6 PM because the background of the hall was changed. Anyway that doesn't have to do with anything but this whole focus on the lock and is honestly just badly planned, it's irrelevant. The group seems to think that the director had the original key with him 24/7 or something which didn't allow the lock to be picked but if the perp has to change locks then he'd have to give the new key to the director and use he old one... yeah, nothing changes except the thing just gets more messier and illogical.]
Hajime asks Kenmochi is there's something amiss with Takizawa Atsumi. The inspector thinks back and remembers that Takizawa had paint under his nails.
The inspector also says that after Takizawa hung himself with the nylon rope, the wall couldn't support his weight or maybe he didn't tie the rope tight enough but he apparently fell down and was struck by an axe... [while falling down... that's not realistic at all...] Kenmochi is somehow confident that he did a suicide.
Then Nojyo starts laughing and tells everyone that he's happy Takizawa killed himself as he deserved it. Nojyo says that he's the survivor - the winner.
The inspector and Kindaichi are at the corpse of Takizawa. Kindaichi ponders about all the odd things about the case, for example why did Takizawa use plastic thread? There are also pieces of something at the crime scene.
Mabu the bearded man makes his appearance and tells Kindaichi that the pieces are from old oil paint, he knows as he's a painted.
Kindaichi then explains to the inspector that it seems like Takizawa's wound from the axe isn't bleeding all that much. It's likely he was moved to the crime scene from somewhere. Takizawa's death is a faked suicide. There is a killer somewhere out there still. Kindaichi swears to solve the case in the name of his grandfather.
Back at the hotel's corridors, Kindaichi and Miyuki notice something red on paintings. Almost like blood a bit. The rags also seem to be bloody.
Then all of a sudden Miyuki notices that something is flowing and they notice a gasoline bottle in the room, and right after the gasoline bursts into flames.
Miyuki and Hajime start to run away from the flames but the door has been locked. Kindaichi looks at the burning painting and the flames almost get them but the inspector and the butler manage to break the lock on the door and they escape. The entire building is set on fire however.
We see a scene where most of the characters are looking at the spreading flames in the darkness outside.
Time to think. Kindaichi looks at the burning building and then starts to go over all the facts - all the suspects on the island, the painting of Mika, the chandelier, the piece of chandelier that had a weird vision through it, the burning building itself, the bloody icepick, the wallet, the lock, the crime scenes... Kindaichi claims he has solved the mystery now. We get to see a scene of Usa Island in darkness in brilliant flames as the side building burns down.
Forwarding time to the Near Future
In the bustling city of Tokyo a person enters an apartment and goes upwards via elevator. Anoher person also follows after him.
We see Nojyo Kosanro as the person who went to like the 6th floor. He enters a building to grab something like a cassette tape while wearing a sad face, and after getting what he went to the apartment for, he leaves. Nojyo looks to the side and sees Director Kurosawa. Right after him comes in Kindaichi Hajime, Miyuki, and inspector Kenmochi. Hajime asks Nojyo what he's doing at the apartment as it's Takizawa's apartment.
Nojyo says that he apparently underestimated Kindaichi and wonders when Hajime started to keep an eye on him.
Hajime explains tha the death of Takizawa and the fire at the Opera House solved the mystery. Hajime asks Nojyo if he knows who his grandfather is. Nojyo knows this: Kindaichi Kousuke (not really, there was a lawsuit about that). Hajime says that his grandfather used to say that after all the evidence is destroyed, new evidence will surface.
Hajime then asks Nojyo what the tape that Nojyo has in his hands contains. Nojyo explains that the tape is one of his important tapes that he lent to Takizawa. He apparently borrowed Takizawa's key as well.
The inspector then asks Nojyo to give the tape to him. In order to solve the mystery, they have to have a look at the tape. Then we get a back and forth between Kindaichi and Nojyo. Kindaichi explains that he doesn't "think" that Nojyo is the killer, no, he says it straight: "Nojyo Kosanro, you are the killer!"
Nojyo then asks Kindaichi that Takizawa's will, the use of mosquito coil and his Nojyo's presence with the group at the bar when Seico's body was found should give him an alibi. Miyuki also explains that she saw Nojyo with the group. He didn't have time to move the body. Nojyo then asks Kindaichi to explain how he had the time to move the body to which Kindaichi answers that it's simple; the body was there all along (as I assumed).
Even though no one saw Seico's body on the stage. Kindaichi then pulls out the green cube piggy bank and explains that Nojyo used the piggy bank trick to make it seem as if Seico wasn't on the stage already. The piggy bank looks as if there's a green cube in the middle of it but in reality there's another layer that's hiding the place with the coins. Nojyo used a similar trick on the stage with the two iron nets.
Key explanation for Seico's Murder: According to Kindaichi, after dinner Nojyo had asked Seico to the Opera stage and strangled her. He then used the two iron nets to block any entrance to the Opera stage and hid the body of Seico behind a large mirror.
This is clever because now we have a clear reason for the culprit to use the chandelier to brutalize Seico - the culprit got rid of the mirror by destroying it with the massive chandelier. There were odd pieces of glass that Kindaichi found at the stage which were this mirror destroyed (I wish they at least hinted at there being something odd about it though).
[As it is though, it's great that they made the chandelier so important. It wasn't a murder weapon, so it was used to do something else. In this case it was used to destroy the trick itself! Impressive.]
Kindaichi explains that Nojyo moved the mirror to the Opera house with the help of Takizawa who didn't know about the mirror. The trick was in the frames. In the beginning of the movie Takizawa and Midorigawa were carrying a heavy item which they assumed to be the frame for Mabu's painting of the late Mika Kurosawa. In reality the frames weren't heavy but what they were carrying were the large mirrors. When the picture of Mika was hung in the opera hall, the mirror was inside of it. This made it easier for Nojyo to use the heavy mirrors as they were in the same room as where he was going to kill Seico.
Hajime then shows the piece of the glass he found at the crime scene - it's actually not just glass and also not part of the chandelier, but it's the piece of mirror.
We also get a cool scene of Hajime explaining about how the culprit hid the trees in the forest by using the chandelier to destroy the mirror.
Key explanation for Midorigawa's and Takizawa's murder: Hajime's been wondering about the Phantom Opera play. The murders follow the play to a T. The chandelier killed Seico. Next up was the plot of Midorigawa being drowned. Apparently Midorigawa went to play missing or something but was killed with the ice pick (if I got that right).
As for Takizawa's murder, Nojyo pretended to be the victim that was attacked in front of everyone.
Kindaichi explains that Nojyo's scheme was the perfect murder but there are problems with it. I'm not clear what he means but Hajime explains that the play in Tokyo has something to do with the murder case. He also explains that director Kurosawa locking the door to opera hall helped Nojyo. Apparently Takizawa was Nojyo's accomplice or something and Midorigawa saw Takizawa buy the new lock for the opera hall which was the reason to kill Midorigawa. I still don't buy the lock thing.. the writers have no idea why it'd be important and we don't either, as it's not explained...
Hajime also explains the parts about how Nojyo asked Takizawa to get the key from directors room and something about pretend victims and making people think about killing people who don't exist.. this script isn't flowing that well... it's like part of something more coherent.
Nojyo asks Hajime when he started to suspect him. Hajime explains that it was when he checked Takizawa's wallet that was outside the window when Nojyo was attacked. Hajime explains that when he found he wallet he didn't see apartment keys, only car keys (note: there is no hint about this... there is no reason to think the watcher had any clues about this).
Inspector Kenmochi then tries to take Nojyo's tape but he refuses to give it up. He tells them that he'll confess on two conditions:
First of all, no one should be allowed to see the video tape's contents. He wants to destroy it.
Second of all, Nojy wants to perform at the Tokyo opera play.
Then, Nojyo explains that the tape at Takizawa's apartment was the reason he planned for the murders. The past four years have been torture to him.
Nojyo reveals that four years ago the late Mika Kurosawa played the role of Christine in the Opera play. Seico was the one who envied her and tricked her into drinking a drug after the 4th day of Opera. Mika was killed by them.
To Seico, Mika's success was a shame to her so she made Mika drink the drug. Nojyo reveals that she loved Mika. We see a flashback where Takizawa filmed Mika who was under effects of the drugs, and she couldn't even move. Apparently Midorigawa was also there when the filming happened and Midorigawa started spreading rumors about Nojyo dating Seico which made it worse for Mika.
Mika being under the effects of the drugs ruined her Opera play so hard that she decided to do a suicide in the end.
Director Kurosawa thought that Nojyo dumped Mika and got with Seico but that was apparently just a rumor he kept spreading himself. Even to this day Nojyo loves only Mika. We see the flashback of when he found Mika's body. Apparently she was often wearing a wig and was really rather short-haired.
Then we get a long scene where Nojyo explains his sad feelings about the situation and how he lived for revenge. The director then makes a request to Nojyo and asks him not to die on the stage until the end. Nojyo agrees and tells Kindaichi if he understands the meaning behind those words. Nojyo's wish is to let everything end on the stage for the Tokyo's Phantom Opera.
The End of Phantom of Opera
The opera play in Tokyo will tell a touching story about a guy named Lar looking for his beloved Christine. This will be the true story of Nojyo Kosanro.
We get to see every other character gather as well. According to the businessman who makes his appearance, Kindaichi asked them all to come to the Opera.
Inspector Kenmochi appears and says that they did some autopsy on Takizawa whom Nojyo attempted to frame as the killer. There's something off about the axe.
According to kindaichi Nojyo was not the killer of Takizawa. The true killer of Takizawa is another person - an accomplice.
Nojyo stars his play at the same time as they do this final detective work. Hajime says that Miyuki and him found a lot of blood on the painting and ground so the one who attacked Takizawa apparently must've spilt a lot of blood. Nojyo pretended to be assaulted, but the wounds don't match the blood.
Hajime explains that the killer, the Second Phantom, is the one who plays Christine, in other words Kanai Rio. This came as a surprise as I don't think there's any hint at this in the story whatsoever, Mabu would've made more sense I'd say.
We get to see a flashback on Kanai Rio being ambushed by Takizawa and then Nojyo started strangling him. Apparently Takizawa's fingers slashed a painting by accident when he was being strangled which was why he had paint under his fingernails (completely forgot about that...). Takizawa fought back with a knife and Rio then attacked from the back with an axe and killed Takizawa.
Rio and Nojyo get on the stage as the police arrive to get them. Nojyo and Rio talk about how their dream is Mika's dream and something. Then the curtains close. Bunch of police cars appear.
Nojyo is at the dressing room where Kindaichi is waiting him. Hajime asks what sports Nojyo plays. But he has no real reason for that. Hajime then starts talking about how we all have to look forward to the future, to some other destination. We see Nojyo leave to where the policemen await while Miyuki appears. Hajime then puts powder on his face but Miyuki notices that he's trying to hide his tears. There are people in this world that you just can't save.
 |
| The movie ends with Hajime's tears |
Some days later we see Kindaichi along with a group of other sudents walk to school in the morning. Kindaichi complains about the heat as inspector Kenmochi appears. Kenmochi asks Kindaichi to solve a case for him but he disagrees.
Miyuki then tells Kindaichi that when the opera house on Usa Island was on fire Kindaichi tried to protect her from the fire which made her happy. We get a somewhat comedic ending as Hajime explains how that wasn't actually what he intended but doesn't talk more about it. Miyuki asks what he means and Hajime tells her that he was actually scared to death himself and was annoyed by Miyuki constantly screaming for help. Miyuki kicks Hajime downwards and he falls to the river. As Miyuki drives away with her bike Kindaichi manages to catch up to her while running as the movie's ending theme
Mystery of Sound and the opera theme
starts to play.
/The End of
Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Movie 1: Operazakan - Aratanaru Satsujin.
