murder on the orient express

[mayoraasei]

As someone who likes watching Japanese shows, it's hard not to draw comparisons between Kenneth Branagh's star-studded adaptation of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express to FujiTV's 2015 adaptation. Both were full of big name stars in their respected countries: Kenneth Branagh, William Dafoe, Michelle Pfeiffer, Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Daisy Ridley on one side, and Nomura Mansai, Tamaki Hiroshi, Fuji Sumiko, Ann, Ninomiya Kazunari, Kichise Michiko, and Sawamura Hiroki on the other. Both were led by actors who are well-respected in theatre (Branagh and Nomura Mansai). The Fox version is about 2 hours, and the FujiTV version screened as 2 SP's over 2 nights, as a total of 4 hours.

I watched the 2015 version when it came out, so the details are a bit fuzzy. Apart from the obvious difference in budget (although for a TV version it wasn't half bad at all), it is characteristically Japanese in its slower pace and greater focus on characterisation. It had the luxury of that extra 2 hours, too, so the way it chose to tell the story was to spend the first episode describing the crime and the interrogations, then the second episode told mostly through an extended flashback to build the characters and show how and why the murder came to be.

The gist of the plot is largely the same in both stories, but the Japanese one was missing the racial undertones that is probably reflective of Europe at the time (I haven't read the original). My main gripe with the Japanese version is Nomura Mansai's interpretation of the detective. I'm not sure why he chose to speak in such a fake squeaky voice and overdo the mannerisms. In that sense, Branagh's Poirot was more bearable, but not that memorable in the mob of mainstream sleuths that's come our way in the last few years.

I read somewhere that much of the point of the story is Poirot's growth, that justice and rightness isn't always the same thing, and the world isn't always black and white. Unfortunately, I didn't feel either the Japanese or the Hollywood version convinced me of that change in perspective - the Japanese due to Nomura Mansai's distracting showiness, and the Hollywood due to the limited time to build sympathy for the rest of the characters.

There's a few short chases and fights in the Hollywood version which I can't remember was in the Japanese version - I remember it was a much quieter and civilised affair, probably with too much talking and not enough doing. The actors for both versions were excellent and the Hollywood actors made the most of their brief moments on screen to define their characters. Unfortunately you don't quite get time to like them before the big reveal.

A fair adaption of the classic (and the music was gorgeous, and apart from some odd camera angles, so was the cinematography), but not something I can imagine watching a second time.