Novelists who specialize in murder mysteries and thrillers with detective heroes are not exclusively British and American but practitioners of a worldwide literary tradition, especially in Japan where Edogawa Ranpo, Soji Shimada and Seishi Yokomizo are considered masters of the form. Yokomizo, for example, was so popular and prolific that he was often called the “Japanese John Dickson Carr,” a writer of American detective fiction who created such famous sleuths as Dr. Gideon Fell and Sir Henry Merrivale in his novels. Yokomizo became popular in the post-WW2 years with a series of “locked room” mystery thrillers that began with The Honjin Murders in 1946 featuring the detective hero Kosuke Kindaichi. Yet it wasn’t until 1954 when the character of Kindaichi was first portrayed on the screen by actor Seizaburo Kawazu in the murder mystery Yurei Otoko (English title: Ghost Man). It was the first of several Kosuke Kindaichi film adaptations but, for its era, it was also extremely racy for its female nudity as well as its disturbing narrative which follows the crimes of a cunning serial killer who preys on models.
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Cinema Sojourns 