Castle of Sand / Suna No Utsuwa Japanese Tv Drama Dvd NTSC All Region 2 Dvd Digipak Boxset (Japanese Audio with English Sub)

This Asahi-TV series of 2011 was based on the 1961 crime novel by Seicho Matsumoto, which was translated in English by Beth Cary as "Inspector Imanishi Investigates" (1989). From the outset, the perspectives and scenes have been altered compared to the book, although the elements and places and different plot lines are faithful. In this film, Imanishi's sidekick Yoshimura is the more central figure, and a young female reporter who spurs him on has been created. Some of the leads developed by Imanishi in the book are given as Yoshimura's ideas in this film, not that it changes the story, just the distribution of character-interest. Imanishi's home life (and wife) are bypassed. The producers must have thought that most of the Japanese viewers would have known the outcome and so broad "hints" of the culprit are placed throughout. This 2-disc set was released on Taiwan in 2011, with Chinese subtitles--the English subtitles are inadequate "translations" (often not-English) probably from the Chinese. There are discreet underwriters' credits at the end of each episode (e.g., Panasonic). Other film versions exist, from 1974 (dir. Y. Nomura) and 2004 (dir. K. Fuzukawa et al.).

Enjoyable historical period piece based on an older movie of the same name. This two-part movie is worth the purchase, though it is not without some flaws. To wit, the historical atmosphere, clothing, and tactile elements are all great, and the score is quite good (it takes place a little over a decade after WWII), and the unfolding mystery is interesting. However, the subtitles aren't the greatest (they're not the absolute worst, but there are a few too many errors not to comment on it), and if I'm truthful, the ending of the story wasn't quite as significant as it seemed like the narrative was building toward.Still, if you like Hiroshi Tamaki, detective stories, or historical dramas, you'll like this even with the occasionally mediocre subtitles.