I had higher hopes for this. But the first Japanese movie I decided to watch this year was quite a dud.
All-Round Appraiser Q, played by Haruka Ayase, was made out to be someone with a brilliant mind like Sherlock Holmes. Even the way the director, Shinsuke Sato, showed how she came up with conclusions and deductions, and the way music was incorporated into those scenes, reminded me so much of the British series Sherlock.
It would have been fine, a little copycat here and there; but the movie suddenly took a turn when Appraiser Q accepted the Mona Lisa job. It's as if she had some secret hidden powers that she suddenly unlocked along the way. And from then on it wasn't really about using the power of deductions anymore, and more like making accurate guesses.
I had a lot of issues with the writing of Manabu Uda, who adapted from the novel by Keisuke Matsuoka. A lot of inconsistencies and loopholes and they made the movie unenjoyable throughout even though the production value was there, what with the location-shots.
I also thought all the actors were very competent. Tori Matsuzaka was funny and Eriko Hatsune was mysterious. And unlike Hong Kong movies where foreign actors were used more as prop, this movie treated Pierre Deladonchamps very well, giving his character a bit more layer than just using him to make the movie feel more international.
Unfortunately, I was taken out of the movie more often than I cared to count due to the bad writing. I would really like to see a good Japanese movie, otherwise it will be more Korean and Taiwanese from here on out.
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