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Japanese mystery novelist Kiyoharu Matsumoto (1909-1992) is known for his ability to portray "evil women", and "The Woman Who bought a local newspaper" is also a crime story of a woman. When writing the three-volume "Matsumoto Kiyoharu Short Story Collection", Miyuki Miyabe, who is also a representative of social reasoning, classified this article as "my favorite", probably because of her preference as a writer for stories in which "writers play detectives".
Writer Takashi Sugimoto serialized "The Legend of the Wild Thief" in a local newspaper, and was delighted to learn from the newspaper that a female reader in Tokyo had subscribed to this newspaper with a very small circulation in order to read her novels. Soon after, I received a letter that "the novel has become unsightly and I want to unsubscribe", and I felt a little strange. This woman must have wanted something else from the newspaper... This is the starting point for some reasoning.
In the latest Japanese drama SP", "The Woman Who bought a local newspaper", the writer detective is played by Masakazu Tamura. The woman who claims that "because she likes the writer's serial novels, I want to subscribe to this local newspaper" is Ryoko Hiromi. Masakazu Tamura and Ryoko Hiromi ("Stubborn Daddy" (2000) and "Father" (2002)), who have played father-daughter roles twice more than a decade ago, have been transformed into an ambiguous relationship between imaginative writers and enigmatic readers.
The origin of the reasoning is the author's unfounded confidence (how could my novel be unsubscribed if it was so good!). Orwell in Why Do I Write? The first reason given in the book is "pure conceit"—some writers desperately try to cover it up, but most people write because they want to be regarded as smart people, and preferably praised by future generations. Fortunately, this time, Compared with the careful eye image of the writer in the 2007 TV series version, It is obviously much wiser and cuteer, with the elegance and arrogance of Furuhata Renzaburō. Ryoko Hiromi, who had just assisted Yuki Uchida in "Naomi and Kanako", once again appeared as an "evil girl".
Coupled with the remake of the original writer's assistant Asami Mizukawa, cameo geisha Mayu Watanabe and other characters, Matsumoto Kiyoharu SP drama is indeed much more luxurious than the afternoon mystery theater for middle-aged and elderly people.
In addition to the charm of the characters themselves, the charm of the story of "The Woman Who bought a local newspaper" originally came mostly from the theme of "newspaper". Women worry about the news of the "accident" by ordering newspapers, and writers speculate on women's motives through unsubscribed letters. The connection maintained through the paper is permeated with a Showa wind, and if there is a seemingly blank space, it gives people room for reverie.
However, moving the background of the times to the present, the blank space has to be filled. The unfolding of the clues in the story seems too far-fetched: what age is this, and even order newspapers to check the news, can not go online, use mobile phones to check? Is it also necessary to write "because I like to read your novels" when ordering newspapers? Isn't it an invasion of privacy for newspapers to disclose the personal information of subscribers to writers?
Regarding whether the newspaper subscription is an obvious bug, I specifically asked my Japanese friends, and the answer was: local newspapers with a very small circulation will publish weddings and funerals as news, and may not necessarily put them on the Internet. But you can always find it in library databases, right? The accident that female readers are concerned about also held a press conference, and there is no reason why it cannot be found on the Internet. Japanese friends also agreed. So we come to the conclusion that Matsumoto Kiyoharu, which has been remade and adapted countless times over the past 60 years, may be outdated.
From 1957 to the present, this is the 9th time that "The Woman Who bought a local newspaper" has been made into a TV series, plus a movie. It may become increasingly difficult for future audiences to understand the romance peculiar to "newspapers", and it will be difficult to understand how kiyoharu Matsumoto, a writer who is often serialized in newspapers, imagines readers behind seemingly serious lead letters.
If the "woman" covers up the crime as a martyrdom and then checks the news through the Internet, even if the newspaper is subscribed, if the newspaper does not disclose her information to the writer, the matter will not be revealed. In the times we live in, cases are more likely to be solved through call logs, surveillance footage, and DNA. It's accurate and boring.
To this day, the image of the "evil girl" still dominates the Japanese screen and occupies half of the mystery novel, even if the background of the story in Qing Zhang's pen is gone, the tradition of the evil girl is still there.
Some people say that the theme of evil women reflects the author's inner disgust and suspicion of women, but it may also be seen from the other side that men are more likely to be attracted to the image of evil women than the pure big lady type. Beautiful women meet unladylike, in order to change the miserable situation, they do not hesitate to poison their hands... Whether it is Kiyoharu Matsumoto's "Black Handbook" and "House of the Beast", or Keigo Higashino's "The Relief of the Holy Daughter", such a routine seems to be tireless to read for a long time.
Perhaps the point of view of the social school is not reasoning, even if the reasoning is weak and the clues are far-fetched, the Showa-style drama performed by Masakazu Tamura makes this work still worth watching. Nowadays, newspapers are constantly dying, and even if the remake of "The Woman Who bought a local newspaper" is remade against the background of Matsumoto Kiyoharu's era, it is difficult for young people whose mobile phones do not leave their hands to appreciate the meaning.
Text: Li Siyuan