Created by Paul & Leonard Schrader and Robert Towne "A man never forgets. A man pays his debts." -- from the poster. Imagine Chandler writing a samurai flick... In this forgotten classic from the mid-seventies, Robert Mitchum is HARRY KILMER, an aging former G.I., and sometime P.I. (his past is suitably murky), set loose in … Continue reading Harry Kilmer (The Yakuza)
Tag: Japan
Maiku Hama (aka Mike Hama, Mike Yokohama)
Created by Kaizo Hayashi and Daisuke Tengan It's Hama Time! The rundown office of Yokohama private eye MAIKU HAMA (get it?) is on the second floor of the old Nichigeki movie theatre in Yokohama, stuck between the projector and the screen, which is appropriate enough, since so much of his cinematic debut, Waga jinsei saiaku no … Continue reading Maiku Hama (aka Mike Hama, Mike Yokohama)
Kimitsuka Kimihiko & Siesta (The Detective is Already Dead)
Created by written by Nigojū (text) and Umibōzu (art) “Is there a detective on this plane?" Four years ago, during an attempted airplane hijacking, Japanese high school student and trouble magnet KIMITSUKA KIMIHIKO became, at her insistence, the assistant to the beautiful and enigmatic girl detective SIESTA (which wasn't even her real name). They ended up traveling … Continue reading Kimitsuka Kimihiko & Siesta (The Detective is Already Dead)
Mosaku Anchu
Created by Matsunaga Anshindo "Glabble"? For those of you out there (or maybe just Jan) who just can't get enough of P.I.'s and hippos, you might want to check out the online manga adventures of MOSAKU ACHU, wherein the Japanese private eye confronts the nefarious (and politically incorrect) "The Case of the Oriental Hippo." It was … Continue reading Mosaku Anchu
Kōsuke Kindaichi
Created by Seishi Yokomizo (1902-1981) Arguably the most beloved Japanese detective of all time, Seishi Yokomizo's KŌSUKE KINDAICHI first appeared in The Honjin Murders, which was serialized in the magazine Houseki from April to December 1946. It's a brainstomper of a locked room murder, taking place in a huge family mansion surrounded by thick snow, which many people … Continue reading Kōsuke Kindaichi
Jim Brodie
Created by Barry Lancet Single dad and San Francisco antiques dealer JIM BRODIE is also, rather reluctantly at times, part-owner of Brodie Investigations, the local branch of the Tokyo detective agency his late father founded. But family is family... As an American born and raised in Japan, Jim's fluent in Japanese, and since he's acted … Continue reading Jim Brodie
Gai Kurusawa
Created by Tensai Okamura "I hate this season. The weather sucks up all the slime and filth in the streets and pours it back down on ya. But then, that's what this city's all about. Name's Gai Kurasawa, private eye. I've spent my life in this concrete merry-go-round watching the same crimes play out year … Continue reading Gai Kurusawa
The Detective (The Ruined Map)
Created by Kôbô Abe (1924-93) Acclaimed Japanese novelist and playwright Kôbô Abe even cooked up a little private eye novel, The Ruined Map (1967). But it wasn't some lit boy slumming--he pulled out all the stops and delivered, as one critic called it, "a mesmerizing literary crime novel that combines the narrative suspense of Chandler with the … Continue reading The Detective (The Ruined Map)