MISS
SHERLOCK
I’ve always
been intrigued by the number of times Sherlock Holmes continues to be
resurrected since he and Moriarty went over the Reichenbach Falls. With an ever
evolving compendium of literary, theatre, film, and television reiterations, Sherlock
never seems to go out of style.
Guinness World Records, in fact, claims Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is the most portrayed fictional character
on film and TV—played over 254 times by more than 75 different actors. Not being a
purist, I’m more than happy to give each new Holmesian appearance at least a
curious, non-judgmental, once over.
Of the more
recent Sherlocks, I’ve enjoyed all three of the major forays—Robert Downey,
Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes movies, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock (at least the first two seasons), and Jonny Lee Miller’s turn
as Sherlock in Elementary.
In my
opinion, Elementary is the best of
the trio, as it has overcome the Herculean task of shooting twenty-four reasonably
high level episodes for each of its six seasons on network television. Elementary should also be given high
marks for keeping the essence of Sherlock Holmes intact while allowing the
character to recognize his inherent flaws and fight to make Doyle’s creation a
better person.
Elementary gives us a more human Sherlock, one
with whom we can more find a more personal connection than we have been allowed
before. We ache to see him struggle, as we ache when we see others close to us
struggle. This is great storytelling, which adds to the Sherlockian mystique
rather than simply mimicking it.
I find less
satisfaction in many of the Sherlock Holmes pastiche novels. These often pale
by comparison to the original tales. At worst, they show a complete
lack of understanding for the material. However, starting with A Study In Charlotte, Brittany
Cavallaro’s trio of Y/A books featuring
Jamie Watson and Charlotte Holmes—the modern teen descendants of the original Holmes
and Watson—have kept me entertained enough to hope for another sequel.
A distaff
Sherlock Holmes is not an original idea. Sherlock has appeared as everything
from a dog to an alien and all incarnations in between. However, I was intrigued when
HBO Asia announced plans for an Asian female version of Sherlock Holmes for the
series Miss Holmes. In this Sherlockian reimagining, both Sherlock and Watson
are female and have traded Victorian London for present-day Tokyo.
The original Sherlock
Holmes stories are well known in Japan. There have also been several other
Japanese translations of the character, including an anime titled Sherlock Hound and a weekly manga called
Detective Conan, which was made into
a popular TV series.
Billed as The most beautiful Sherlock ever, when this
latest Japanese take on Sherlock premiered, I jumped online and quickly tracked
down the eight episode first season—complete with English subtitles. As I was
prepossessed to like Miss Sherlock, I
was able to overlook a number of early episode shortcomings while still finding
a lot to like.
By
episode four, however, the series began to find a stronger footing and a sure direction.
I became slightly obsessed with the series, binge watching the final episodes.
There is a delicate Japaneseness
about Miss Sherlock, which is both
charming and fascinating. I’ve seen this before. While the popular Miss Fisher Mysteries are set in
Australia in the 1920’s, they capture the same delicate charm and addictive
nuances.
Yuko Takeuchi
plays Miss Sherlock with an awareness
of her blunt temperament. She uses this controlled insensitivity to hide her
secret identity as the Queen of Impatience. She sees her impatience as an uncontrollable
flaw—or at least, a flaw she is disinclined to control. Therefore, she chooses to use blunt
narcissisim as a Kabuki mask. Her enemies cannot use her raging impatience
against her if they are unable to discern it.
In person, Takeuchi
doesn’t speak with the same rapid-fire intrusiveness of Miss Sherlock. Asked about the challenges of the role, Takeuchi
claimed the hardest part was the sheer number of lines she needed to memorize
to play this motor-mouthed version of the detective.
The soft calm
of Shihori Kanjiya as Dr. Wato Tachibana (aka: Wato San—which is pushing the
envelope hard) alleviates the bad-tempered Sherlock by bringing a sweet
innocence to her character. She also possesses an endearing immaturity we
haven't seen before from other actors in the role. As a surgeon recently
returned from a voluntary, yet grueling, medical mission to Syria, Wato-san is
faced with her own demons, which Miss
Sherlock tends to purposely aggravate and makes no effort to understand.
Standing in
for Inspector Lestrade, Ken'ichi Takitô's Inspector Reimon is by turns suitably
deferential and protective of Sherlock. He realizes she is his most valuable
crime solving asset—despite his assistant, Sergeant Shibata (Tomoya Nakamura),
long suffering frustration.
Ran Itô
portrays the show’s Mrs. Hudson, Kimie Hatano, with a certain ditzy
personality, which hides her iron fist in a velvet glove.
The whole production is wrapped up in a shiny package of sharp directing tied with a red ribbon of scenic cinematography, which shrewdly emulate
the same pacing, shot choice, and color palate of other recent mainstream
Sherlock productions. There is also a compelling soundtrack to complement the
whole production.
Listening closely,
you quickly realize the Miss Sherlock
intro and underlying music are the perfect Japanese translation of Hans
Zimmer's Sherlock Holmes movie scores
and the incidental music from Elementary
and Sherlock. Beyond the soundtrack,
there are other clear influences from both Elementary
and Sherlock, but this gives a
comfortable familiarity to offset Miss
Sherlock’s unique Japanese sensibilities.
As a nod to
its Sherlockian origins, Miss Sherlock’s backstory
includes being raised in Britain and graduating from Cambridge University. But Miss Sherlock also finds its own
originality in Japanese cultural differences, including taking into account Japan’s
strict policies toward drugs and weapons. And to make sure the viewer is aware
of the Tokyo local, there are often lingering camera shots of Japanese food and
the Tokyo cityscape.
Trading Sherlock’s
traditional violin for a cello, Miss Sherlock appears to have much more
affection for her older brother—Secretary to the Prime Minister, Kento Futaba—than
Sherlock ever did for Mycroft. Faced with the
dull routine of existence, Miss Sherlock releases her inner chocoholic
rather than a 7% solution of cocaine (another nod to Japan’s strict drug laws).
With some of
the blame owed to the lack of nuanced English subtitling, the writing in the
early episodes is somewhat pedestrian. In the first few episodes, the mysteries
are clever and inventive at the onset, but quickly fizzle without truly being
able to tax Sherlock's superior crime solving abilities. However, this flaw begins
to mitigate with episode four as the series takes a more deadly turn prior to
the entrance of Akira Moriwaki—Miss Sherlock’s
very own Moriarty.
Miss Sherlock hasn't yet risen to the level of
'don't miss' television, but it certainly deserves your attention...
MISS SHERLOCK SEASON ONE
EPISODE ONE
THE FIRST CASE
Wato
Tachibana has just returned to Japan from Syria. Her mentor suddenly dies after
his stomach explodes at the airport. Consulting detective Miss Sherlock is
on the case.
