The interesting thing about this recent adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel Murder On The Orient Express is that it was made in Japan and they have made it their own. It's called Orient Kyuukou Satsujin Jiken オリエント急行殺人事件. It was broadcast in two parts, each 2.5 hours long, over two nights in January 2015. The screenplay is written by Kôki Mitani and directed by Keita Kono. They do a great job.
It doesn't have Hercule Poirot by name, instead the detective is called Suguro Takeru, but he is the same quirky type character and of course he has the same brilliant little grey cells.
The story is in Japan in 1933 and the story follows the book quite well, at least until we get to part two, then the story is expanded to show how the murder was plotted. A man is murdered on the train journey. The train gets stopped by a small avalanche shortly after the murder and the ground is covered with unblemished snow.
It happens in the compartment next to Suguro's. The head of the rail line is on board the train and he asks Suguro to look into the matter. They have the assistance of a doctor. Suguro investigates the people in the car and figures out what happened.
It's a gorgeous looking film with plenty of nice location scenery. The sets and costumes are top notch. I found the story fascinating to watch and it kept my eyes glued to the screen. Sadly it's unavailable as a DVD or on YouTube. You can bit torrent it, that's where the copy I have came from. The torrent didn't come with subtitles built in but they can be downloaded as separate subtitle files. VLC Player synced them up and I was off on my journey.
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