Lady Joker: Volume 1: The Million Copy Bestselling 'Masterpiece of Japanese Crime Fiction'

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They may have made a monetary demand, but they are more fixated on the act of squeezing the money out rather than on the money itself.

And while several deaths do occur as the story gets rolling, the actual, central crime is a long time in coming (with these deaths only tangentially related to it). And there's Shuhei Handa, a police officer who is a bit too independent to smoothly rise through the ranks. Lady Joker ( レディ・ジョーカー) is a 2004 Japanese film directed by Hideyuki Hirayama, based on a story by Kaoru Takamura. [1] [2] Cast [ edit ] a b "第４４回大佛次郎賞　『土の記』――高村薫氏". Asahi Shimbun (in Japanese). December 17, 2017. Archived from the original on December 15, 2018 . Retrieved December 15, 2018.He was apparently only hired by Hinode because they were hoping to acquire a plot of land for a new factory near the village where he was born, and they hoped his employment would facilitate negotiations with the locals. They understand Shiroyama might not be being entirely forthcoming with them, and they continue to investigate accordingly.

The novel certainly does bog down some in especially the Okada and related happenings, but the main point -- that Hinode has something (or a lot ...) that they have good reason to hide -- certainly comes across. He wants to squeeze some money -- a lot of money -- out of a company -- and Hinode is the obvious choice. A novel that portrays withdevastating immensityhow those on the dark fringes of society can be consumed by the darkness of their own hearts.” Little more than the decision to go after Hinode is made before the book jumps ahead again, this time only a few months, to the spring of 1995.He had apparently set his mind to working for Hinode, but he had suddenly got up and left during his second interview with them, and they had declined to make him an offer -- surprising, in light of his outstanding qualifications. Takamura's first novel, Ōgon o daite tobe ( 黄金を抱いて翔ベ, Grab the Money and Run), was published in 1990 and won the Japan Mystery and Suspense Grand Prize. [2] Two years later her novel Riviera o ute ( リヴィエラを撃て, Shoot Riviera), a thriller about an Irish man mysteriously murdered in Tokyo as part of an apparent international espionage plot, was published, winning both the Mystery Writers of Japan Award and the Japan Adventure Fiction Association Prize. [1] [2] Ōgon o daite tobe was later adapted into the 2012 Kazuyuki Izutsu film of the same name, starring Satoshi Tsumabuki and Tadanobu Asano. [3] In 1993 Takamura's mystery novel Mākusu no yama ( マークスの山, Marks' Mountain), about a boy who survives his parents' suicide and grows up to be a psychopathic serial killer, won the Naoki Prize as well as Takamura's second consecutive Japan Adventure Fiction Association Prize. [1] [4] The book sold more than a million copies. [5] It was later adapted into a 1995 Yoichi Sai film and a 2010 Wowow television drama. [6] By the mid-1990s Takamura was seen as the "Queen of Mysteries", but in 1997, after completing a fictionalized account of the Glico Morinaga case titled Redi joka ( レディ・ジョーカー, Lady Joker), she changed the focus of her writing from mystery novels to literary fiction. [7] Lady Joker was later adapted into the 2004 Hideyuki Hirayama film Lady Joker and a 2013 Wowow television drama. [8]

Anyone who wants to buy Lady Joker will definitely get their money's worth, it's the perfect book to read and mull over for a long period of time. If there was any book you wanted to completely surround yourself with and dive into, this would be a great selection. Takamura's expansive presentation is unusual, but effective; if some of the issues remain a bit confusing -- the 1947 letter, in particular, and the importance ascribed to it -- the basics are clear enough. This second half of Lady Joker, by Kaoru Takamura, the Grand Dame of Japanese crime fiction, concludes the breathtaking saga introduced in Volume I. Just in case, however, they insist Shiroyama be put under police protection, a bodyguard accompanying him the entire time he is not at his home.

Sankei Shimbun (in Japanese). December 4, 2017. Archived from the original on August 2, 2018 . Retrieved December 13, 2018. Shiroyama, meanwhile, has to deal with this continuing looming threat, and find a way to ensure that neither he nor his company are ruined by it. Eventually' is the operative word here: if they come across as somewhat beaten down and frustrated -- some more than others -- they're not thinking anything of the criminal sort here yet.

Intent on revenge against a society that values corporate behemoths more than human life, the five conspirators decide to carry out a heist: kidnap the CEO of Japan’s largest beer conglomerate and extract blood money from the company’s corrupt financiers. In 1947, Seiji Okamura wrote a letter to Hinode Beer describing unfair termination of employment. Okamura, like many other "resigned employees" was destitute. "My body always remembered poverty...I am sensitive to sounds and smells...when I inhale...they seep through me...settling in my empty stomach...a futile and unchanging past...". Okamura's threatening letter from half a century ago would resurface. Was the 1947 letter still relevant in the 1990's? Was Hinode Beer compliant with any sinister criminal behavior? Were there deeply buried secrets? At the time the letter was received, the company had some concern about the possible ramifications (despite considering it: "incomprehensible in its argument and unclear in its purpose") but took no action.With it, too, apparently, Hinode's concerns about unfavorable information being made public fade away; the story leaps ahead four years, to 1994: Part Two, 'The Night Before', is set then. So also Goda senses, as the investigation progresses, that what truly motivates the criminals isn't the obvious: Brokenness is incorrect, nor are they desperate: the fire of hatred has been lite and it desires action—so they kidnapped and extort the CEO of Japan’s biggest beer company, Hindoe.