Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva

Professor Layton is an archaeologist who solves puzzles. He receives a letter from a former student and is invited to an opera. During the performance an offer is made to everyone in the hall: whoever solves the puzzles to be set will win eternal life. The guests are taken onto a ship and the game begins. The puzzles are real and those who lose disappear. Masakazu Hashimoto directs. The film rests on the puzzle game series of the same name. The games reached a wide audience in Japan and abroad; the narrative carries their characters and puzzle structure into cinema. Its structure differs from the game: the viewer does not solve the puzzles, the characters do and the narrative proceeds. That changes the expected experience for players. The subject is what the promise of eternal life amounts to; the resolution comes close to science fiction and goes somewhere unusual for the series. The design keeps the drawing manner of the games; the backgrounds look like watercolour and the characters are drawn in simple lines. The opera sections are its most ambitious side and original music was written for them. Who it is for: those who know the games and viewers who like classical puzzle narrative. Who it is not for: the characters arrive unintroduced for a newcomer, the solutions pass quickly, and the ending is too complicated.