The Inugami Family

A wealthy industrialist dies and his will is opened; the condition is strange. To inherit, one of the grandsons must marry Tamayo, a woman from outside the family. The family gathers and the quarrelling starts. Then the murders begin. Each body is found in an arrangement, and the arrangements refer to the three objects on the family crest. The private detective Kindaichi investigates. One grandson, back from the war with his face unrecognisable, wears a mask in the house. Kon Ichikawa directs. The source is Seishi Yokomizo's novel. Kosuke Kindaichi is among the best known detectives in Japanese crime writing, and this film restarted that series in cinemas; it was a large commercial success and many adaptations followed. The ground is postwar Japan: inheritance, family hierarchy and the position of men returning from the war are treated directly. Ichikawa is a formalist director and the murder scenes here are built as compositions; the shot at the lake is the film's best known image. The narrative is a classic puzzle mystery: a closed circle, many suspects, secrets revealed and a collective solution at the end. Ichikawa filmed the same novel again thirty years later. Who it is for: viewers who like Japanese crime films and classic puzzle narratives. Who it is not for: there are many characters, the family relations are hard to follow, and the pace is slow.