Japanese mystery writers have long supplied fodder for TV shows and films, but mysteries of the puzzle-plot sort have reached a saturation point. Or maybe it's just me, fed up with stories that turn on such vital questions as — in the immortal words of Raymond Chandler — "who trampled the jolly old flowering arbutus under the library window."
Though labeled a "mystery writer" (a label he reportedly rejects), Kotaro Isaka has inspired a very different sort of film.
Director Yoshihiro Nakamura's "Fish Story" (2009), "Golden Slumber" (2010) and "Potechi" (2012) are all based on Isaka's fiction, with intricately constructed plots that revolve around eternal human dilemmas, such as finding connection and meaning in an indifferent universe, rather than the eternal question of whodunit. And the genius detective, that central figure in so many Japanese mysteries shows and films? Nowhere in sight.