THE MURDERER IN THE HOUSE OF DEAD

The Shinko University Detective Association has only two members: President Akechi Kyousuke and member Hamura Yuzuru. They are known (self-proclaimed) as the detective couple Holmes and Watson of the school. And their main job is to solve mysteries (they see themselves) and practice their reasoning skills by observing random objects.

Until one day, a special opportunity comes to both of them, opening up the opportunity for them to approach a huge mystery, when a threatening letter appears right before the annual training trip of the Film Research Club. And this is also the time when the Holmes - Watson duo of Shinko University get to know Kenzaki Hiruko, a genuine detective who has helped the police solve many difficult cases. However, that trip is really a chance or a disaster, pushing people to face deadly danger.

INTEGRATED STORY FROM MULTIPLE POINTS OF VIEW

Winning the 27th Ayukawa Tetsuya Award in 2017, and receiving “high praise from the Selection Committee”, the novel The Murderer in the House of the Dead “is a perfect combination of fantasy and detective elements”. That’s right! Because this work is made up of a story-within-a-story structure: a serial murder case, nested in a sudden zombie disaster. However, that alone may not be enough. Because that “perfect combination”, first of all, was built by author Mamura Masahiro from a very diverse system of points of view.

Although almost the entire work is the narrative of the boy Hamura Yuzuru, who calls himself “I”, recounting from the ordinary time of a normal student’s life to the terrifying days spent at Shijin Mansion. However, interwoven with that narrative, there are still other “I”, hiding in the darkness, having an internal monologue or questioning oneself, following one’s own obscure actions with a gaze. And even, right from the first letter of the work, isn’t it also addressed to another individual? All of this makes the novel The Murderer in the House of Death, covered with a ghostly, gloomy atmosphere right from the first chapters.

Because of the continuous shift in the narrative point of view right in the first person, it is me, but it is also not me, making the story become full of changes. The fragmented pieces of the continuous tragedy gradually appear before the eyes of the readers. But the people involved still have to grope before the crime piled upon crime, in the context, like a horror film of the warring states period: enemies within, enemies without; enemies in the dark, and people, only knowing how to struggle to survive, alone in the light.

The story line led by Hamura's ego leads the work along with the opening story line of each chapter about the mysterious egos deep in the dark, like two parallel lines without intersection. However, all are still connected to each other, where today's genocide disaster and the tearful tragedy of the past, in the narrow space of Shijin Villa. Making the past seem to overlap the present.

As well as, the egos gradually overlap between the two edges of light and darkness. That no matter who it is, the detective girl Kenzaki or the boy given the name Watson, whose eyes follow the entire story; the perpetrator of a series of murders or the one who created the deadly virus; the current victim, the past perpetrator... It seems that they all carry hidden psychological corners and no one, completely clean or completely scum, leaves it to others to judge or decide their lives. “Could it be that these people have only revealed the most despicable aspects of themselves? If we exclude that one point, they are not so bad people?”

The ego of the novel The Murderer in the House of Death is a multifaceted transformation, perhaps, also a metaphor created by author Imamura Masahiro, about the human ego that is always complex, inconsistent, teetering on the edge of good - evil, right - wrong, salvation - redemption like that.

HORROR AND DETECTIVE ELEMENTS

It can be said that if The Murderer in the House of Death only had horror or detective elements, then this story would lack an important part that made up the work that won the 27th Ayukawa Tetsuya Award. Because, if it was only horror, this novel would be no different from a regular zombie publication. And if it was only detective, then it must be said that the detective element in The Murderer in the House of Death is quite weak.

Partly, because the author Imamura Masahiro proactively revealed and directly hinted at the true identity of the "murderer". But mostly, it lies in the aspect, the plot of the case of this work is so classic that it is not too complicated. When the crime scene belongs to a closed space - Shijin mansion and the suspect is always aiming at a separate group of people, that is, those who are currently living in that mansion. And readers, especially readers who are passionate about detective stories, with the most omniscient and neutral perspective, will be able to easily guess not only the identity of the murderer but also the method and motive of the murderer.

However, when combining the two elements in the same story, Imamura Masahiro has almost completely overcome what is lacking to bring to readers, a Murderer in the most complete house of death.

There, there is extreme tension when human life hangs upside down every moment, every second before the danger from the terrifying sea of zombies. Originally thought that zombies are just a fantasy, but on Imamura Masahiro's writings, that fantasy is present in reality with full historical and scientific basis. Because extremists have sown zombies into humanity.

And, before the sea of corpses walking soullessly, the awareness of the fragility of human life becomes even stronger. At the same time, it also contains the author's self-awareness of the "humanity" in each individual, which lies in their perception of the world. Then, on the picture, it seems to be soaked with the smell of blood in the sea of walking zombies with weak, frail individuals, the story's pace is fast, intense with a narrow space and time, many contradictions and oppositions just exist. That, compared to zombies, people seem to have not much difference in human form and identity. But, humans are living and aware of life to fight and survive, which is the expression of the most original desire. Not only that, the horror element in the novel The Murderer in the House of Death is fictional, the detective element is also the imaginary sketch of the author Iwamura Masahiro. But the portrait of each individual on the page, has the appearance of a real person. When anyone, facing life and their own kind, always carries different masks created from a tragic past, hatred covering their eyes or emotions of shelter and protection... So is the "ego" they are showing, their true nature or their true self, forever hidden behind that fake "ego"? But just one wrong decision, the trade-off ahead, is endless regret and conflict. And considering the complexity of this human being, we suddenly realize that zombies may have become a very simple and pure existence.

THE MURDERER IN THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD, FROM MOVIE TO NOVEL

Released in 2017, adapted into a movie in 2019, premiered in Vietnam in 2020 under the name Zombie Mansion and in 2021, WingsBooks published the original novel, although it could not create a strong media effect like other blockbuster movies or novels, it can be said that the transfer of the work from literary language to cinematic language still creates quite interesting parallels and comparisons for readers. Especially when this is almost a "reverse" reception for Vietnamese readers: from a derivative publication to an original work.

But, whether it is a novel or a movie, The Murderer in the House of Death is still a film containing "camera angles" that point to the hidden corners of humanity. In that, no one is perfect. Everyone is like a victim and a perpetrator in their own life. People carry prejudices and selfish, narrow-minded judgments. So each person's life is like a long chain of choices - mistakes - atonement. "My shallow and superficial sense of justice accidentally pushed her deeper into the devil's sins."

Like the way Watson Hamura is atonement to his Mr. Holmes Akechi, after all the tragedies that have passed.