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Review | Black Showman movie review: Masaharu Fukuyama leads boring murder mystery adaptation
Fukuyama fails to conjure excitement as a magician-turned-sleuth alongside Kasumi Arimura in this screen version of Keigo Higashino’s novel
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A former Las Vegas magician and a young bride-to-be form an unlikely crime-fighting duo in Black Showman, a murder mystery adapted from Keigo Higashino’s bestselling novel by director Ryo Tanaka, who has also been responsible for several The Confidence Man JP films in recent years.
United by their personal connections to the deceased – a popular high school teacher – the two amateur sleuths soon uncover a perplexing conspiracy that appears to implicate residents of a sleepy mountain community.
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Japanese superstar Masaharu Fukuyama is no stranger to the works of Higashino, having previously played the prolific author’s super sleuth Manabu Yukawa no fewer than five times, in films including Suspect X (2008) and Silent Parade (2022).
While the protagonist of Black Showman is officially a new character – washed-up conjurer Takeshi Kamio – he proves every bit as arrogant, antisocial and self-aggrandising as Fukuyama’s earlier roles.
After his elder brother is found strangled in his home, Takeshi vows to solve the case on his own, without the help of local law enforcement. He is soon forced to amend this proclamation, however, upon the arrival of his niece, Mayo (Kasumi Arimura).
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