Teresa reviews The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (2022)

Teresa reviews The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (2022) from Min Guo Da Zhen Tan (Checkmate) and enjoyed visiting an unfamiliar place and era in China’s history.

(Episodes 4-6 of Checkmate Min Guo Da Zhen Tan (Great Detective of the Republic of China, 首富庄园谋杀案, Murder in the Manor of the Richest Man))

Source: Ebay listing

(c)2023 by Teresa Peschel

Fidelity to text: 3 knives

Hints of the larger arc, fewer suspects, the city of Harbin begins to take shape, and Luo Shaochuan (one of our two heroes!) takes Ralph Paton’s place.

Quality of film: 3½ knives

Whoever wrote the English subtitles didn’t make it easy to follow the story. It looks great, though!

Read more of Teresa’s Agatha Christie movie reviews at Peschel Press.

Also, follow Teresa’s discussion of these movie on her podcast.

As usual, I’ll use the novel’s names when I can.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is the second story arc in Checkmate, a Chinese drama consisting of 24 episodes. Each episode is about 45 minutes long and so far, it takes three episodes to retell one of Agatha’s novels. When you watch it, remember this: it’s not structured like American or British TV. Thus, the first fifteen minutes or so of episode 4 contains the conclusion of the previous arc (Murder on the Orient Express). You’ll watch it, along with episodes 5 and 6 but the story’s not done yet. You’ve got to watch the first ten or fifteen minutes of episode 7 for the climax. The rest of episode 7 sets you up for the next arc (Cat Among the Pigeons) and supplies more hints about the larger overall arc.

Along the way, you’ll see far more of Harbin, a major Chinese city most of the outside world knows nothing about. Harbin is also so far to the north that it’s near the Russian border. When you watch street scenes, keep an eye out for Cyrillic on signs, alongside the Chinese you expect.

I have no idea where they filmed Checkmate. The city scenes look amazing. It’s hard to believe it’s a soundstage but at the same time, it’s hard to believe the production company found a town so perfectly preserved right down to the cobblestone streets. It all looks real, other than suffering the same issue that so many Agatha films do: every street and alley looks freshly swept. You’d think you were in Singapore. Even the alleys are immaculate. Only the heavy coats everyone wears, inside and outside, let you know that it’s darned cold out there.

It also makes you wonder where all the snow went, considering that the Orient Express chugged along through some impressively snowy landscapes. Surely some of that snow made it up to Harbin and is piled up … somewhere. But there’s not a patch of slush or ice, despite everyone wearing heavy coats and gloves, even indoors.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens next with Harbin and how much the city becomes a character on the show.

So is this Roger Ackroyd in disguise? At first, it doesn’t seem that way. Situ Yan deduces onboard the train that they all did it. But, like Poirot, he recognizes that the people connected to Xu Yu Qin didn’t get justice and for justice to be granted to them, he must lie to the police. Which he does. Situ Yan is growing as a man, learning to recognize idealism in the face of messy reality doesn’t always work.

He arrives in Harbin and goes straight to the house of his former mentor, Shen Jianxin. To his shock, he discovers that Master Shen died of a heart attack and he missed the funeral. Madame Shen invites him to stay, so Situ Yan, having no other place to go, agrees. He’ll be a son to her, implying that she has no adult children to assist her.

Meanwhile, things happen at the home of Luo Shaochuan, Situ Yan’s Hastings to his Poirot. He doesn’t get along with his father or his pushy aunt (Mrs. Cecil Ackroyd). He’s expected to marry his cousin, Zou Jingxuan but doesn’t want to. She’s filling the role of Flora Ackroyd to match his taking Ralph Paton’s role.

The timing of events gets strangely convoluted, but that may have been the fault of poor subtitles. Luo’s father is, obviously, Roger Ackroyd. He’d been planning to marry the widowed Wei Minxi (Mrs. Ferrars) but she’s tragically murdered by burglars and her house ransacked. Despite being murdered instead of committing suicide, she’s still being blackmailed and mails the critical letter to Roger. Roger’s sister-in-law (Mrs. Cecil Ackroyd) dislikes Mrs. Ferrars and tells everyone that she murdered her drunken, abusive husband; gossip she learned from the housekeeper, Wen Yi (Elizabeth Russell). This version of Mrs. Cecil is even more over the top than usual, wanting desperately to have control of the family’s money and running the household as she sees fit.

Once everyone’s been introduced, Roger gets knifed in his study and the local police take charge.

As you start to figure out who’s who in this version of Roger Ackroyd, you’ll see significant changes. Caroline Shepherd is gone completely, along with Hector Blunt. There is no counterpart for Ursula Bourne. That changes Flora’s character. She seems to be quietly in love with Luo Shaochuan, particularly since he’s not getting any competition from a clone of Blunt, manly big game hunter. Ackroyd’s gambling secretary (Geoffrey Raymond) and blackmailing butler (John Parker) are combined into one character: Fang Hong.

Since Situ Yan and Luo Shaochuan already know and respect each other, Situ Yan has no trouble hiding Luo Shaochuan from the police to avoid arrest for murder.

The Doctor Shepherd character becomes Director Xie Hua, an important man in the Harbin police department. He’s a dear, dear friend of Roger Ackroyd, but he’s not an exact parallel of Dr. Shepherd. Despite having known Luo Shaochuan for years, he’s quite ready to blame his best friend’s son for his best friend’s murder. Director Xie agrees to accept Situ Yan’s assistance in uncovering the true killer but only to a certain degree. Every time Situ Yan gets closer, Director Xie pushes the investigation into another direction. Don’t miss scenes of Republic of China policing. It sometimes seems very Keystone Kops, particularly Captain Bao, who’d never pass a physical anywhere and who’s often used as comic relief.

You won’t take this police force seriously and you’ll wonder why the common people are afraid of them. You’ll see why during the interrogation scene with Wen Yi (Miss Russell the housekeeper). Notice that array of torture devices laid out in shadows on the table. Catch that line of dialog from Situ Yan about how Luo Shaochuan — because he’s presumed guilty — will be tortured to get a confession. Watch amusing Captain Bao strap Wen Yi’s son to a rack and prepare to beat him in front of her so she confesses. This is after he browbeats her, refusing to listen to what she says because he already knows what happened and just needs a confession for the courts.

This is not a modern, responsible police force. These police are as much of a danger to commoners as thieves are. At the same time, this police force will make sure important citizens aren’t harassed.

So why then does Director Xie pursue Luo Shauchuan so vigilantly? Because his own son, an important doctor, was Wei Minxi’s killer and he can’t let that cat out of the bag. It would imperil his son, himself, and the rest of his family. He and his son blackmailed Wei Minxi; he needed the money for social advancement and his son? Well, there are hints of a larger story. His son’s off someplace else doing … well. We’ll find out.

This is going to be a complicated story stretched out over the 24-episode season. I can also see it would be worth watching twice. Once to get the plot, then again to understand the nuances.