If Herc

ule Poiro

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apanese: a

cross-b

order adaptation of A

gatha

Christie’s

novels Dr Serena Formica

The University of Derbys.formica@derby.ac.uk

A Transnational Cinema

Scholars agree thatIs made by transnational filmmakers has transnationalism as its objectCharacteristicsit works across borders it both pre-supposes national cinema and transcends it it lies at the intersection between

the global and the local

‘Transnational cultural flows neither fully displace nationally delineated boundaries, thoughts, and feelings, nor do they underestimate the salience of the nation-state in the process of globalisation. Rather, it might more often than not be the case that “the transnational has not so much displaced the national as resituated it and thus reworking its meanings (Rouse 1995, 380).” ’

(Iwabuchi, 2002, 17)

But this is not the end of the story…

Distinction among

transnational cinema transnational films transnational filmmakers

in order to have transnational cinema, it is necessary to have either a transnational filmmaker or a transnational film. It is possible to have transnational cinema when a film’s content is transnational even if the filmmaker is not transnational

Applying these criteria, it would seem that No Meitantei Poirot is not a transnational series…

Kōtarō SatomiDavid Suchet as Poirot

Anime Poirot voiced by Kōtarō Satomi

No Meitantei Poirot

Japanese elements Western elementsVoice actors  Titles Body language

Settings Production design Clothing

‘Although globalisation perspectives surely complicate the straightforward argument for the homogenization of the world based on Western modernity, the arguments for transculturation, heterogenisation [and] hybridisation […] are predominantly studied in terms of how the Rest resists, imitates, or appropriate the West.’

(Iwabuchi, 2002, 49)

No Meitantei as an adaptation

According to Hutcheon a good adaptation has to be recognizable as having a relation with

the original has to function as a standalone text for audiences

who do not know the original text.

 ‘[Shojo means] “little female”, and originally referred to

girls around the ages of 12 and 13. Over the last couple of decades, however, the term has become a shorthand for a certain kind of liminal identity between child and adult’

(Napier, 2005, 148)

Rural England in No Meitantei Poirort

No Meitantei Poirot to Marple as a transnational cultural product

it completely displaces a quintessentially British and western fictional world.

Agatha Christie’s universe in No Meitantei: an animated world the characters speak bow to each other have to deal with the coming-of-age of a rebellious girl

and with the whims of a kawaii (cute) duck pet

Japanese日本の

 References Ezra, Elizabeth and Rowden, Terry (eds), Transnational Cinema. The Film Reader, London and New York: Routledge, 2006,

‘Introduction’. Formica, Serena, Peter Weir. A Creative Journey from Australia to Hollywood, Bristol: Intellect Books, 2012. Goldsmith and O'Regan, ‘The Policy Environment of the Contemporary Film Studio’, in Greg Elmer and Mike Gasher (eds),

Contracting out Hollywood. Runaway Productions and Foreign Location Shooting, Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield, 2005 Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Adaptation, London: Routledge, 2006. Iwabuchi, Koichi, Recentering Globalisation. Popular Culture and Japanese Transnationalism, Durham and London: Duke

University Press, 2002 Napier, Susan, Anime. From Akira to Howl's Moving Castle, New York: Palgrave, McMillan, 2005. Turner, Graeme, Understanding Celebrity, London and Los Angeles: Sage, 2010. Television “The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan ”, Dir. Ken Grieve. Agatha Christie’s Poirot, ITV. LTW, London, 7 Mar 1993. Anime “No Meitantei Poirot to Marple”, Dir. Takahashi Naohito, NHK. OLM, Japan, Jul 4 – May, 15 2005. “The story of Perrine” (orig. tit. Periinu Monogatari), Dir. Hiroshi Saitô and Shigeo Koshi, Nippon Animation Co., Japan, January

1, 1978 – December 31, 1978 “Heidi”, (orig. tit. Arupusu no shôjo Haiji), Dir. Isao Takahata, Zuiyo, Fuji Television Network, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen

(ZDF), January 6, 1974 – December 29, 1974

Arigato Gozaimasu!!!