Under The Midnight Sun(白夜行) Japanese Novel Thoughts

  I'm back again with another novel from mystery author, Higashino Keigo. This unfortunately isn't a part of the well known Galileo series. Whenever I think of Higashino's work, Everything automatically points to the Galileo series of books. Under The Midnight Sun( also known as Journey Under The Midnight Sun) is separate novel that was released before the Galileo series in 1999. The novel was such a huge seller that soon it inspired many other forms of entertainment media such as a TV drama, a motion picture film, and a Korean adaption of the Japanese film. Some people who decide to pick up this book might know half of the story already if you've had the chance to see the Korean film adaption titled White Night. White Night was a hit in South Korea making most people who are interested in Korean or East asian pop culture aware of the film.

  A great thing about this novel is that you can still read it even if you have seen White Night prior to picking up a copy. The novel dives deep into a case that spans over three decades. I mean it goes into every detail that there is to go into. A owner of a pawn shop is found dead in an abandon warehouse and a girl's mother is found dead in her apartment claimed by police to be a suicide. Both cases intertwine with one another as the characters involved go own with their lives. Only problem is strange events keep happening to people around them. Taking on more than a few character perspectives, You as the reader is forced to keep up with every detail presented in the text as the pages turn. It can be hard at times because you forget who is who then you remember but a new character is introduced into the story. All characters are connected to the culprits however, the plot line sometimes spends too much time on the side characters causing you to wait more than a couple pages before you get back to the real core of the story. I did enjoy the look into theses character's lives and how the main character influenced their living direction. Sadly, the culprits had a lot of control over the people they came into contact with. Thats what made them some of the most dangerous characters that Higashino has ever created.  It was like watching a person play chess where they move the pieces across the chessboard. The side characters are totally the chess pieces...

Korean film: White Night

  I also enjoyed the metaphor thats connects the story to the title. The main characters live in a forever dwelling darkness that causes them to want the light of the sun. What they don't realize is that they will never feel the sunlight because of all the actions they've committed. So their lives will always be engulfed in the light of an eclipse or the midnight sun. I'm still shocked that the case lasted all those years and we got to see a detective grow old while reading. No such thing as too late in this novel.

  I'm not going to lie to you. The book can get really tiring after awhile because of all the events that happen. The plot still is gripping thanks to the content creating a desire inside the reader to see how the ending turns out. And believe me, THERE IS FIREWORKS. The films based on the novel do a good job retelling the story but they don't cover every last detail. Read the novel if you want to know everything there is to know about what the characters were doing in their past time before the good core parts of the plot.

Japanese Film: Into The White Night

 Under The Midnight is a good over blown mystery novel that doesn't skip out on the details. I didn't even realize that I was reading the novel that inspired the Korean film White Night until I was halfway to the end of the book. The newly added details make the story feel fresh until you get to the parts that fans of White Night will start to recognize. Defiantly not a Galileo novel though. Just a good read for people who want something to do on slow days.