Critical Overview: Ms. Ma, Nemesis (Part Three)

Critical Overview: Ms. Ma, Nemesis (Part Three)

 

In the third (and for now final, though I may revisit this production later) installment of my analysis of this South Korean adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple novels.  This post will look at the characterization of the adaptations.

 

The central character, Ms. Ma, is only loosely based on Miss Marple.  She’s at least a generation younger than Christie’s detective, though some trademark aspects, like her knitting, are included.  While Miss Marple learned about human nature from observing it over her lifetime, Ms. Ma learns about psychology from books.  In the past I’ve protested proposals to reduce Miss Marple’s age in adaptations, using the made-up term “youthanize.”  This adaptation’s alteration changes the central character, though the result is not so dreadful as some English-language ideas that thankfully never came into fruition.  In England, Miss Marple is often belittled or underestimated due to her age, but in South Korea, her senior citizen status would bring more respect.  Ultimately, the critical lynchpin of Ms. Ma’s character is the fact that she’s a wrongly accused woman, determined to find out who’s really behind her daughter’s murder.  The character had to be made younger so as to be convincing as the mother of a young child.  The change is therefore not quite as arbitrary, but it causes a larger rift between the production and Christie’s original work.

 

The other characters are also tangentially connected to comparable characters in Christie’s writings, like Ms. Ma’s “niece,” police officers, and women in the village.  These characters may have parallels to other Christie figures, but they’re essentially original creations.  The villains of the story are pretty well telegraphed before their reveal, and one is properly loathsome, and the other’s rather disgustingly pathetic.

 

I have nothing but positive things to say about the performances, as the cast is uniformly strong, largely likeable, and interacts well together.  It’s an entertaining production, but once again, I should stress that everything is more “inspired by Christie” than a faithful adaptation.  Thankfully, it manages to be good in a way that other loose adaptation fail at miserably.

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, was released on November 3^rd.  His book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books on September 7^th.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle  edition.