Did John Jasper murder Edwin Drood?

Robert Tanitch reviews the latest DVDs

The Mystery of Edwin Drood (BBC). Charles Dickens had completed only six out of the 12 instalments when he died in 1870, aged only 58, exhausted from his lecture tours. There has been speculation about how the novel would have ended ever since. There have been so many solutions. So did John Jasper (Matthew Rhys) murder Edwin (Freddie Fox) because he wanted him dead so that he could marry Drood’s fiancée? Drugged-up to the eyeballs with opium Jasper certainly has a recurring nightmare of killing Drood. This ingenious two-part BBC adaptation by crime writer Gwyneth Hughes was aired in 2012. Alun Armstrong is Hiram Crewgious and David Dawson is a very Dickensian Bazzard.

Departures (Arrow). Directed by Yôjirô Takita with tenderness, poignancy and humour, it won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009. A cellist (Masahiro Motoki) loses his job when the orchestra in which he plays goes bankrupt and he returns to his birthplace where he becomes an encoffiner. He does not tell his wife. The Japanese have strong social taboos against morticians and anybody making a living out of the dead is shunned. The ritual of undressing and cleansing the dead body in front of the family before it is put in the coffin is observed in intimate detail. It is a job most people would not want to do and the squeamish will not even want to watch. Motoki carries out the ritual with such dignity he does not look like he is acting.

The Tiger: An Old Hunter’s Tale (Eureka). This patriotic South Korean epic has a strong political and philosophical message .Directed by Hoon-jung Park. it is set in Korea in 1925 during the Japanese occupation. The Japs are ruthlessly killing all the tigers on Mountain Jirisan. The last tiger, called Mountain Lord, and sacred to the Koreans, massacres the hunters and troops sent to kill him. He proves to be unkillable. The tiger symbolizes the unconquered spirit of a conquered nation. The story begins in a realistic manner but soon turns into a fantastic fable and then into a horror movie with computer generated imagery.

Deliver Us (Network). Some people are still living in the Middle Ages. Federica Di Giacomo’s disturbing documentary is about exorcism in Sicily today and observes those who are convinced their condition is demonic and not psychological. The church service only succeeds in increasing the hysteria of the congregation. One priest is so overworked he hasn’t the time to visit but must do the exorcisms over his mobile phone. In a secular age would not these seriously ill people be better off seeking professional help from psychiatrists and hospitals rather than from a priest with holy water? Some people freely admit they are acting as if they are possessed by the Devil in order to gain attention.

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