What masterpiece inspired esteemed directors from three East Asian countries to eagerly undertake film remakes based on its story? The Devotion of Suspect X is a detective novel written by one of the greatest Japanese crime novelists, Keigo Higashino, in 2005. This is a story of the purest love expressed in the most intellectual and sophisticated way. The whole story revolves around a murder, with simple yet complex relationships between the real killer, the suspect, the police, and the victim, each of whom also has their own perceived justice, as does the audience. Instead of the novel itself, the film remakes, and the clear parallels between them interested me. In this essay, I will discuss the South Korean version, Perfect Number (2012), and the Chinese version, which has the same name as the original novel, The Devotion of Suspect X (2017). It’s the very first time I do not have a clear argument or attitude about which one of the two versions is better but still think they deserve some comparison. Competition between two movies just because they have the same original should not be a must. Both pieces have their styles and carry a thick cultural background behind the screen.

To start with the movie’s name, the South Korean version named the movie with the mathematical term "perfect number", which means the number that equals the sum of its divisors (e.g. 6=1*2*3=1+2+3). It makes sense because the male leading character Tetsuya (the book and the films have different names for the same character; I'm using the name from the original novel for all of them in this essay) is a genius mathematician but lives as a middle school math teacher. However, the definition of perfect number does not connect to the plot, and the only time it appears in the movie is in a book given as a gift from Yasuko Hanaoka (the female lead, whom Tetsuya secretly loves and wants to protect) to Tetsuya. Instead, "X", which always represents unknown variables in mathematical functions, delivers a hint that the story is about looking for the hidden facts. Keigo Higashino had given the story a relevant title, and the novel itself is a very mature masterpiece already. The action of changing the name or keeping it implied the style and purpose of the two versions- have more changes or stick with the originals.

Besides the title, Perfect Number has many useless and confusing alterations from the novel. For example, the daughter of Yasuko, Misato Hanaoka became Yasuko’s niece in Perfect Number. In the story, Yasuko and Misato were avoiding Yasuko’s ex-husband Shinji for years because he was a domestically abusive gambler who also sexually harassed Misato (he was the stepfather of Misato in the novel). When he once again finds Yasuko and Misato's new home and breaks in, they team up to kill him. Both Yasuko and Misato know that if they don't kill Shinji at the moment, they will be robbed, raped, and killed by him. From the perspective of criminals, it is more likely that a mother and daughter would choose to commit a crime for the safety of each other than a niece and an auntie. As victims of Shinji's oppression, the mother-daughter status elevates the whole matter to a more serious level of family ethics and highlights the extent of Shinji's perversion. The single mother status would also make the other man, Kudo's, pursuit of Yasuko later seem more genuine, thus fitting in with the logic of the plot that Tetsuya wants Yasuko to be with him. Perfect Number's change from the original mother-daughter relationship to aunt-niece certainly lowered the dramatic tension of the entire story. However, since Perfect Number is a very classical South Korean-style movie facing local audiences, the aunt-niece relationship might be more relatable to the audiences in such a low-birthrate country. Besides that, I can't think of any reason to do this other than to comply with the demands of the higher-ups in the Korean media industry.

In addition, there are lots of other minor changes in Perfect Number such as combining the small cop responsible for the case, Shunpei Kusanagi, and the physics professor, Manabu Yukawa, who is also Tetsuya’s old friend in college into one person, and the image of “justice” in this story was eliminated. In contrast, The Devotion of Suspect X almost completely restores the entire original novel while setting the story in China. But as a remake of a novel, I don't think that replicating the original is the only and most important point. The relationship between the remake and the original has always been a topic worth exploring, but it's not the only criterion for judgment by any means. Generally speaking, Perfect Number pays more attention to the vibe, color tone, and performance of the movie while The Devotion of Suspect X focuses more on the plot. It also makes the logic in The Devotion of Suspect X much clearer than in Perfect Number as a detective movie.

Many differences between Perfect Number and The Devotion of Suspect X give them their highlights. The biggest one would be the storytelling perspective. In Perfect Number, the audience knows the real murderers of Shinji from the very beginning–Yasuko and Misato. However, the audience didn’t know how Tetsuya creates the alibi for them, and why he pretends to be a psycho stalker who menaced Yasuko and Misato until the end of the movie. In other words, Perfect Number was shot from Yasuko’s perspective. In contrast, The Devotion of Suspect X was shot from the cops’ and detectives’ perspective. The audience had no clue how Shinji died and discovered the fact slowly with the cops. The audiences can have their doubt and speculation based on the clues and evidence provided throughout the movie. The broken jaw and teeth, destroyed fingerprints and face, burnt clothes, matching DNA, etc. are directing yet misdirecting the cops and the audience. Even though the cop’s point of view is more experiential, it can confuse the audience sometimes. Discovering the truth with the cops is a very classical storytelling technique in mystery productions, but it also made this piece not as special as the other detective movies. In this specific story, Yasuko’s aspect is more dramatic. Things are always most attractive when they show something while also hiding something behind it. Yasuko knows she is the real murderer of Shinji but has no clue why the cops keep asking about what she did on the day after she killed him. She was anxious, doubtful, scared, and worried. She doesn’t know why she does not need to lie at all, and what her kind weirdo neighbor, Tetsuya, has done to fool everyone. The audience is on the same page with her and should be more and more curious about the truth as the story goes on. In contrast, the Chinese version lets the audience know nothing until more clues are given. It is a great way of telling a mystery story, but for this specific case, Perfect Number made a better choice.

More surprisingly, these two versions of the same story have different endings, and I do not know about the real ending of the original novel. It might be great because I don’t think a successful remake should have everything the same as the book, and watching the film without finishing reading the original gave me a chance to view the two endings fairly. In Perfect Number, Yasuko chooses to follow Tetsuya’s wish and doesn’t turn herself in while the Chinese version has Yasuko turning herself in after she gets to know all the truth in the end. To help Yasuko and Misato get away from the suspicion of murdering Shinji, Tetsuya made up a new murder. After completely disposing of Shinji’s body, he carefully cleaned Shinji’s hotel room and invited a drifter to stay and leave traces of his life and DNA in the room. Then, Tetsuya strangled the drifter with a rope (the same way as Yasuko killed Shinji) by the river, destroyed his fingerprints, teeth, and face, and purposely allowed the police to find the body. After investigating, the police rightfully assumed the body was the missing Shinji, and this all happened the day after Shinji's real death. By then, the death time of “Shinji” was completely mixed up. Meanwhile, Tetsuya let Yasuko and Misato show up in public places like the cinema and restaurants to create a provable alibi.

Just like how Tetsuya teaches his students, “What’s a blind-point question? It seems to be a geometric problem, but actually, it’s a function problem.” Tetsuya set up a huge trap waiting for the cops to jump in. When the old college friend of Tetsuya, Manabu, who is also a detective, almost figures the truth out, Tetsuya decides to devote himself. He pretends to be a perverted stalker to Yasuko and sends threatening letters to her so that she will completely hate him and thus give up turning herself in. At the same time, he creates a motive for himself to kill Shinji and takes the blame for Yasuko and Misato for everything. That’s his devotion, the “suspect x”. He loved Yasuko and Misato like a rat in a dark sewer seeing sunlight. It was their presence that saved him when he was spinning helplessly and ready to give up on life. Therefore, Tetsuya decided to devote himself to the freedom and happiness of his sun.

If you were Yasuko, would you have done what Tetsuya wanted, or would you have chosen to take the punishment you deserved on your own? Yasuko in Perfect Number rushes in to apologize to Tetsuya before he's sentenced for having said things that hurt him (because she thought he was a pervert), but Tetsuya doesn't confront her, nor say anything. They part ways and the movie ends. Tetsuya completed his perfect crime and saved his love. However, in The Devotion of Suspect X, Yasuko comes up to Tetsuya in jail and confesses all the things she had done to the cops. In the end, both Tetsuya and Yasuko were arrested. Tetsuya broke down. All his plans fall apart in Yasuko's confession. He didn't win this competition with Manabu nor keep Yasuko and Misato's happiness. He lost, completely lost.

Is a perfect crime with the satisfaction of the main character as the Perfect Number does or the collapse of everything with the triumph of “justice” a better ending? I couldn’t tell. Even though The Devotion of Suspect X is just restoring the original novel, the impunity of “law and government is the only justice” in the Chinese movie industry is true. It’s understandable that as one of the mainstream media facing the common audiences, commercial films are always being limited by the governments to prevent the spread of unsupported political or social standings. However, Chinese limitation on this area is too over while South Korea is more open to the freedom of ideas and spreading. The main reason behind this might be the birth rate and the educational purpose. As a socialist country with a huge population and many young kids being born, China was careful with how any media would affect the youngest generation’s standings and thoughts. In contrast, the low birth rate and the aging of the population in South Korea create a more mature and open environment for film production. However, I still doubt if the changing of Yasuko and Misato’s relationship relates to the preference of the higher-ups in South Korea.

Back to the film production itself. I like the style, color tone, and camera language of Perfect Number much more than The Devotion of Suspect X’s. The overall tone of Perfect Number was more in line with what I was expecting. The depressing and humid atmosphere and mood are nicely brought out. The editing is also better in Perfect Numbers with natural scene changes. In contrast, The Devotion of Suspect X has slideshow-like keyed panning transitions and underdeveloped characters, and the sets are a bit underwhelming as well. As a much later appearance (2017, five years after Perfect Number), The Devotion of Suspect X doesn't have better techniques, which is disappointing. But its director debuted as a singer, so this result doesn't really surprise me.

I still do not know which one of them is a better version, but it doesn’t seem to matter anymore. Each of them has its own angle and highlights, and I sum it up as “style”. It might sound like I prefer Perfect Number because I personally agree with the characters’ choice in it instead of the forever “Justice”, and I like the storytelling techniques. However, the clear logic of the crime and the dramatic tension between the characters that tell the motive of the killing is necessary for a detective movie, which The Devotion of Suspect X has done much better than The Perfect Number. The Devotion of Suspect X, the original novel is a suspenseful work with a typical East Asian style, with edgy and refined logic and creativity. It unquestionably deserves all the awards it has received. Remakes from different Asian countries come with their own style and focus, which give them a unique charm and identity.