All She Was Worth
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| Author | Miyuki Miyabe |
|---|---|
| Translator | Alfred Birnbaum |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Genre | Crime novel |
| Publisher | Mariner Books (Eng. tran.) |
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Publication date
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1992 |
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Published in English
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1996 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 41096131 |
All She Was Worth is a crime novel by Miyuki Miyabe. It was originally published under the Japanese title "Kasha" (Japanese: 火車).
1992. Tokyo Metropolitan Police Detective Shunsuke Honma, on leave due to an incident on the job, is hired by his nephew, banker Jun Kurisaka, to track down his fiancée, whom he knows by the name of Shoko Sekine and who disappeared from his life after he discovered her credit history was tainted by bankruptcy. As Honma investigates her circumstances, he finds that the name "Shoko Sekine" actually belongs to someone else other than Jun's fiancée - and that the latter may have murdered the former to achieve this... As Honma navigates the country for clues, he finds that the credit-based economy in Japan, coupled with the country's own system for family identification, have undesirable side effects on ordinary people's lives.
(Some of the names were changed in translation and will be noted in italics.)
Miyabe's novel touches on many topics, including the Japanese asset price bubble mentioned earlier, plus social issues of family registry, the credit industry, the underground credit economy, and the rights and responsibilities of individuals in contrast to that of families.
At one point Isaka, Honma's friend and housekeeper, talks about a flaming wagon that takes sinners to hell, citing Japanese Buddhist mythology. This is the kasha (火車, fire chariot) of the original Japanese title. The significance is that the real Shoko had gone through hell with her credit card bankruptcy, but then the fake Shoko (Kyoko) had taken her place in the chariot and was going to hell in it.
In 1994 a drama special was made with Kunihiko Mitamura as Honma, Yoko Moriguchi as the real Shoko and Naomi Zaizen as Kyoko. Another version was made in 2011, with Takaya Kamikawa as Honma, Tomoko Tabata as Shoko and Nozomi Sasaki as Kyoko. Both versions were produced by TV Asahi.
Helpless is a 2012 South Korean film adaptation starring Kim Min-hee as Seon-yeong/Gyeong-seon (Shoko/Kyoko), Lee Sun-kyun as her jilted fiancé Mun-ho (Jun), Jo Sung-ha as Mun-ho's cousin Kim Jong-geun (Honma), and Cha Soo-yeon as the real Seon-yeong (Shoko). Unlike in the original Japanese book, where Jun walks out on Honma and refuses to believe he has been tricked (thereby not playing a role in most of the story), Mun-ho helps out Jong-geun in the investigation, despite their differences. Additionally, whereas Honma was just taking leave from his police job and his wife Chizuko was deceased, Kim has resigned from his job in the police department and his wife, Mi-yeon, is still alive.
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