‘Detective Conan: Challenge Letter to Kudou Shinichi’ (2005)

This live action adaptation of “Detective Conan” is the 10th anniversary special of the widely popular anime series.

The events in this episode happened before Kudou Shinichi became Detective Conan. The episode begins in Teitan High School where reporters and fans are waiting for Shinichi.  Shinichi has become popular after helping the police investigators solve the murder case of a manga writer. Shinichi grants an interview but downplays his fame. However, someone seems to be stalking him in school.

Shinichi finds his best friend Mouri Ran at the locker area. He teases her by guessing the color of her underwear. Apparently, it was Ran’s birthday the day before and her dad took a peek at the present her mom gave her. Ran’s dad was riled when he saw the pink underwear for he thought that Ran was too young to have something too amorous. Shinichi guessed that Ran would immediately wear her mom’s gift. 

Ran reminds Shinichi that it has been a while since he has given her anything for her birthday. As a gift she wants to go to an amusement park called Tropical Land with him. Shinichi declines and tells Ran to go with Suzuki Sonoko, Ran’s other best friend, instead.

In class, substitute teacher Kitajima Shingo briefs the class about the upcoming school trip. Shinichi appears uninterested and bored. After class, Ran gets all excited about the school trip but learns that Shinichi won’t join them.

Upon arriving home, Shinichi gets an anonymous letter. The letter tells Shinichi that one of his classmates will be kidnapped while on the school trip. The sender calls himself “KIDNAPPER.”

On the day of the school trip, Kitajima Shingo introduces Nishida Mai who will be chaperoning the class. Despite being late, Shinichi decides to join his classmates.

As the ship starts to sail, we are introduced to Azuma Kunio, the ship captain and Minamida Kyousuke, the crew member. Shinichi, who is determined to win the challenge against the kidnapper, carefully inspects the ship. The ship will be sailing for an hour at a speed of 20km/hr. Shinichi supposes that if he was the kidnapper, he would already be inside the ship. He ponders on whether others can actually get inside the ship while it sailing. He also thinks it would be impossible to get a student out of the ship while it is cruising.

Ran, who is all excited about the trip, tries to take pictures with Shinichi. However, Shinichi gets sidetracked when someone is heard screaming. Apparently it was just Sonoko who was getting seasick so they take her to the resting room. Nishida Mai gives Sonoko some medicine. Shinichi, who was getting wary, reminds Sonoko to lock the door from the inside.

While others are enjoying the scenery, Ran notices that Shinichi is acting strange but he refuses to tell her anything. They hear a loud splash coming from the other end of the boat, as if someone has been thrown overboard. Ran sees Sonoko’s headband floating on the lake. They discover that Sonoko has gone missing. A life jacket is also missing.

Shinichi inspects the room and he notices an open cabinet. He mulls over the idea that the kidnapper might have been hiding inside all the while and as soon as he got the chance, put the life jacket on Sonoko and jumped into the lake with her. Ran and Shinichi continue their search inside another room. Ran opens a big wooden box but sees nothing inside.

After the ship is docked, the police conducts their investigation. In a nearby area, they discover some diving equipment and a life jacket that were abandoned. Cops think that there may be a ransom demand since Sonoko is the daughter of the owner of Suzuki Group of Companies.

Shinichi offers his help but Chief Inspector Tamagawa, who heads the investigation, refuses. Shinichi thinks something is not right about the volume of oxygen left in the tank that was abandoned.

Ran, who was getting anxious, calls his dad and tells him about Sonoko. Mouri Kogorou, who is running his own detective agency, promises to help look for Sonoko. 

Meanwhile, Shinichi receives a call from the kidnapper. The kidnapper dares him to another challenge: another student will be kidnapped at exactly noon the following day.

Shinichi goes back to the place where the cops found the diving equipment but he was apparently being followed by Ran. Ran tells him that she wants to help. He tells her that the culprit may have planted the wetsuit, jacket and oxygen tank to mislead the investigators into thinking that the culprit came from the outside.

The two go back to the ship to retrace what happened. Shinichi finds traces of gunpowder near the railings. He figures out that someone may have tied a rope with a weight and placed a combustion device on it. When triggered, the rope will burn and the weight will fall into the lake so that it would seem as if someone fell into the waters. He thinks that Sonoko may have been kidnapped before they heard the splashing sound.

Shinichi tells Ran not to worry and he confesses everything about the challenge letter he received from the kidnapper. Upon learning this, Ran gets mad at Shinichi for not calling the cops. He explains that if he was to back out from the challenge, the culprit may become more ruthless next time. Ran forgives Shinichi but warns him not to keep any more secrets in the future.

At the hotel, all students are advised about the planned abduction. They will be locked inside the grand hall hall of the hotel to keep them safe from the kidnapper. All five doors are locked from the inside. Cops will be stationed outside each door and at the entrance of the hotel.

Ran’s dad arrives at the hotel. Shinichi promises to protect everyone and advises Ran’s dad to stay outside. Shinchi tells Ran to go back to her room to rest for a while. While inside her hotel room, Ran sees an envelope. She looks inside and we see something fall on the floor.

At past 11 o’clock, everyone is gathered at the hall and the doors are locked. Shinichi inspects the room. He notes that no one may enter the room without a key and it was Chief Inspector Tamagawa who was holding the master key. Shinichi thinks that there is only one person he should watch for inside the room, Kitajima Shingo, the substitute teacher who is with them. Everyone panics as 12 o’clock nears.

Outside the hotel, Kugorou meets Nishida Mai, the ship captain Azuma and Minamida. Azuma and Minamida leave a few minutes before 12.

Back inside, everyone is agitated. Ran, looking terrified, holds Shinichi’s hand. The clock ticks to 12 o’clock and the lights turn off. Everyone panics and when the lights come back, Shinichi discovers Ran is missing. He immediately turns to Shingo but two female students tell Shinichi that they were holding Shingo’s hands the whole time. Shinichi inspects all the doors and finds that they remain locked. He runs off to Kugorou and tells him that Ran disappeared. Upon hearing this, Kugorou is enraged and hits Shinichi.

Back at the hotel, Shinichi gets another call from the kidnapper who tells him that there’s a bomb where he is keeping the two. The bomb will be donated at exactly midnight, leaving Shinichi 12 hours to locate Ran and Sonoko.

Shinichi apologizes to Kugorou and tells him about the bomb. Kugorou, who has now calmed down, informs Shinichi about the red ink marks that cops found at the door handle. Shinichi tells Kugorou that he thinks there is something weird about Minamida and Nishida Mai. However, Kugorou assures him that Mai was with him the entire time. Instead it was Minamida who excused himself to make a phone call before the blackout while the ship captain Azuma went to the restroom and hasn’t come back since. Thus, Kugorou suspects Azuma is the kidnapper.

Kugorou and Shinichi looks for Azuma at his house but finds him hanging dead instead. A note is left with the words “I am a kidnaper.” Shinichi sees an arrow at the back of the note and finds a wound on Azuma’s index finger. This leads Shinichi to think that Azuma might have been murdered by the real culprit.

Inside what seems to be an abandoned warehouse, Ran and Sonoko are tied and locked. They see the bomb so the two look for a way to escape. Ran sees a pile of wood used to lock a window. She kicks and breaks the wood but injures her foot in the process. They discover that they are on top of the building so they couldn’t jump out. Ran tells Sonoko to leave her behind and bring Shinichi back to her. Sonoko tries to escape but the kidnapper knocks her out.

Back at Azuma’s place, the cops are now investigating. Kugorou does not tell them about the note. Shinichi calls Inspector Megure for help as he goes back inside the ship. He opens the big wooden box in the store room and finds shards of broken glass. Shinichi looks at his hand and finds the same red ink marks that cops found on the door handle. He then receives a call from Megure who gives him a lead as to where Ran and Sonoko may have been taken. Only one hour left before the bomb explodes. Shinichi calls Kugorou and tells him about the lead he got from Megure.

Shinichi is first to arrive at the location and finds Nishida Mai. He confronts Mai about Ran and Sonoko but Mai denies she is the culprit. Shinichi tells her he noticed that after the second kidnapping, Mai seemed to have known that a female was taken even though he hasn’t told them yet that it was Ran who was abducted. However, Mai asks Shinichi to explain how she was able to kidnap the two. Shinichi tells her about the weight that was deliberately thrown into the lake. To make it look like Sonoko jumped into the water, the life jacket was also stolen. The wetsuit, life jacket and oxygen tank were planted to make it look like an outsider was the culprit. Mai also gave Sonoko some sleeping pills. She had a key made so she was able to take Sonoko and hid her inside the wooden box using the mirror trick used by magicians. After the cops left, Mai took Sonoko.

Shinichi also explains how she was able to take Ran. Ran left on her own after she was probably threatened by Mai.  A spare key was given to her so she was able to walk out of the hall. Mai continues to deny Shinichi’s accusation and says Azuma committed suicide because of what he did and even left a note that he was the kidnapper. Shinichi noted that no one else knew about the note Azuma left because he took it before the cops came. At the same time, the two notes supposedly from the kidnapper was inconsistent. In the first letter he received, the culprit signed it as “KIDNAPPER” while in the suicide note, kidnapper was spelled with a single P. The arrow at the back of the note points to “MAI” as the kidnapper. Finally, Mai admits to the crime. Shinichi knows that she is the girlfriend of a man who was put behind bars through his help. That person died in prison.

Upon hearing this, Mai points a gun at Shinichi and brings him to Ran. Mai locks the three of them inside the room and fires at the key. Only 4 minutes left before the bomb explodes…Kugorou arrives and hears the sound of a gunfire. Kugorou throws a soccer ball through the window so that Shinichi was able to disarm Mai. A minute left before the bomb explodes…Shinichi could not stop the bomb from ticking so he throws the bomb and kicks the soccer ball through the hole in the roof. The bomb explodes midair.

Epilogue:

Shinichi and Kugorou gets a scolding from Inspector Tamagawa for taking the “suicide” note from the crime scene.

Ran’s foot healed. She entered the karate tournament and won. As a celebration, Shinichi was forced to go to Tropical Land. While in Tropical Land, Shinichi chased some suspicious men. He was discovered by some men in black who knocked him out and fed him a mysterious drug. When he woke up, Shinichi has turned into a boy and thus became Detective Conan.