| In the Book |
In the Movie |
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Holmes uses two canes and needs help getting around at times. |
Holmes uses a single cane and walks stiffly. |
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Holmes is occasionally recognized by fans during his ship voyage to Japan. |
No details on Homes voyage to Japan.
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Holmes had a series of housekeepers that usually lasted less than a year as he was described as irascible. |
Mrs. Munro is the only housekeeper in the film. |
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Mrs. Munro, his housekeeper is young. |
Mrs. Munro is in her late 40’s or early 50’s.
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Homes gets many letters with pleas for help, business proposals and other offers. He reads them all prior to burning them. Holmes rarely ever responds and only to those letters that interest him such as those bee keeping and other interests. |
Holmes has Mrs. Munro burn all of the letters he receives without reading them. Roger saves a single letter and gives it to Holmes. It is a letter from Mr. Umezaki. Holmes presumes it is a letter from Mr. Umezaki about his mother’s death. |
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Holmes dislikes some of Mrs. Munro’s cooking and tells her so. He does praise the dishes he likes though. |
Nothing about Mrs. Munro’s cooking.
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Holmes brought home a kusun-gobu, a short sword from Japan. |
Holmes does not bring a sword home from Japan. |
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14 year old Roger has been skillfully caring for Holmes’ bee hives when he was away. |
Roger had not yet learned how to care for the bees at the beginning of the film. Roger is 12-13.
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Holmes read some of Watson’s works about his cases and thought that they were superficial. Watson responded that Holmes should try writing books himself, Holmes gave up after two stories were written and apologized to Watson for his criticism. Holmes had a high regard for Watson’s intellect. |
Holmes did not read any of Watson’s books about him until after Watson died. |
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When Holmes arrived in Kobe Japan, he is met by Mr. Umezaki and Hensuiro, a man who lives with Mr. Umezaki and is introduced as his brother, but is not. Hensuiro is an artist. |
Holmes is only met by Mr. Umezaki upon his arrival in Japan.
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Holmes recalled a memory of a young distraught woman who came to his house with her dead infant she had recently removed from its grave. |
This does not happen in the film. |
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Mr. Umezaki asked Holmes questions about how England faired during WWII. Roger asked Holmes many questions about the Japanese citizens physical appearance and their cities. |
These details are not in the film.
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Roger was an avid drawer. He drew pictures influenced by WWII. |
Roger does not draw. |
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Roger’s father was army casualty in the Balkans during WWII. |
Roger’s father joined the RAF to avoid being a lowly Army mechanic. He was killed on his first mission in a bomber.
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Mr. Umezaki’s mother wanted him to join her in a suicide pact as revenge for her husband abandoning their family. |
Nothing about this in the film. |
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There is much detail in the travels of Mr. Umezaki’s father and involvement in politics. |
Nothing of this in the film. Only that his father abandoned them over forty years ago.
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This does not happen in the book. |
Mrs. Munro is planning on taking a position in another town as a maid in her sister’s hotel and will take Roger with her and put him to work. Roger does not want to leave. |
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Homes finds Roger dead from stings in the bee yard. Homes is more concerned about how Roger died, than the fact that he is actually dead. Holmes avoids telling Mrs. Munro about her dead son. He calls for an ambulance for Roger; the boy is taken away along with his mother. |
Homes finds Roger unconscious from stings, later revealed to be from wasps. Holmes calls an ambulance, Roger recovers.
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Holmes finds Mrs. Munro with a can of petrol about to destroy the bee hives. He talks her out of it and she leaves the bee yard. Holmes later determines that Rogers tried to drown a wasp nest in the ground then was attacked and stung to death. Holmes destroys the wasp nest with the petrol. |
Homes finds Mrs. Munro trying to destroy his bee hives with petrol. He stops her and explains that it was wasps that attacked Roger as he tried to use a water can to destroy their above ground nest in a tree stump. He shows her the large wasp nest nearby the bee yard. They destroy it with fire. |
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The minor subplot regarding Mrs. Keller is rather brief. Holmes suspects she may have had accidental lead poisoning from playing the glass-armonica which led her to kill herself by walking out in front of a train. |
There is a major subplot in the film about the death of Mrs. Kelmont. She as distressed about her two miscarriages and eventually walked out in front of a train.
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Upon his death, Watson bequeathed his last three journals to Holmes. He burned them as they were sensitive in nature and might fall into the wrong hands. He later regretted not reading them more. |
Nothing about this in the film. |
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The daughter of Constable Anderson keeps Holmes' house for a while after Roger’s death. |
This does not happen in the film.
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This does not happen in the book. |
Holmes eventually concocts a fictional story about Mr. Umezaki’s father. The first work of fiction he ever wrote. Holmes claims the father entered into the service the British crown and served honorably for many years which is why he was not able to return to Japan to be with his family. He sends this letter to Mr. Umezaki to give him some closure about his father abandoning his family. |
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This does not happen in the book. |
Holmes starts to construct a stone garden to meditate in. It is similar to one he saw in Japan.
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After Roger’s death, Mrs. Munro leaves Holmes’s employment and goes elsewhere. |
After Roger recovers from the wasp stings, he resumes beekeeping. Roger also starts teaching his mother how to care for the bee hives. Holmes tells Mrs. Munro that he will bequeath his estate to Mrs. Munro upon his death. |