An 18-year-old boy is the leading suspect in a highly-publicized murder of two grade school sisters. Tokyo police Detective Katsuura is forced to postpone his vacation to assist in the protection of family members of the murder suspect.
The police manual for this type of assignment calls for separating family members and taking them to undisclosed locations for questioning. Katsuura is put in charge of protecting the 15-year-old daughter, Saori, but the media circus proves impossible to shake, forcing them to flee Tokyo for the countryside.
But even there, angry citizens hunt them down. With no place to hide, Katsuura and Saori find themselves resigned to confront their overturned lives.
Yet another good Japanese film.
I think it's either the Japanese are such perfectionists or i am just plain biased.
If you ask me to summarize this movie, it's simply "culture-shock".
The movie started off by telling the audience what the movie was built around, i.e. What happens when a minor commits a serious crime - the family members of the suspect will have to be separated for questioning and the police would be tasked to protect them.
If you don't want a movie spoiler, please stop here cos I’ll be talking in more details after this sentence.
Click here to watch the trailer.
The first culture-shock came after the minor was caught.
A bunch of legals told the parents of the suspect that they'll have to sign divorce papers in order to return the wife her maiden name. The reason for doing so is to cover up the identities of the suspect's family, to keep them away from the media and public glares. And after the divorce papers were signed, new marriage papers were forced upon them and this time, the wife's maiden name becomes the family's name and the family members are to assume that as their new identities.
If this is the real practice, I don't understand how they think this method would work since the media already flooded information of the suspect's family way before all these 'formalities' are done. But well, maybe in a few years down the road, people will forget the incident and the family can have their 'new identities'.
And then, there’s the Media.
The news-hunger media turned their attention to the family members in a bid to get the most sensational news they can, forcing the family members to comment and apologize for the crime. With the media resorting to all methods and driving the family members to a dead corner, it's not surprising to know that there has been past cases of family members committing suicide due to these pressure.
And like the Media is not enough, there's also the Internet to add on to the whole hype. Netizens, or maybe I should call them, the ‘keyboard heroes’, passing judgment and spreading senseless comments on the innocent family members. The speed of information in the Internet is totally not helpful at all in this situation. And there are also the socially inept Net queers, who’ll find their own way to punish the poor family members when they are totally not involved in the crime.
Although the film might have magnified the actual situation, but if you relate it to Japan and its society, it's rather convincing that this can really be happening.
To conclude, although this movie is showing in Picturehouse, the storyline and content is actually quite for the general public. A unique plot, great casting & acting + fantastic cinematography. If you do not want to miss a good film, please watch it.
And... it is only six months into 2009 and with all these nice Japanese films (think: Departures, Suspect X), I can foresee that I’ll have a big problem choosing my top favorite films for the year of 2009 :P