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Review: The Third Murder (三度目の殺人) (2017)
Interesting legal movie that leaves us pondering and lost as the main character is. I don’t mean this in a bad way. I meant that the main character was left questioning his own values.
Spoilers.
Story
Shigemori was taking over a legal case for a murderer named Misumi. Misumi had murdered thirty years ago and had been on parole. He was working at a factory and was supposed to have murdered the victim, his boss, near the river. Shigemori had received this case from a senior, Settsu, who was frustrated that Misumi kept changing his account of facts.
Shigemori approached the case from a strategic side, what plea would reduce the sentence for Misumi. Shigemori investigated some people related to the crime, including the victim’s wife Mitzue and daughter Sakie. A sensationalized news story gave people the idea that Mitzue and Misumi were in a romantic affair and that Mitzue gave Misumi money to murder her husband, which angered Mitzue quite a bit. It was revealed that Sakie and Misumi did have something of a friendship, as Sakie reminded him of his own daughter. Sakie was being sexually abused by her own father, so that would have given Misumi a motive to kill Sakie’s father if he was protective of Sakie.
Things were cleared up for us as the audience, as we found out that the money sent to Misumi was hush money as Misumi was threatening to reveal the dirty practices at the factory. However, when Shigemori and his team visited Misumi another time, he suddenly changed his story and said he hadn’t committed the murder at all, and that he had only ever confessed to it because his past lawyers had said it would give him a lighter sentence. This was very troubling to Shigemori because he’d have to review his entire strategy, but it was also very disorienting because of Misumi’s insistence.
At the trial, Sakie intended to testify that Misumi was just trying to protect her. Because of Misumi’s sudden change, Sakie had to cut down her testimony, including revealing being a victim of sexual assault. Misumi also testified to his innocence in court. Behind closed doors, the judge, prosecutor, and defense discussed how to proceed. The judge admitted that no matter what, his decision wouldn’t really change.
In the end, Misumi was sentenced to death. Shigemori visited him another time and they discussed his reasons for changing his story. Misumi admitted that he felt he shouldn’t have been born, but maybe he can do some good with him finally being able to tell the truth. It was a heavily unsatisfying ending, but it was meant to be; it was meant to leave us with all kinds of questions as Shigemori was.
Did Misumi actually commit the murder? I had my doubts. Previously, Yuka, Shigemori’s daughter, had shown him that she could cry on command, and it alerted him to the fact that people can lie very easily. So why did Shigemori finally decide that Misumi was probably telling the truth? Was it because Misumi had nothing to gain from telling the truth? That leads to another discussion about the purpose of the courts, which was discussed. Why would Misumi lose from telling the truth, as opposed to admitting to something he hadn’t done? Lots of questions that would come to not only us but Shigemori as well.
Production
I’ve watched a few movies from Kore-eda Hirokazu and I’ve enjoyed most of them. I felt that this movie was more purposeful by Kore-eda in terms of visual themes. There was slightly less dialogue and a lot more of watching and feeling which I thought was interesting. Actors were all decent so no complaints there too.
Characters
Shigemori Tomoaki
Our main character. He was a top lawyer who was handed this case. Right off the bat, we could see he was very professional. He had no problem not empathizing with his client, because his job was simply to defend the client and not to care about him.
We saw that he had a daughter Yuka who he didn’t have a close relationship with. He was separated but not divorced from his wife (who never showed up in the movie). He also had a professional relationship with his father in the sense that they didn’t treat each other like father and son but more like mentor and mentee. His father was a judge which was probably what influenced Shigemori to become a lawyer. Perhaps Shigemori didn’t see his family often and that was why his two encounters with his daughter and father influenced his thoughts on this case.
By the end of the movie, I think Shigemori was more inclined to believe Misumi’s testimony that he did not commit the murder. I think he weighed the pros and cons and saw that there were no pros from a strategic sense. So perhaps it was true that the only reason Misumi would insist he didn’t commit the murder was for a personal sense of peace. But that challenged Shigemori’s views of the world. Before, Shinohara had challenged Shigemori that defense lawyers were always preventing the accused from facing the truth. Shigemori laughed at that because he must; all a defense lawyer cared about was reducing his client’s sentence. But that gave Shigemori pause. Is the truth that important then, that a man would give up his life for it? Why would a man be condemned for telling the truth in a court of law? Even Shigemori’s mentor Settsu believed that Misumi had committed the murder. Was that all that mattered? Seeing as how the judge straight up said it would change his mind if they went about the procedures a different way.
When Shigemori spoke to Misumi, they went to talking about deeper topics. Misumi believed that he didn’t deserve to be born because he only brought trouble to people around him. Shigemori asked Misumi if he was an empty pot, basically someone who would change as the situation needed him. I think at this point, he presented himself as someone who believed Misumi’s story, but now that I think about the question, maybe there was still a bit of doubt in Shigemori.
I guess the takeaway for Shigemori was the legal system itself. Maybe the truth is more important than he thought it was. But needing to find the truth opens up his feelings to the world. It makes him sympathize with others which may affect his ability as a superstar defense lawyer.
Misumi Takashi
Misumi was the man being accused of murder. He’d done time for murder thirty years ago, and had supposedly committed murder while out on parole.
Misumi presented himself as a very likable man. He was very friendly, very willing to work with lawyers. That made no difference to Shigemori. Shigemori was just here to do a job. Nonetheless, through their visits, Misumi and Shigemori would get to know each other. Shigemori knew about Misumi as he was passed on information about Settsu. However, it surprised Shigemori that Misumi would know things about him as well, such as the fact that he had a daughter. Who had told Misumi? Or had he found out on his own? What reason did he have for bringing up Shigemori’s daughter? Was it just small talk or was he trying to pull on Shigemori’s heartstrings?
At one point, Shigemori and Kawashima visited Hokkaido to try to find Misumi’s estranged daughter to testify for him, but they couldn’t find her. Her friends insisted that she hated him and wouldn’t want to testify for him anyway. Misumi had gone to jail when she was four years old so they didn’t have much of a relationship anyway. When Shigemori and Kawashima returned, Misumi said that he’d wished they had told him that they were going to Hokkaido. I’m not sure why, as it wasn’t like Misumi could do anything.
Whenever Shigemori and his team came to Misumi with a new fact, he would change his story to match that. He would conform to whatever new theory they’d come up with. It was only at last, when Misumi said that he didn’t commit the murder, that it felt like he was finally thinking on his own. Misumi had attested to that when Shigemori confronted him about his relationship to Sakie. So that was what made Shigemori think that he only decided to not admit to the crime in order to protect Sakie.
At first, I was on the side of believing Misumi about not committing the crime. If I remember correctly, he said that he was forced to admit to the crime thirty years ago for a lighter sentence, so maybe that was why he was doing the same. And the fact that he kept changing his story would kind of support that. Maybe he just went with whatever story he thought would be easiest to accept. If that was what Misumi believed, then it would follow that he knew that denying the crime would give him a harsher sentence, maybe even the death penalty. He had nothing to gain by confessing to this truth, except for having the chance to confess to the truth. Shigemori had a dream in which Misumi and Sakie were burning the victim together, so it also gave the idea that maybe he was covering up for Sakie killing her own father.
But then I thought about the theory that maybe Misumi didn’t want to confess to the crime anymore because then Sakie’s sexual abuse would have to be revealed and he didn’t want to do that to her. If he said that he killed the victim for Sakie, then he’d have to explain that it was because Sakie was being abused. He didn’t know that Sakie was ready to speak on that. But Shigemori did think that Misumi saw his daughter in Sakie and they were estranged anyway, so that was why he put so much into protecting Sakie.
Shigemori theorized that Misumi was an empty pot, basically he would become whatever what put into him. The first interpretation was that Misumi was just saying yes to whatever people told him so as to get a lighter sentence. Thirty years ago, he was told to confess to the murder for a lighter sentence so he did. Now he was admitting to whatever story that Shigemori presented to him, in hopes that it would make the trial easier. The other interpretation was that Misumi was more cunning than that. Like Yuka, maybe Misumi was more convincing than Shigemori wanted to believe. I kept thinking that Misumi’s denial of the murder was a ploy, like in Primal Fear, where the accused built up such a convincing persona that even their own lawyer couldn’t believe that he had done the murder willfully. Misumi had changed his story so many times that it was hard to tell what was true.
Misumi believed that some people didn’t deserve to be born. When we were still operating under the claim that Misumi had committed the murder, we believed he was talking about the victim, and that he was a vile person who didn’t deserve to live. Kawashima argued against this, saying that everyone deserved to be born. At the end of the movie, Misumi directed that thought at himself. He believed he didn’t deserve to live because he only caused trouble to those around him. His wife was out of the story but I think we can assume that didn’t end well if she died or they divorced. He hurt his daughter and was not there for her. He tried to help Sakie, and the narrative he was presenting was that maybe by dying he could protect her. Whether by killing her father, or keeping her secret safe, we don’t know.
In the ending conversation between Misumi and Shigemori, Shigemori’s face was reflected onto Misumi’s, a bit overlapping. I believe it was very purposeful, that it was meant to show that Misumi’s thoughts were being transferred to Shigemori.
Misumi’s motives for doing what he did will remain a mystery. Shigemori will never know. But Shigemori has still been changed by the mystery.
Yamanaka Mitsuo
Yamanaka was the victim. We knew very little about him. He was the boss of a factory that had unethical practices. We also knew that he sexually abused Sakie. But now that I think about it, was it true? Only Sakie brought it up. And Misumi, the empty pot, agreed to it. Who knows. What’s done is done. Yamanaka was already dead.
Yamanaka Mitzue
Mitzue was Yamanaka’s wife, Sakie’s mother. Shigemori brought a letter from Misumi to their family, and Mitzue was very upset.
The next time Mitzue was brought up in the story was when that news piece was going around about a wife sending money to an affair partner to kill her husband. A vague message had been sent from Mitzue’s phone to Misumi’s, and money had been wired to Misumi as well. It could be interpreted as them having had a romantic relationship, which Mitzue denied vehemently. Only in conversation with Sakie did she confirm that it was because Misumi knew about their unethical business practices. It seemed they were using false ingredients in their products and the money was hush money.
In that conversation, Mitzue was affectionate with her daughter and for a minute I had wondered whether her mom was sexually abusing her. Maybe I was just misinterpreting it because it could also be very normal affection between a mother and daughter. The thing that gave me pause was Sakie’s lack of response to her mom’s affection. To the lawyers, I think Sakie expressed disappointment that her mother turned a blind eye to her father’s sexual abuse.
In court, Mitzue admitted nothing, that her husband had sent a text from her phone without knowing anything. Now that I think about it, Mitzue was basically kept completely away from the crime and she continued to be the grieving widow and nothing else. In a way, she was not involved, like that email from her phone had requested. Who knows, maybe that story about Mitzue asking Misumi to take care of it was true.
Yamanaka Sakie
Sakie was the daughter of Yamanaka, the victim, and Mitzue, her mother. We first saw her by the river when Shigemori and Kawashime were investigating the crime scene. She had a noticeable limp. It was only later when Shigemori visited the Yamanaka house that he found out she was the daughter of Yamanaka.
Shigemori tailed Sakie for a little while. A girl gave a bag to her at school, but also waved goodbye to her; it’s unclear whether she was being bullied. At the library, Shigemori saw that she was reading books about Hokkaido, and we later found out she wanted to go to university in Hokkaido. Misumi’s daughter lived in Hokkaido, and for a moment I had wondered if Mitzue was Misumi’s long lost daughter. After all, we never met Megumi either so we don’t know what she looked like. But now that I think about it, maybe Sakie was interested in Hokkaido after talking to Misumi about it.
Sakie felt uncomfortable with the fact that her parents’ business was unethical. Mitzue told her not to complain, that Sakie was raised on that dirty money. That probably reflected her mother’s views on the sexual abuse as well. Don’t complain, because that was the man who clothed and fed you.
When visiting Misumi’s home, Shigemori heard from his landlady that a girl with a limp would often visit. Sakie later came clean and said that she was friends with Misumi. They even had a selfie together. She revealed that her father was sexually abusing her. She was ready to tell the truth in court. She was actually kind of disappointed when Shigemori told her that Misumi had changed his story so now she had to change her testimony as well. Her testimony was basically cut down to the fact that again, she only thanked her father for giving her life and education, and that she didn’t wish Misumi to die.
Would Sakie lie about anything? Again, she was the only one who mentioned the sexual assault and we already established that Misumi is hard to trust for anything. Why would she lie? Did she kill her father? Shigemori had a vision where she was burning his body but a vision is not evidence. How much did she hate her parents for running an unethical business? Enough to murder? (If she wasn’t sexually abused)
At first, I was inclined to believe that Sakie was a victim, and that she really wanted to testify because at least someone would listen to her truth. I really hate to doubt her, but Yuka had shown that lying can be really easy so that’s supposed to shed even a little doubt, though I don’t think Shigemori ever doubted Sakie.
Shigemori Akihisa
Shigemori Akihisa was Shigemori Tomoaki’s father, a judge. He had presided over Misumi’s trial thirty years ago, and gave him a life sentence. Shigemori Senior admitted to Shigemori that he was never against the death penalty, and now he wished he’d given Misumi the death penalty so that he wouldn’t have killed another person. I don’t doubt some people believe this line of thinking.
I think this discussion got Shigemori thinking about life and death, again the question of who deserves to live. I wonder if Shigemori had felt a kinship with Misumi after all those discussions. Did he wish that Misumi would have died? I doubt it. He was a defense lawyer, so he was used to defending bad people, and I don’t think he ever thought about whether a person was morally good or bad. He was just focused on reducing their sentence. He didn’t think about deserve, he just thought about the result.
Shigemori Yuka
Yuka was Shigemori’s daughter. He was called once because she got into some trouble, maybe shoplifting, but definitely some minor crime as the person she was with said that he’d normally call the police. When he arrived, Shigemori said that he’d been busy with work and that was why he hadn’t spent much time with Yuka, implying that she was acting out for his attention, and Yuka shed a tear.
Afterwards, they had a meal together. Yuka revealed that she could cry on command, and that she wasn’t really showing her true feelings before, it was just a ploy for sympathy. During the meal, Shigemori received a work call. He wasn’t going to take it, but his daughter said it was okay and he did take it. I think Yuka was acting like it was okay with him, but she did deep down inside want her father’s attention and resented that he was just as she remembered him, always caring only about work.
I wonder if Shigemori started to sympathize with Misumi because he was suddenly sparked by love for his daughter. Shigemori was a bit cold, but I think he realized that he’d neglected her. And maybe he understood why Misumi would try so hard for a girl that wasn’t his own daughter, because his own daughter no longer wanted a relationship with him. This is a bit of a stretch, but I do think fathers and daughters was a theme of this movie.
Settsu Daisuke
Settsu was Shigemori’s mentor and the person who had previously taken on Misumi’s case. He didn’t really look as deeply as Shigemori did. He was simply frustrated with Misumi. And when Misumi changed his tune, Settsu didn’t think much of it, still believing his guilt.
Kawashima
Kawashima was a junior lawyer working with Shigemori. He had gone around interviewing people as part of field work, and also accompanied Settsu and Shigemori to interview Misumi. At one point, Misumi said that he believed some people didn’t deserve to be born, but Kawashima stopped him and said that everyone deserved to be born. At that time, we believed Misumi was talking about Yamanaka, but we realized later that Misumi was speaking of himself. Did Kawashima give Misumi any hope or comfort when he insisted that all people deserved to live?
Shinohara
Shinohara was the prosecutor. She was very eye-rolly about the defense lawyers going through the evidence and trying to find ways to defend Misumi. In her mind, it was very cut and dry, and there was nothing they could do to save Misumi. During a discussion, Shinohara told the defense that they were always trying to protect the accused from blame, to which the defense just laughed. That blame doesn’t matter to them, Shigemori was just focused on lightening his sentence. As well, it’s a bit harsh to say that if the defendant is guilty, right?
I think Shinohara was the kind of person who truly believed in the process. When Misumi changed his tune, she insisted that they had to change the approach now to establish guilt. It was only after her counsel advised her otherwise that she went with the flow. But I think Shinohara truly believed that the point of court was to find the truth and make the accused face it.
Why was it that Shinohara never doubted Misumi’s guilt? When Shigemori and Kawashima were looking at the stolen wallet, they determined that it was taken after Yamanaka was doused with gas, implying that stealing the wallet was an afterthought. But to Shinohara, the motive made no difference. Misumi still doused the victim in gas and lit the corpse on fire. So what does motive matter?
That being said, I think Shinohara still believed in the process whereas the judge was just thinking about the result. So it was like the judge was an even more extreme version of Shinohara. Like the judge, Shigemori’s father also only cared about the final result. The sentence.
Themes
Fathers and Daughters
We had three sets of fathers and daughters in this story, and all three had poor relationships. Misumi was estranged with his daughter Megumi. According to Megumi’s friends, she wished that he was dead. Yamanaka sexually abused Sakie, and his wife turned a blind eye to it. Even if he didn’t and Sakie was just lying, clearly there weas a gap in that Sakie didn’t trust her parents at all. She also disapproved of their business practices. And Shigemori neglected his daughter Yuka. He was unable to read the cues she was emitting. When she said it was okay for him to take the work call, she was signalling that she didn’t expect anything better from her father.
Misumi had a poor relationship, so he probably saw Sakie as another chance to take care of a young girl and he did. Perhaps to the point of murdering to protect her. And Shigemori, while he was never attentive to his own daughter, found himself more attentive to Sakie on account of having to tail her for his job. He knew more about Sakie than he ever would about his own daughter. Ironic, isn’t it.
But I can’t rule out the fact that maybe it was the sympathy that made Shigemori more trusting to Misumi.
Legal System
What is the legal system? Is it a game for the defense lawyers and prosecutors to play tug of war, to see what sentence the defendant should receive? Is it a more altruistic arena for the truth to be revealed? Or is it just an official mouthpiece for the judge? Shigemori saw it as a game, to reduce the sentence for the defendant. He didn’t care for the defendant personally. This was just his job. Shinohara saw the court as a tool for making criminals face the truth. As for judges, they already had their own opinions.
I think Shigemori was having this conflict in the end, as his beliefs were beginning to be challenged. Why would a man be punished more for denying a crime he didn’t do, than to admit a crime he didn’t do? Either way, he didn’t do the crime.
Third Murder
Who is the third murder? The first murder was thirty years ago. The second murder was Yamanaka. Is the third murder Misumi? Is the court a legal way to execute someone?
Crosses
What was the significance of the crosses and crucifixes? We saw this as a visual theme throughout the movie. It began with Yamanaka being burned in a crucifix shape, but I found various shots in the shape of a cross, various buildings, crossing wires, crossroads. Was Misumi to die a martyr as Jesus did? Who was he dying for? Was he dying for Sakie? Was he dying for the sins of the justice system?
Life
According to Kawashima, all people deserve to be born. The way I interpreted his words, as long as you’re born, you deserve to be here. This was in response to Misumi who felt that some people didn’t deserve to be born. At that time, I was under the impression that he was talking about Yamanaka. He thought Yamanaka was such a terrible person who did bad things.
At the end of the movie, we realized that perhaps he was talking about himself. Misumi said that he didn’t deserve to be born because he always caused trouble to others. But with Kawashima’s words, maybe that encouraged him to use his life to protect someone else. If he didn’t deserve to live, maybe he might as well die, but use his death for something good.
On the topic of deserving to live, it felt like the daughters got the short end of the stick. If Megumi, Sakie, and Yuka were all to be born to unloving dads, what was the point? They all had to find a will to live on their own. But they must live.
Lies
The movie was left unsatisfied because we couldn’t be sure of what the truth was. No matter how sure Shigemori was, I think in the back of his mind, he realized that everything could be lies. After all, other than the few bits of evidence the prosecution had, we just had testimony.
The first time he was alerted to this was by Yuka, who so easily feigned sorrow. So what made Misumi’s story so believable? What made Sakie’s story so believable? Nothing really, other than Shigemori’s want to believe. Maybe he was swayed, and he wanted to believe for once that his client was innocent.
Empty Pot
Misumi was the empty pot, which spouted whatever was poured in. The first time he was convicted, he had confessed to the crime because he was told it would give him a lighter sentence. The second time he was arrested, he confessed to the crime for a lighter sentence. Every time Shigemori came to him with new evidence, he would confirm his theories. So what was true? He was whatever people told him, because he was told it would be better for him, according to lawyers.
On the other hand, maybe Misumi was a snake, changing his story so as to tug on people’s heartstrings. Did he change his answers whenever Shigemori approached with him new evidence so as to try to conform to the vision that Shigemori had for a possibility of innocence? Well if that was the case, it didn’t work in the end.
Overall
Fascinatingly unsatisfying movie, but as you can see, it gave me a lot to ponder about.
Spoilers.
Story
Shigemori was taking over a legal case for a murderer named Misumi. Misumi had murdered thirty years ago and had been on parole. He was working at a factory and was supposed to have murdered the victim, his boss, near the river. Shigemori had received this case from a senior, Settsu, who was frustrated that Misumi kept changing his account of facts.
Shigemori approached the case from a strategic side, what plea would reduce the sentence for Misumi. Shigemori investigated some people related to the crime, including the victim’s wife Mitzue and daughter Sakie. A sensationalized news story gave people the idea that Mitzue and Misumi were in a romantic affair and that Mitzue gave Misumi money to murder her husband, which angered Mitzue quite a bit. It was revealed that Sakie and Misumi did have something of a friendship, as Sakie reminded him of his own daughter. Sakie was being sexually abused by her own father, so that would have given Misumi a motive to kill Sakie’s father if he was protective of Sakie.
Things were cleared up for us as the audience, as we found out that the money sent to Misumi was hush money as Misumi was threatening to reveal the dirty practices at the factory. However, when Shigemori and his team visited Misumi another time, he suddenly changed his story and said he hadn’t committed the murder at all, and that he had only ever confessed to it because his past lawyers had said it would give him a lighter sentence. This was very troubling to Shigemori because he’d have to review his entire strategy, but it was also very disorienting because of Misumi’s insistence.
At the trial, Sakie intended to testify that Misumi was just trying to protect her. Because of Misumi’s sudden change, Sakie had to cut down her testimony, including revealing being a victim of sexual assault. Misumi also testified to his innocence in court. Behind closed doors, the judge, prosecutor, and defense discussed how to proceed. The judge admitted that no matter what, his decision wouldn’t really change.
In the end, Misumi was sentenced to death. Shigemori visited him another time and they discussed his reasons for changing his story. Misumi admitted that he felt he shouldn’t have been born, but maybe he can do some good with him finally being able to tell the truth. It was a heavily unsatisfying ending, but it was meant to be; it was meant to leave us with all kinds of questions as Shigemori was.
Did Misumi actually commit the murder? I had my doubts. Previously, Yuka, Shigemori’s daughter, had shown him that she could cry on command, and it alerted him to the fact that people can lie very easily. So why did Shigemori finally decide that Misumi was probably telling the truth? Was it because Misumi had nothing to gain from telling the truth? That leads to another discussion about the purpose of the courts, which was discussed. Why would Misumi lose from telling the truth, as opposed to admitting to something he hadn’t done? Lots of questions that would come to not only us but Shigemori as well.
Production
I’ve watched a few movies from Kore-eda Hirokazu and I’ve enjoyed most of them. I felt that this movie was more purposeful by Kore-eda in terms of visual themes. There was slightly less dialogue and a lot more of watching and feeling which I thought was interesting. Actors were all decent so no complaints there too.
Characters
Shigemori Tomoaki
Our main character. He was a top lawyer who was handed this case. Right off the bat, we could see he was very professional. He had no problem not empathizing with his client, because his job was simply to defend the client and not to care about him.
We saw that he had a daughter Yuka who he didn’t have a close relationship with. He was separated but not divorced from his wife (who never showed up in the movie). He also had a professional relationship with his father in the sense that they didn’t treat each other like father and son but more like mentor and mentee. His father was a judge which was probably what influenced Shigemori to become a lawyer. Perhaps Shigemori didn’t see his family often and that was why his two encounters with his daughter and father influenced his thoughts on this case.
By the end of the movie, I think Shigemori was more inclined to believe Misumi’s testimony that he did not commit the murder. I think he weighed the pros and cons and saw that there were no pros from a strategic sense. So perhaps it was true that the only reason Misumi would insist he didn’t commit the murder was for a personal sense of peace. But that challenged Shigemori’s views of the world. Before, Shinohara had challenged Shigemori that defense lawyers were always preventing the accused from facing the truth. Shigemori laughed at that because he must; all a defense lawyer cared about was reducing his client’s sentence. But that gave Shigemori pause. Is the truth that important then, that a man would give up his life for it? Why would a man be condemned for telling the truth in a court of law? Even Shigemori’s mentor Settsu believed that Misumi had committed the murder. Was that all that mattered? Seeing as how the judge straight up said it would change his mind if they went about the procedures a different way.
When Shigemori spoke to Misumi, they went to talking about deeper topics. Misumi believed that he didn’t deserve to be born because he only brought trouble to people around him. Shigemori asked Misumi if he was an empty pot, basically someone who would change as the situation needed him. I think at this point, he presented himself as someone who believed Misumi’s story, but now that I think about the question, maybe there was still a bit of doubt in Shigemori.
I guess the takeaway for Shigemori was the legal system itself. Maybe the truth is more important than he thought it was. But needing to find the truth opens up his feelings to the world. It makes him sympathize with others which may affect his ability as a superstar defense lawyer.
Misumi Takashi
Misumi was the man being accused of murder. He’d done time for murder thirty years ago, and had supposedly committed murder while out on parole.
Misumi presented himself as a very likable man. He was very friendly, very willing to work with lawyers. That made no difference to Shigemori. Shigemori was just here to do a job. Nonetheless, through their visits, Misumi and Shigemori would get to know each other. Shigemori knew about Misumi as he was passed on information about Settsu. However, it surprised Shigemori that Misumi would know things about him as well, such as the fact that he had a daughter. Who had told Misumi? Or had he found out on his own? What reason did he have for bringing up Shigemori’s daughter? Was it just small talk or was he trying to pull on Shigemori’s heartstrings?
At one point, Shigemori and Kawashima visited Hokkaido to try to find Misumi’s estranged daughter to testify for him, but they couldn’t find her. Her friends insisted that she hated him and wouldn’t want to testify for him anyway. Misumi had gone to jail when she was four years old so they didn’t have much of a relationship anyway. When Shigemori and Kawashima returned, Misumi said that he’d wished they had told him that they were going to Hokkaido. I’m not sure why, as it wasn’t like Misumi could do anything.
Whenever Shigemori and his team came to Misumi with a new fact, he would change his story to match that. He would conform to whatever new theory they’d come up with. It was only at last, when Misumi said that he didn’t commit the murder, that it felt like he was finally thinking on his own. Misumi had attested to that when Shigemori confronted him about his relationship to Sakie. So that was what made Shigemori think that he only decided to not admit to the crime in order to protect Sakie.
At first, I was on the side of believing Misumi about not committing the crime. If I remember correctly, he said that he was forced to admit to the crime thirty years ago for a lighter sentence, so maybe that was why he was doing the same. And the fact that he kept changing his story would kind of support that. Maybe he just went with whatever story he thought would be easiest to accept. If that was what Misumi believed, then it would follow that he knew that denying the crime would give him a harsher sentence, maybe even the death penalty. He had nothing to gain by confessing to this truth, except for having the chance to confess to the truth. Shigemori had a dream in which Misumi and Sakie were burning the victim together, so it also gave the idea that maybe he was covering up for Sakie killing her own father.
But then I thought about the theory that maybe Misumi didn’t want to confess to the crime anymore because then Sakie’s sexual abuse would have to be revealed and he didn’t want to do that to her. If he said that he killed the victim for Sakie, then he’d have to explain that it was because Sakie was being abused. He didn’t know that Sakie was ready to speak on that. But Shigemori did think that Misumi saw his daughter in Sakie and they were estranged anyway, so that was why he put so much into protecting Sakie.
Shigemori theorized that Misumi was an empty pot, basically he would become whatever what put into him. The first interpretation was that Misumi was just saying yes to whatever people told him so as to get a lighter sentence. Thirty years ago, he was told to confess to the murder for a lighter sentence so he did. Now he was admitting to whatever story that Shigemori presented to him, in hopes that it would make the trial easier. The other interpretation was that Misumi was more cunning than that. Like Yuka, maybe Misumi was more convincing than Shigemori wanted to believe. I kept thinking that Misumi’s denial of the murder was a ploy, like in Primal Fear, where the accused built up such a convincing persona that even their own lawyer couldn’t believe that he had done the murder willfully. Misumi had changed his story so many times that it was hard to tell what was true.
Misumi believed that some people didn’t deserve to be born. When we were still operating under the claim that Misumi had committed the murder, we believed he was talking about the victim, and that he was a vile person who didn’t deserve to live. Kawashima argued against this, saying that everyone deserved to be born. At the end of the movie, Misumi directed that thought at himself. He believed he didn’t deserve to live because he only caused trouble to those around him. His wife was out of the story but I think we can assume that didn’t end well if she died or they divorced. He hurt his daughter and was not there for her. He tried to help Sakie, and the narrative he was presenting was that maybe by dying he could protect her. Whether by killing her father, or keeping her secret safe, we don’t know.
In the ending conversation between Misumi and Shigemori, Shigemori’s face was reflected onto Misumi’s, a bit overlapping. I believe it was very purposeful, that it was meant to show that Misumi’s thoughts were being transferred to Shigemori.
Misumi’s motives for doing what he did will remain a mystery. Shigemori will never know. But Shigemori has still been changed by the mystery.
Yamanaka Mitsuo
Yamanaka was the victim. We knew very little about him. He was the boss of a factory that had unethical practices. We also knew that he sexually abused Sakie. But now that I think about it, was it true? Only Sakie brought it up. And Misumi, the empty pot, agreed to it. Who knows. What’s done is done. Yamanaka was already dead.
Yamanaka Mitzue
Mitzue was Yamanaka’s wife, Sakie’s mother. Shigemori brought a letter from Misumi to their family, and Mitzue was very upset.
The next time Mitzue was brought up in the story was when that news piece was going around about a wife sending money to an affair partner to kill her husband. A vague message had been sent from Mitzue’s phone to Misumi’s, and money had been wired to Misumi as well. It could be interpreted as them having had a romantic relationship, which Mitzue denied vehemently. Only in conversation with Sakie did she confirm that it was because Misumi knew about their unethical business practices. It seemed they were using false ingredients in their products and the money was hush money.
In that conversation, Mitzue was affectionate with her daughter and for a minute I had wondered whether her mom was sexually abusing her. Maybe I was just misinterpreting it because it could also be very normal affection between a mother and daughter. The thing that gave me pause was Sakie’s lack of response to her mom’s affection. To the lawyers, I think Sakie expressed disappointment that her mother turned a blind eye to her father’s sexual abuse.
In court, Mitzue admitted nothing, that her husband had sent a text from her phone without knowing anything. Now that I think about it, Mitzue was basically kept completely away from the crime and she continued to be the grieving widow and nothing else. In a way, she was not involved, like that email from her phone had requested. Who knows, maybe that story about Mitzue asking Misumi to take care of it was true.
Yamanaka Sakie
Sakie was the daughter of Yamanaka, the victim, and Mitzue, her mother. We first saw her by the river when Shigemori and Kawashime were investigating the crime scene. She had a noticeable limp. It was only later when Shigemori visited the Yamanaka house that he found out she was the daughter of Yamanaka.
Shigemori tailed Sakie for a little while. A girl gave a bag to her at school, but also waved goodbye to her; it’s unclear whether she was being bullied. At the library, Shigemori saw that she was reading books about Hokkaido, and we later found out she wanted to go to university in Hokkaido. Misumi’s daughter lived in Hokkaido, and for a moment I had wondered if Mitzue was Misumi’s long lost daughter. After all, we never met Megumi either so we don’t know what she looked like. But now that I think about it, maybe Sakie was interested in Hokkaido after talking to Misumi about it.
Sakie felt uncomfortable with the fact that her parents’ business was unethical. Mitzue told her not to complain, that Sakie was raised on that dirty money. That probably reflected her mother’s views on the sexual abuse as well. Don’t complain, because that was the man who clothed and fed you.
When visiting Misumi’s home, Shigemori heard from his landlady that a girl with a limp would often visit. Sakie later came clean and said that she was friends with Misumi. They even had a selfie together. She revealed that her father was sexually abusing her. She was ready to tell the truth in court. She was actually kind of disappointed when Shigemori told her that Misumi had changed his story so now she had to change her testimony as well. Her testimony was basically cut down to the fact that again, she only thanked her father for giving her life and education, and that she didn’t wish Misumi to die.
Would Sakie lie about anything? Again, she was the only one who mentioned the sexual assault and we already established that Misumi is hard to trust for anything. Why would she lie? Did she kill her father? Shigemori had a vision where she was burning his body but a vision is not evidence. How much did she hate her parents for running an unethical business? Enough to murder? (If she wasn’t sexually abused)
At first, I was inclined to believe that Sakie was a victim, and that she really wanted to testify because at least someone would listen to her truth. I really hate to doubt her, but Yuka had shown that lying can be really easy so that’s supposed to shed even a little doubt, though I don’t think Shigemori ever doubted Sakie.
Shigemori Akihisa
Shigemori Akihisa was Shigemori Tomoaki’s father, a judge. He had presided over Misumi’s trial thirty years ago, and gave him a life sentence. Shigemori Senior admitted to Shigemori that he was never against the death penalty, and now he wished he’d given Misumi the death penalty so that he wouldn’t have killed another person. I don’t doubt some people believe this line of thinking.
I think this discussion got Shigemori thinking about life and death, again the question of who deserves to live. I wonder if Shigemori had felt a kinship with Misumi after all those discussions. Did he wish that Misumi would have died? I doubt it. He was a defense lawyer, so he was used to defending bad people, and I don’t think he ever thought about whether a person was morally good or bad. He was just focused on reducing their sentence. He didn’t think about deserve, he just thought about the result.
Shigemori Yuka
Yuka was Shigemori’s daughter. He was called once because she got into some trouble, maybe shoplifting, but definitely some minor crime as the person she was with said that he’d normally call the police. When he arrived, Shigemori said that he’d been busy with work and that was why he hadn’t spent much time with Yuka, implying that she was acting out for his attention, and Yuka shed a tear.
Afterwards, they had a meal together. Yuka revealed that she could cry on command, and that she wasn’t really showing her true feelings before, it was just a ploy for sympathy. During the meal, Shigemori received a work call. He wasn’t going to take it, but his daughter said it was okay and he did take it. I think Yuka was acting like it was okay with him, but she did deep down inside want her father’s attention and resented that he was just as she remembered him, always caring only about work.
I wonder if Shigemori started to sympathize with Misumi because he was suddenly sparked by love for his daughter. Shigemori was a bit cold, but I think he realized that he’d neglected her. And maybe he understood why Misumi would try so hard for a girl that wasn’t his own daughter, because his own daughter no longer wanted a relationship with him. This is a bit of a stretch, but I do think fathers and daughters was a theme of this movie.
Settsu Daisuke
Settsu was Shigemori’s mentor and the person who had previously taken on Misumi’s case. He didn’t really look as deeply as Shigemori did. He was simply frustrated with Misumi. And when Misumi changed his tune, Settsu didn’t think much of it, still believing his guilt.
Kawashima
Kawashima was a junior lawyer working with Shigemori. He had gone around interviewing people as part of field work, and also accompanied Settsu and Shigemori to interview Misumi. At one point, Misumi said that he believed some people didn’t deserve to be born, but Kawashima stopped him and said that everyone deserved to be born. At that time, we believed Misumi was talking about Yamanaka, but we realized later that Misumi was speaking of himself. Did Kawashima give Misumi any hope or comfort when he insisted that all people deserved to live?
Shinohara
Shinohara was the prosecutor. She was very eye-rolly about the defense lawyers going through the evidence and trying to find ways to defend Misumi. In her mind, it was very cut and dry, and there was nothing they could do to save Misumi. During a discussion, Shinohara told the defense that they were always trying to protect the accused from blame, to which the defense just laughed. That blame doesn’t matter to them, Shigemori was just focused on lightening his sentence. As well, it’s a bit harsh to say that if the defendant is guilty, right?
I think Shinohara was the kind of person who truly believed in the process. When Misumi changed his tune, she insisted that they had to change the approach now to establish guilt. It was only after her counsel advised her otherwise that she went with the flow. But I think Shinohara truly believed that the point of court was to find the truth and make the accused face it.
Why was it that Shinohara never doubted Misumi’s guilt? When Shigemori and Kawashima were looking at the stolen wallet, they determined that it was taken after Yamanaka was doused with gas, implying that stealing the wallet was an afterthought. But to Shinohara, the motive made no difference. Misumi still doused the victim in gas and lit the corpse on fire. So what does motive matter?
That being said, I think Shinohara still believed in the process whereas the judge was just thinking about the result. So it was like the judge was an even more extreme version of Shinohara. Like the judge, Shigemori’s father also only cared about the final result. The sentence.
Themes
Fathers and Daughters
We had three sets of fathers and daughters in this story, and all three had poor relationships. Misumi was estranged with his daughter Megumi. According to Megumi’s friends, she wished that he was dead. Yamanaka sexually abused Sakie, and his wife turned a blind eye to it. Even if he didn’t and Sakie was just lying, clearly there weas a gap in that Sakie didn’t trust her parents at all. She also disapproved of their business practices. And Shigemori neglected his daughter Yuka. He was unable to read the cues she was emitting. When she said it was okay for him to take the work call, she was signalling that she didn’t expect anything better from her father.
Misumi had a poor relationship, so he probably saw Sakie as another chance to take care of a young girl and he did. Perhaps to the point of murdering to protect her. And Shigemori, while he was never attentive to his own daughter, found himself more attentive to Sakie on account of having to tail her for his job. He knew more about Sakie than he ever would about his own daughter. Ironic, isn’t it.
But I can’t rule out the fact that maybe it was the sympathy that made Shigemori more trusting to Misumi.
Legal System
What is the legal system? Is it a game for the defense lawyers and prosecutors to play tug of war, to see what sentence the defendant should receive? Is it a more altruistic arena for the truth to be revealed? Or is it just an official mouthpiece for the judge? Shigemori saw it as a game, to reduce the sentence for the defendant. He didn’t care for the defendant personally. This was just his job. Shinohara saw the court as a tool for making criminals face the truth. As for judges, they already had their own opinions.
I think Shigemori was having this conflict in the end, as his beliefs were beginning to be challenged. Why would a man be punished more for denying a crime he didn’t do, than to admit a crime he didn’t do? Either way, he didn’t do the crime.
Third Murder
Who is the third murder? The first murder was thirty years ago. The second murder was Yamanaka. Is the third murder Misumi? Is the court a legal way to execute someone?
Crosses
What was the significance of the crosses and crucifixes? We saw this as a visual theme throughout the movie. It began with Yamanaka being burned in a crucifix shape, but I found various shots in the shape of a cross, various buildings, crossing wires, crossroads. Was Misumi to die a martyr as Jesus did? Who was he dying for? Was he dying for Sakie? Was he dying for the sins of the justice system?
Life
According to Kawashima, all people deserve to be born. The way I interpreted his words, as long as you’re born, you deserve to be here. This was in response to Misumi who felt that some people didn’t deserve to be born. At that time, I was under the impression that he was talking about Yamanaka. He thought Yamanaka was such a terrible person who did bad things.
At the end of the movie, we realized that perhaps he was talking about himself. Misumi said that he didn’t deserve to be born because he always caused trouble to others. But with Kawashima’s words, maybe that encouraged him to use his life to protect someone else. If he didn’t deserve to live, maybe he might as well die, but use his death for something good.
On the topic of deserving to live, it felt like the daughters got the short end of the stick. If Megumi, Sakie, and Yuka were all to be born to unloving dads, what was the point? They all had to find a will to live on their own. But they must live.
Lies
The movie was left unsatisfied because we couldn’t be sure of what the truth was. No matter how sure Shigemori was, I think in the back of his mind, he realized that everything could be lies. After all, other than the few bits of evidence the prosecution had, we just had testimony.
The first time he was alerted to this was by Yuka, who so easily feigned sorrow. So what made Misumi’s story so believable? What made Sakie’s story so believable? Nothing really, other than Shigemori’s want to believe. Maybe he was swayed, and he wanted to believe for once that his client was innocent.
Empty Pot
Misumi was the empty pot, which spouted whatever was poured in. The first time he was convicted, he had confessed to the crime because he was told it would give him a lighter sentence. The second time he was arrested, he confessed to the crime for a lighter sentence. Every time Shigemori came to him with new evidence, he would confirm his theories. So what was true? He was whatever people told him, because he was told it would be better for him, according to lawyers.
On the other hand, maybe Misumi was a snake, changing his story so as to tug on people’s heartstrings. Did he change his answers whenever Shigemori approached with him new evidence so as to try to conform to the vision that Shigemori had for a possibility of innocence? Well if that was the case, it didn’t work in the end.
Overall
Fascinatingly unsatisfying movie, but as you can see, it gave me a lot to ponder about.