The Third Murder (2017)

An experienced lawyer undertakes to defend a man accused of brutal murder. Everything is clear, like a day. The accused confessed and in the distant past had already passed through a similar case. However, intuition tells the lawyer that in this case everything is too smooth ...

The new work of Hirokazu Koreda (After the Storm, Son in the Father, Miracle, After Life) is fascinating at first sight and does not let go. The producer, a dog who has eaten on meditative festival pictures, delays into the "mainstream" narrative easily and unobtrusively. The tape, although it has a number of contingent plot surprises, uses the standard detective canvas only as a background for deeper reflections. Each dialogue or phrase dropped carries a semantic question, the answer to which the viewer is trying to find together with the director.

Despite the seemingly outward asceticism of the production, the tape does not look simple at all. Excellent camera work Mikiya Takimoto, with whom the director worked on the paintings "Son in the Father" and "Diary of Umimati, literally erases the boundaries of reality. And the music of Ludovico Einaudi ("1 + 1", "Strange crime") harmoniously complements the magic cinema.

The lead actor's duet is incomparable. Conversations and transformations of the "lawyer" Masaharu Fukuyama (John Woo's "Hunting for the person", "Suspect X", "Son in the father", "Summer formula", "Sensation!") And the suspect Koji Yakusho ("The Emperor in August", " Tree of the Cicadas "," Thirst "," Harakiri "and" 13 murderers "Takashi Miike) are built and lived filigree. In the background, the charming Kotaro Yoshida (The Clinic of Love, The Woman Who Loves Lies, the Doric of Sentimental Tokyo) looked good as a colleague in a law firm.

Summarizing: definitely, a heap of awards of "the Japanese Film Academy" the tape has deserved quite deservedly. Excellent directing, an indescribable mood and parable motives in a deceptively detective shell. Movies of great style.