REEL JAPAN

Score: 8/10

THE THIRD MURDER is written and directed by the ever-versatile and ever-relevant Koreeda Hirokazu. Fukuyama Masaharu (GALILEO, RYOMADEN) is excellent as a highly focused, no-frills lawyer Shigemori. Taking over a highly volatile case from an older but less celebrated lawyer, he struggles to understand his client. Cinema star Koji Yakusho plays Shiegemori’s client Takashi. We the audience grapple with him in a battle over trust, so every gesture and facial expression counts in Koji’s beguiling performance. 

Yoshida Kotaro (MOZU, WAITING FOR KIRIN) is excellent as Takashi’s sidelined lawyer Settsu. Yoshida is one of Japan’s most gifted character actors on screen, and is a noted stage actor and director. Hirose Suzu, now a veteran of several Koreeda films, is memorable as Sakie, the mysterious daughter of the man Takashi admitted to killing. Ichikawa Mikako (HOTSPOT, UNNATURAL), one of the most gifted female character-actors in Japan, steals scenes as a by-the-books young prosecutor struggling with a case going off the rails. 

Though a life is at stake in this capital trial, THE THIRD MURDER is less a thriller than a courtroom drama. It is also less a courtroom drama than a tense tête-à-tête between Fukuyama and Koji. It is possibly the greatest thriller ever made about that sacred relationship between lawyer and client, and about the special privileges and responsibilities that fall under its purview.  Along the way, the film asks many questions about the value of human life. 

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