Review of The Third Murder (2017)
Seen in 2021.
I did not expect this conventional court/criminal drama from Koreeda, who wrote, edited and directed it. It is not overly dramatic, but the lighting, the cute victimized teens and the main character’s unconvincing dark spiral all make it look profoundly conventional. Yakusho Kōji’s role as the alleged murderer—polite, aloof and evasive—is unusal, but doesn’t carry the story. Ichikawa Mikako’s lesser role as the prosecutor is somewhat similar to her appearance in Shin Godzilla (2016), but with less character and no humour.