Is this movie good?
I've looked at the trailors and read the summary, & I've ordered the DVD; it seems pretty good, but I'm curious, though, for the ones who has seen it, is it good?
shareIt is a great psychological drama. I am a bit concerned that, for western audience who are accustomed to watch court dramas, the court scenes look to have too many "holes" in the story. But overall, the comlex psychology between the brothers is very well depicted by the script and by the acting of Joe Odagiri and Teruyuki Kagawa. It was quite highly praised both by critics and fans in Japan last year and won lots of awards.
Misty
I just saw this film. Wow. I'd say it's one of the best psychological dramas I've ever seen.
You're right; it's not a slam bang courtroom drama like western audiences might be accustomed to, and I'm glad it's not. That gives us more time to digest the real message of the film, rather than being distracted by LA Law theatrics.
It's really interesting to note that the court seems to be truly impartial, and both sides, prosecution & defence, are interested in the truth. This is a big change from western courts where it seems like the focus is on winning by loopholes, semantics and emotionalism, regardless of what the truth is. I was wondering if this is really what Japanese courts are like?
As an aside, I have heard that Japanese courts are not very impartial, the way it works over there is that the public percieve that the Japanese police only arrest the guilty. So if someone is arrested then they must be guilty in the eyes of the public and therefore the courts aswell.
I have no experience, this was just on a documentary I watched once.
I'll be watching this film soon, I just recorded it.
I have heard that Japanese courts are not very impartial, the way it works over there is that the public percieve that the Japanese police only arrest the guilty.
That's really interesting. Yes, I've heard that Japanese culture, despite its great points, has a lot of flaws regarding appearances & prejudice. For example in corporations, a lowly grunt worker is regarded as crap while upper management is deified. There's no such thing as a mailroom boy making a suggestion on how to improve a project. But like you, my information comes from documentaries & such, so it may not be accurate. Anyway if what you say is true, it makes the courtroom scene even more interesting & I'll have to watch it again with that in mind. share