The Crimes that Bind

Eiga Sai 2019

The Red Carpet @ Shang

This complex crime thriller had numerous side plots which somehow connected to the main story line, that is if you really pay close attention. It starts in the 1960s where a young woman is looking for a job. We follow her story through a fast jump through the years until her death. In 2017, her estranged son, a well known detective is notified of her demise. He has been searching for her for 16 years. His only link to her past life is through a mysterious old man who was her partner for several years. A man who is elusive, and Detective Kaga has been trying to find him since his mother's death.

In a completely unrelated story, the body of a woman is found strangled in a small shack. Days later, the burnt body of a man is found. Could these two murders be related? What is their connection to the detective's late mother? Could the burnt man be the elusive partner of his late mother? Can the detective finally find the answers to his mother's past life? There are many questions which needed answers and some, if not all of these questions are slowly resolved by the conclusion of the film. 

As I mentioned above, one needs to be alertly aware of each subplots so you can completely understand the main issues which the characters face in the various situations. Issues like parental neglect, not losing face, hiding secrets, as well as being true to oneself are coherently tackled. It helps that the pacing of the film is slow so the audience is given the chance to put two and two together to get to the bottom of this crime mystery.

The main characters are well developed and their storied pasts are sometimes shown through several flashback scenes or narrated in the dialogue. These flashbacks are well intertwined, quite flawlessly slip into the present day scenes. I also like how they were able to find closure in their quest for answers. The English subtitles flow by rapidly so you need to read fast. There is probably a lost in translation phase but overall, the plot is easy to understand as its pacing is well stretched out. 

I like the fusion of numerous side plots in movies. It keeps me thinking throughout and it thrills me to no end. I'm usually fast in knowing the who, why, when and how, yet for some reason (perhaps reading subtitles) I was utterly lost in "The Crimes that Bind".  Yet in this instance, it was a good kind of lost, so I'm good.

The Third Murder

Eiga Sai 2019

The Red Carpet @ Shang

The first scene shows a man murdering another man with a hammer, beating him to a pulp then burning the body. This sets the pace for a complex legal thriller filled with mysterious motives, a dubious confession, the looming sentence of a death penalty and several questions to further make it more complicated than it already is.

Misumi confesses to killing his boss and torching his body. Yet his motives for this brutal crime keeps changing and his legal team have a difficult time believing him. Enter Shigemori, a renowned lawyer brought in to help the defense team. Shigemori has a connection with the defendant as he is the son of the judge who convicted Misumi for a previous crime. A crime for which he served 30 years yet is never clearly mentioned what it was about, merely alluded to. Shigemori starts investigating by questioning several witnesses who vouch for the character of Misumi - the quiet yet strange type who keeps to himself.

Shigemori faces a stumbling block when an article in a tabloid narrates an interview with Misumi. He says that the widow of his boss contacted him through email to hire him to kill her husband and he will be paid for it. They would also share the money from the life insurance she will get. Confronting his flippant client, Shigemori probes him for more details. 

Yet another angle surfaces from the close friendship between Misumi and Sakie who is the daughter of his boss. Sakie has a brace around one leg, walks with difficult and  the real reason for her brace is also as doubtful as Misumi's various motives for the crime. Shigemori also discovers that Sakie's father abused her sexually so this presents as another motive for Misumi to kill his boss.

Another masterpiece from noted director Hirokazu Kore-eda whose films usually focus on family relationships and all its complexities. Here, he explores a common factor among the three main male characters - Misumi, Shigemori and the victim. They are all fathers with tangled ties with their daughters. Misumi is estranged from his now grown up daughter mainly to his 30 year prison term. Shigemori is divorced and hardly has any bonding time with his own daughter. A high school age girl who stole from a store, an act for her lawyer father to come to her rescue. The victim, himself who it turns out was preying on his daughter Sakie.

The third murder also has a vital focal point  - the Japanese legal system which still imposes the death penalty for certain gruesome crimes. A major contention was whether Misumi stole his boss' wallet before or after he burned the body. It seems there is a different sentence just from burglary then murder and/or murder than burglary.

The mininalist cinematography consists of snow capped mountains, courtroom scenes, a small town locale and consultations in jail between Misumi and Shigemori. These sessions are separated by a glass window with a small round circle to hear and listen to each other. 

After the verdict was read, Misumi and Shigemori meet again for their last session and their faces are intertwined as seen from the reflections on the glass partition. It is a memorable scene, one showing they might be the one and the same person in more ways than one. In most movies dealing with a legal drama, this segment would be where the defendant would come clean to his lawyer, either admit or deny he committed the crime. But in true form, this film remains as vague as Misumi and as perplexed as Shigemori. Enough said!