At first glance, it seems that the case at the center of Hirokazu Kore-eda's The Third Murder is open and shut, showing the vicious murder of a factory president. The culprit, Misumi (Koji Yakusho), confesses immediately. Elite defense lawyer Shigemori (Masaharu Fukuyama) and his colleagues are assigned to the case. But nothing is as it seems, and the case gets even more complicated as Shigemori wades through a web of lies and deceit to get to the truth.
What began as a simple legal drama becomes something different in the hands of Kore-eda, known more for directing family dramas like Our Little Sister (2015) or After the Storm (2016). The Third Murder becomes a deft examination of the justice system and a critique of the death penalty, with Japan being one of a handful of countries that still practices it.
As the investigation continues, we see that Misumi's behavior is erratic, and he has a criminal history - he had been tried and convicted previously of murder, by Shigemori's father. Without his lawyers' knowledge, Misumi talks to a reporter about another possible angle behind the murder, and ultimately, when the case begins to involve the victim's daughter Sakie (Suzu Hirose), who had befriended Misumi, his actions begin to unravel the case and cast serious doubt as to his innocence or guilt. The trial and execution thus becomes the titular third murder.
In a film where the truth becomes abstruse and hidden behind deception, the film communicates the fact that truth and justice are not always congruent. Convenience and procedure supersede the truth, co-opting it for the sake of harmony. In the context of our society, justice is colored by the judgement of men. But who judges those who judge?
The film dares us to find the truth in the words of its characters. Kore-eda films his subjects in extreme closeup, filling the frame with their faces, daring us to extract the truth from these characters' expressions. A striking scene near the end overlaps two faces on top of each other, reflecting one person's desire to connect with the other. Yet the truth still lingers out of reach, and in challenging us to find the truth from their faces, Kore-eda has made us into judges as well.
The film wouldn't have worked without excellent performances from the main cast. Masaharu Fukuyama and Koji Yakusho play so well against each other, and Suzu Hirose's Sakie is reserved yet full of hidden emotions bubbling just beneath the surface.
While unassuming on the surface and deliberately paced, The Third Murder is a tantalizing work, an impossible cipher that begs to be solved, another feather in the cap for one of Japan's most talented directors.
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