The Third Murder

Even after all these years I still haven’t quite gotten a taste for Koreeda. He makes nice films which are civil, mundane, but well crafted, and he's also quite good at polishing his actors so they don't do silly nonsense on set (like Hirose, for example; he played a similar character in Sensei but here he was more believable). The same is true of this film. It's obviously not a detective story, I guess there's some minimal investigation going on, but I still wouldn't see it in that genre, let alone a thriller. For me, it's just a regular drama that shows a sort of excerpt from the lives of a couple of people (mainly the defendant and the defense attorney). The good and bad thing about the film is that it is so multi-layered – you can explain it in your own way, even make up your own mind about the ending, take into account all the clues that have been presented to you and come to your own conclusion. And when you’re satisfied, that's just the way it was and that's that. While there is a beautiful freedom in this, I still find it a bit convenient – so, viewer, you decide for yourself how it was based on your preferences, I'm not going to spoil it for you with some intention of my own. Perhaps it would take another viewing to perhaps find a hint in the jumble and understand what the author intended, but I'm not sure I want to go through all that. After all, the film is a bit lengthy for my tastes and I can't say I was exactly glued to the screen, eating it up. Plus, there might be no clue there whatsoever and the whole thing would be a waste of time. If you want a good opportunity to philosophize and contemplate a film, this film is your ticket. It's a good movie. So I’ll give it a three. (04/06/2018)