In Japan, a big country of reasoning literature, a suspense reasoning film that does not follow the routine was made. The first shot of the film explains who the culprit is. The whole film always revolves around the motive of the crime as a suspense point, which makes people have to think of Keigo Higashino's "Malicious". But Higashino-kun at least gave the answer in the end, and even the answer in this movie is very vague. It repeatedly provides clues and then repeatedly overturns the denial. By the end of the film, not only does it not get closer to the truth, but more and more possibilities appear. As a lawyer, Masaharu Fukuyama felt that the blind man touched the elephant, and the audience was also confused. As a fan of mystery novels, it was a torture to still not get the truth in the end.
Since it can't be viewed as a pure reasoning film, it is more worthy of interpretation as a literary film. The canary in the cage symbolizes the prisoner's desire to be able to decide his own destiny. The first murder was given a light sentence to avoid the death penalty because "in that era, crime was more considered a social problem". In the second murder, due to the lawyer's efforts to characterize the motive as a vendetta or hired murder, and the victim's daughter trying to tell the truth to protect her, when faced with a sentence that was about to be exempted from the death penalty, the prisoner denounced her confession in court. As a result, the girl did not tell the truth, and the judge lost trust in him, and finally achieved the purpose of sentenced him to death, the so-called "third-degree murder".
The cross represents the prisoner's judgment and redemption for himself. Justice is just a ridiculous lie, and the lawyer's sense of justice exists only to win the lawsuit. Since everyone doesn't care about the truth, why should it be explained to you, the audience? Woolen cloth?
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