In recent years, Hirokazu Koreeda has been among the most exciting and interesting Japanese filmmakers. In movies such as "Like Father, Like Son", "Our Little Sister" and "Shoplifters", he tells marvelous stories about seemingly ordinary and non-cimematic sitations....stories about real people and about problems which you rarely hear about in Japanese movies. Here, in a bit of a change of pace, Koreeda takes on a story about murder....and it's complex, strange and ultimately worth seeing. Sadly, however, the pacing is glacially slow...and many viewers ultimately might give up on the film before its conclusion.

The story is about a group of lawyers who have been a pretty hopeless case to defend. It seems a man has pled guilty to murder and burning a corpse...and he's done little to help himself avoid the death penalty. In addition, his story is very inconsistent and keeps changing. Inexplicably, instead of just going through the motions as most lawyers would do in a case like this, Shigemori keeps digging to learn exactly what did happen and why...and, not surprisingly, it's not what the case originally seemed to be.

The story is slow....very, very slow. For non-Japanese audiences, this slowness makes watching the film with subtitles a bit tough...and I found myself drifting off on occasion. My advice is to stick with it....the twist is shocking and exposes some issues rarely addressed in films...especially Japanese films. Not surprising, as Koreeda seems to enjoy addressing topics which other Japanese filmmakers avoid.

THE THIRD MURDER is that rare beast, a Japanese courtroom drama that takes a dark subject and explores in a sober way, subsequently shining a light into a little-known aspect of Japanese society: namely, their judicial system. Things begin with a brutal murder of a factory boss by his own employee, before we move into detective mode. It's all about the motive and whether said motive justifies the act. Dark stuff indeed, impeccably acted and made with clinical precision. Not for all tastes thanks to the slow-burning nature of the narrative, but engrossing with it.

One of the most psychologically and thematically complex autopsies of truth, ethics, and morality I've seen. It reminds me of Rashomon in some respects, except that much of the fluidity and subjectivity of truth in this movie is found within a single character, and within societal systems of "truth-seeking," i.e., the "justice" and legal systems. Even the camera movement in this film is perfectly attuned to those themes, subtly moving into, over, and out of scenes from all directions. Koji Yakusho is superb as usual, and all other acting and casting is excellent as well, as is the score and the editing. I will be thinking on this one for a while.