I Just Didn't Do It (それでもボクはやってない)

Written and directed by Masayuki Suo (the man who brought us Shall We Dance?, the original one, of course. Not the bad, cheap, remade-by-Hollywood one) after his 11-year absence. Starring Ryo Kase (Letters from Iwo Jima), Koji Yakusho (Shall We Dance?, Babel), Asaka Seto and Fumiyo Kohinata (HERO). Japan's Official Submission to the Best Foreign Language Film Category of the 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008).

Twenty six year old Teppei Kaneko was falsely accused of molesting a high school girl on a train. He pleaded not guilty, which lead him to endless hearings on court. Was his innocence enough for vindication? Or would the invincible power of the state overrule everything?

Saw it because I loved Kase's performance in Letters from Iwo Jima and I really enjoyed Suo's 1994 Shall We Dance. The film was poignant, powerful, engaging, you really can't help but feel for Kaneko. You can feel his desperation, his anger, his disappointment.. Kase is a fine actor, he was able to carry the film by himself. Like most Japanese films, this one is slow-paced, with very minimum plot. That's why the lead actor's performance can be the key, and Kase nailed it. For two and a half hours, the scenes didn't run very far from court sessions, but we can really feel the character. He meant every word that came out of his mouth, and we're able to feel it. His facial expressions, everything. And the whole theme itself, about Japan's legal system, rings very true to me. I'm sure that this kind of thing doesn't only happen in Japan, but to many other countries as well. How the unchecked state power seems to be untouchable, invincible, thus fails to uphold justice. It's scary, it's unjust, but it's happening. I really loved the text shown before the film began that stated that it is better to let ten criminals free than to punish one innocent man.

It's kinda hard to translate languages and even though the English title is basically right, the Japanese title actually emphasizes a bit more on the "just" part. The emphasized use of "Soredemo" might be easier to understand when you actually see the film and pay attention to the line when Kaneko said it.

8.5 / 10.