In the Movies: Japan's Criminal Justice System

This new film -- Soredemo Boku wa Yattenai (Even So, I Didn't Do It) -- by Masayuki Suo sounds very interesting: Mark Schilling, Portrait of a Dodgy Legal System, Japan Times Online (Jan. 5, 2007). Schilling writes,

The [last part] of the film follows the usual pattern of a courtroom drama, but with an unusual devotion to detail, so much so that "Soredemo" serves as an excellent introduction to Japanese court procedure. The approach is not without its dryness, as one hearing follows the next, through a dense haze of legalese. But Suo uses it to demonstrate, with quietly devastating thoroughness, the system's rigidities and contradictions.