I watched Suspect X on Tuesday with a colleague.
Suspect X is a Japanese movie starring Fukuyama Masaharu, Kou Shibasaki, Shinichi Tsutsumi & Kazuki Kitamura. It is a spin-off from a Japanese TV drama called Galileo. It is a stylish 10-episode drama about a genius physicist Yukawa who helped a rookie police officer Kou to solve crimes with puzzling circumstances. Instantaneous human combustion, a haunted house, an explosion at a lake… etc etc. Yukawa is always able to find the scientific explanation behind the phenomenon. The intensity of the drama is diffused by the bantering between eccentric Yukawa and emotional Kou. So the drama is intriguing, comical and entertaining.
I expected the movie to be equally entertaining.
The beginning of the movie was promising. The opening scene was very cool. The eccentricity of Yukawa and the banter between Kou and him makes me laugh.
But the story and ending was a bit sad.
The story began with a murder. A woman accidentally killed her ex-husband when he tried to beat her for money. Her neighbour heard the noise and came over for a look. He was a quiet high school teacher who was also a brilliant mathematician. He promised to help her.
A few days later, the man’s body, naked and face disfigured, was discovered. Investigations cleared the ex-wife because she has a solid alibi during the time the man was murdered.
This is strange as the audience knew that she killed her ex-husband. So, how did the mathematician do it?
To cut the long story short, the mathematician killed a homeless man and manipulated evidence to mislead the police into thinking that this homeless man was the ex-husband. The woman and the daughter were instructed to go shopping and let as many people meet them as possible. He protected her by killing a second victim to create a perfect alibi for her. He was planning to confess to the murder and go to jail for her.
I found it sad because the genius mathematician’s sacrifice came to naught because the woman he was protecting, the woman who killed her ex-husband, came forward after Yukawa told her the truth. The futility of it all.
If it was a Coen brothers’ movie, they would have let the murderers got away with it. But not the Japanese movie-makers. Ethics and the law win the day.
Anyway, the movie succeeded in getting me to ponder about love and sacrifice. True love is not to escape or cover up but to stand up and face judgement bravely.
I found the trailer for Suspect X and shall end this post with it.
