NYFF. I Just Didn't Do It.

"Masayuki Suo's I Just Didn't Do It [site] is a taut, painstakingly observed, and incisive procedural on the intricacies of Japan's highly efficient, juryless, one judge criminal justice system," writes acquarello. "At the heart of his sobering social realist drama is the country's boasted 99.9% conviction rate, a daunting statistic that implicitly assumes a defendant's guilt, despite the founding tenets of blind justice."

"I Just Didn't Do It doesn't present Teppei as a martyr or even much of an idealist but, rather, as a man simply unwilling to bow to a legal machine that considers an innocent plea to be a dishonorable act of treason," writes Nick Schager at Slant. "Depicting all 15 stages of the trial as well as the assistance offered Teppei by his lawyers (led by Koji Yakusho's former judge), his mother, and his friends, Suo's film is riveting in its case minutia, and righteously infuriating in its comprehensive portrait of a system that values public approval ratings and a high conviction rate above the truth."

Katey Rich talks with Masayuki Suo for Cinema Blend. Via Jeffrey Hill at the House Next Door.

Earlier: NYFF previews.

Posted by dwhudson at October 14, 2007 3:28 PM