2018 PSIFF – the foreplay

While the festival’s opening night is tonight – there were seven films available during the day – and I made two good choices. In  “The Third Murder” from Japan – three lawyers defend a man who has confessed and in “Just To Be Sure” we have a light hearted to look at dna based parental confusion almost believable in the French milieu

As Hollywood Reporter describes it : “Mystery skirts metaphysics and a courtroom turns out to be no place to determine the truth in Kore-eda Hirokazu’s mysteriously beautiful The Third Murder. Everything that is obvious and straightforward in the first scene (we even get a good look at the murderer’s face) is cast into doubt by the end of the film, posing serious questions about the judicial system and the concept of judging another human being. “

It’s not your standard police/courtroom procedural. I for one wasn’t exactly sure what the truth when the movie ended. The hero here is an up and up attorney who is called in by his older associate Settsu  to take over an open-and-shut case with the only issue being avoiding death penalty in favor of life imprisonment. A man who has spent 30 years in prison for a double murder and been released has confessed to killing his boss, the owner of a small factory, and burning his body. Everyone assumes that Misumi (Yakusho Koji) is guilty. th

The problem is he keeps changing his version of what happened. Shigemori, our chief lawyer is the son of a retired judge, knows the law well and coldly plays by the books. His goal is not to bring out the truth in court, but to use every legal strategy at his disposal to help his client. It was Shigemori’s father, the judge, who originally sentenced Misumi to jail for killing two loan sharks, instead of handing him the death penalty and now he regrets it. In the end the truth is ambiguous.

In”Just to be Sure” a middle-aged bomb disposal expert searches for his biological father when he learns that the men who raised him is not really his father. Erwan’s search for his biological father brings complications.  Meanwhile, a DNA  Erwan wanted for his pregnant very young daughter reveals that Erwan’s own dad (Guy Marchand) is not who he says he is, sending his son off on a quest to find the real one. After consulting a private detective (Brigitte Rouan), Erwan learns that his actual father, Joseph (Andre Wilms), lives only a few towns away. That’s pretty good news — except that Joseph is also the father of Anna (Cecile de France), a veterinarian Erwan crosses one night on a rainy country road and immediately falls in love with.  Then she with him – but then it turns out they are brother and sister – except maybe just to be sure they take a DNA test.  The film explores both fatherdoods – biological and functional.  A very enjoyable satisfying movie.