WILFUL MURDER

Japan, 1982, 132 minutes, Black and white.
Directed by Kei Kumai.

Wilful Murder is a Japanese thriller with political overtones. The setting is 1949, the influence is still the American occupation and the determination of America against communism, and its using Japan in this stance. There are leftist movements in Japan. The film focuses on a Japan National Railways official found dead on railway tracks. The film is made in black and white, mixing documentary and newsreel footage with the drama.

The film examines C.I.A. involvement in Japanese politics. The film takes the form of an investigation by a newspaper reporter. He has an obsession and examines the case for over ten years. Various institutions try to shield the truth from him. Critics have compared this film to such political films as Italian Francesco Rosi's dramas.

1. The impact of the political thriller? Documentary aspects? History? Drama and characters? The international patterns of the post? World War Two years?

2. The work of the Japanese film industry? Its perspective on history, politics, its international dealings with the U.S. and with the communists? An 180s reassessment of this politics? Responsibilities? Impact on Japanese audience, international audience?

3. Black and white photography, creation of the period, the echoes of the times, newsreel footage incorporated into the film? The score and its American style? The dramatic style ? particularly theatrical and Japanese (for western audiences)?

4. The use of names and dates, times, the dynamic of the investigation? The building up of the case by interrogation and flashback?

5. Japanese politics and the United States, pressures, pride, the Dodge Line and its enforcement? Unemployment, industrial strife, communists, scapegoats, murders, accidents, plots and riots? Korea and arms questions? The vagaries of Japanese politics of the '50s and '60s? The riots to the games? Deals, money etc.?

6. The pro-American and anti-American attitudes? The C.I.A., plots, influence? The use of Japanese gangsters and thugs?

7. The need for the expose ? for the Japanese public, for integrity, for an analysis of capitalism and socialism, for the combating of political terrorism?

8. The crime itself and its reconstruction: the role of the victim, the abduction, the store, the change, battering, transport, when the victim was dead or not, the railway line and death? Autopsies? The range of conflicting evidence e.g. the girl giving testimony later?

9. The repercussions and the discrediting? Thugs, jail, money, the factory expansion?

10. The portrait of the journalist? The relationship with the police? Interest, suspicions, test, autopsies and detail, tracing evidence, the long years and the open case, letters and information, discovering the criminal and his wife, payment and information? The people involved, fears, death threats?

11. The wealthier characters, the leaders ? and the lack of evidence e.g. the factory?

12. The character of the journalist: integrity, skill, reports, silence, clues and regrets?

13. The police assistants, the office, the authorities, orders etc.?

14. The newspapers and their role in such investigations?

15. Cover-ups, conspiracies and the need for the expose? A satisfying, particularly Japanese, thriller?