What's the truth

Madyson 2022-01-24 08:06:28

At the beginning of the movie, there was a subjective scene in which Koji Yakusho followed a person to the river and knocked him over. Then it was blurred. In the next scene, he poured gasoline and burned his body. When the director does not specify a character, this kind of subjective shot is the fact that the director wants to say. So the movie has already told the audience the truth from the beginning.

Through this film, the audience can deeply understand several concepts: procedural justice, truth, the abolition and retention of the death penalty. Especially the abolition of the death penalty is very controversial.

Procedural justice means that even if a person admits to killing and is willing to plead guilty, he still has to appoint a defense lawyer to defend him-because his confession does not mean that he is the real culprit, and there may be someone else behind him, and justice is to find the real culprit.

Is it justice to find out and punish the real culprit? uncertain. Therefore, it is called procedural justice.

There is a Hong Kong movie "A1 Headline" about an investigative reporter who was investigating a murder case related to a rich man, and one day he was driven to death in a car accident. His girlfriend suspected that he was "buying a homicide", but the editor-in-chief told She didn't, because he lost money by gambling, maybe he committed suicide. His girlfriend then suspected that the editor-in-chief had a problem-because the rich had just bought their newspaper and became his editor-in-chief's boss. As a science and technology reporter, she conducted in-depth investigations with the support of colleagues from old newspapers. With the help of two loan sharks (one Huang Qiusheng and Ge Minhui), she finally found out the truth. What is the truth? The rich man did not kill because his family objected to him interacting with a girl of ordinary background. The girl committed suicide. He did not want to make a big mess, and found the police and wanted to deal with it in a low-key manner. And her boyfriend did owe a lot of profit. He has also received the sealing fee for debt repayment many times. His death has nothing to do with his profession, at least it has nothing to do with his investigation of the case. Finally, the editor-in-chief (Liang Jiahui) said to the girl: I have been a newspaper for 20 years, don't you believe in my ethics? The girl’s report made A1 headlines, exposing the romantic relationship between the rich man and the dead ordinary girl. After this battle, she has grown into a true news reporter.

This was just a very ordinary movie back then (starring Li Xinjie, Edison Chen, Huang Qiusheng, Leung Ka Fai), but I was very impressed with this film because it reflects a common sense: the truth may not be as we imagined. The wealthy are not necessarily spooky, and investigative reporters are not necessarily great, glorious and selfless. The film’s slogan at the time was: There is no truth, only headlines

This movie is the same. The truth is that the little girl was sexually assaulted by her stepfather for a long time. She and Yakusho Koji trapped and killed her stepfather. Yakusho Koji took the crime alone and protected her.

There are several ridicules about the profession of lawyers in the film: Do lawyers care about the truth? Care, if and only if the truth can help win the lawsuit. In the film, the old lawyer's metaphor about the blind man touching the elephant is worse than the metaphor of the lawyer as a metaphor for the general news audience. Lawyers can piece together the truth, but they will only publish the truth that is beneficial to his defense-in fact, the media is also true.

That’s why Koji Yakusho asked Masaharu Fukuyama: Don’t you want to know the truth?

Masaharu Fukuyama also mocked the prosecutor's lawyer when he faced the prosecutor's lawyer. The other party said that you, a lawyer like you, are not pursuing the truth at all. He ridiculed: The truth? Means that you became a lawyer on your first day? Indeed, on the first day, the little attendant who was a lawyer asked a silly question: Why do you know how to cooperate next when you have a pair of eyes?

This look is the handover between the judge and the lawyers of both sides: the six eyes are facing each other, and they are in a tacit understanding. They are not the first day to be a lawyer, not the first day to be a judge. Judges have KPIs to complete (many cases), and lawyers also have KPIs (don't waste public money anymore). Since the prisoner is desperate to death, let's fulfill him, and we should end it quickly. What is the real culprit, is that important? That's it.

Masaharu Fukuyama's father supported the death penalty when he was a judge. People who support the death penalty usually feel that the truth is already known and the truth is in hand. He even said in his later years: If he was sentenced to death at that time, this person would not have to die.

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Extended Reading

The Third Murder quotes

  • Sakie: I don't want to pretend not to see, like my mother.