I Just Didn't Do It (2006)

A young man is falsely accused of molesting a high-school girl on a train. He is arrested and charged, and goes through endless court sessions, all the while insisting that he is innocent.

Director:

Masayuki Suo

Writer:

Masayuki Suo

Stars:

Ryo Kase, Asaka Seto, Kôji Yamamoto

19 wins & 12 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Ryo Kase	...	Teppei Kaneko (as Ryô Kase)
Asaka Seto	...	Riko Sudo, Lawyer
Kôji Yamamoto	...	Tatsuo Saito
Masako Motai	...	Toyoko kaneko
Kôji Yakusho	...	Masayoshi Arakawa, Lawyer
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Daisuke Honda
Hirotarô Honda	...	Hideo Mitsui
Yosuke Ishii	...	Keizo Hirayama
Toshiyuki Kitami	...	Takashi Miyamoto
Fumiyo Kohinata	...	Shogo Muroyama
Tôru Masuoka	...	Seiichiro Tamura
Ken Mitsuishi	...	Mitsuru Sada
Nao Ohmori	...	Koji Yamada (as Nao Ômori)
Shin'ya Ohwada	...	Toshio Hiroyasu (as Shin'ya Ôwada)
Toshinori Omi

Storyline

An unemployed young man is on the packed Tokyo subway en route to a job interview when a schoolgirl grabs him by the wrist and fingers him as a molester. A man was feeling her up on the train. The young man is arrested and no one, not the station master, the public defender or the police, seems the least interested in his protestations of innocence. It would be much more efficient if he would accept a plea bargain.

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Plot Keywords:

heterosexuality | opposite sex attraction | bacon | japanese schoolgirl | heterosexual | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan] (English)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

20 January 2007 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Even So, I Didn't Do It

Filming Locations:

Tokyo, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Altamira Pictures Inc., Fuji Television Network, Toho Company

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Japan's Official Submission to the Best Foreign Language Film Category of the 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008).

User Reviews

One perspective on the Japanese justice system

The film follows the procedures of an unfortunate man as he is arrested, indicted, and tried for groping, a criminal offense. Throughout, the audience is confronted with moral dilemmas, questions on the most basic, most fundamental principles of the justice system and court procedure. Of course, the basic tenet is "innocent until proved guilty," but how does a court truly guarantee such? How does a justice system work efficiently without error? How should the justice system correct itself when there is a mistake? And how should the defendant act when he is wrongly accused? These questions are relevant to any nation, not just Japan.

Despite all the considerations of a highly developed democratic system, the main character, Teppei, still finds himself in the most unfortunate situation of being indicted for a crime he did not commit. Japan has checks and balances different from the United States or other western nations. Most innocent people are freed in the Kensatsu (something similar to the prosecutor) and are never indicted. In a sense, there is a court involving investigation, before the actual court. That a defendant, before entering a court room, has already been found guilty in two separate investigations renders the court a place to merely decide what the punishment should be. This is the reality of 99.9% guilty rate (which includes those who plead guilty). Teppei finds himself in the unlucky situation where he actually gets indicted despite being innocent.

After seeing this movie, many people, especially non-Japanese, will get the wrong impression of the Japanese justice system, which is a lot more fair than this film gives credit to. Regardless, the film presents a very valuable and justified perspective of the way criminal cases are handled in Japan and forces us to contemplate the concept of courts regardless of nation.