A Ghost of a Chance

Emi is a young lawyer who has never won a case. The one she is handed is hopeless: a man accused of killing his wife whose only witness is a ghost four hundred and twenty-one years old. His name is Rokubei, a samurai out of the Sengoku period who died in battle. When Emi goes to the inn, the ghost really does turn up. Now her job is to get him into court. The difficulty is that not everyone can see him, and the prosecutor Osano is ready to cross-examine. Koki Mitani directs the Japanese comedy; two hours and twenty-two minutes, with Eri Fukatsu as Emi and Toshiyuki Nishida as Rokubei. Mitani is a writer who came out of the theatre, and nearly all of the film takes place in a single courtroom.