Hero

Kuryu Kohei comes back after six years to his old prosecutor's branch in Tokyo. He does not wear a suit, does not follow the rules, and solves a case on the street rather than at a desk. His first case looks simple: a security guard has confessed to killing a man. Then the man retracts his statement and one of the country's best known defence lawyers appears opposite him. The guard's testimony turns out to be the key to a large corruption case as well. The film is a continuation of Hero, the television series broadcast in 2001 and a big hit in Japan; the same cast, the same characters, carried to the cinema six years later. Takuya Kimura plays Kuryu and Takako Matsu his assistant. Masayuki Suzuki directed both the series and the film. A hundred and thirty minutes. The mould is the courtroom thriller but the tone is light; the film tells a serious corruption story at the rhythm of a comedy.