I Just Didn't Do It

Teppei gets on a crowded train on his way to work. As he steps off, a schoolgirl accuses him of groping her. He is taken to the police station. If he admits it the penalty is small and it ends there; if he does not, he is held and charged. Teppei says he did not do it. Everything after that is the court: hearings running for months, witnesses, the lawyers' preparation, a change of judge. The film does not argue about whether the man is innocent; step by step it shows why, once the system has accused someone, there is almost no way back. Masayuki Suo directs the Japanese film; a hundred and forty-three minutes, with Ryo Kase as Teppei and Koji Yakusho as his lawyer. Suo spent years sitting in on real trials before making it. In Japan more than ninety-nine per cent of defendants brought to trial are convicted, and the film examines how that figure comes about.