Keiho

The psychiatric evaluation of a young actor arrested for a brutal double murder concludes that he may be unfit to stand trial. As the investigation goes deeper it emerges that the crime was a well calculated statement against the article of the Japanese criminal code granting reduced responsibility to those of unsound mind. The film has no interest in defending or condemning that article; it sets up the possibility that a person might use it and follows the consequences. The account sets out not from a real case but from a legal argument, and takes place less in the courtroom than in the rooms where assessments are made. Kyoka Suzuki and Shinichi Tsutsumi appear in Yoshimitsu Morita’s hundred and thirty three minute Japanese film, completed in 1999.