“The Black Report” is a detective thriller with heavy noir overtones, but not in the expected way. No Hard-boiled cops or American spectacle here, instead a truthful look at the reality of proving someone guilty. This is not as provocative as “Blind Beast” or as shocking as “Red Angel”, but it is a smart, slick, and rather interesting deconstruction of the detective genre.
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The story centres around Akira Kido, played by Ken Utsui, who's next case determines if he is to receive a promotion or not. The only problem is the very court system he works to serve. Hollywood would focus on the who-done-it aspect as the detective discovers clue after clue, whereas Masumura chooses to focus mainly on the trial here. The discovery of the murderer is not the hard part, instead, the true challenge lies in the prosecution of the culprit.
The movie is shot in black and white by Yoshihisa Nakagawa, with the staging and blocking allowing a lot of the power structures to unfold nicely within the court sequences. This is obviously helped by the editing of Tatsuji Nakashizu who keeps a coherent spatial awareness of the environment. Something any courtroom drama needs yet often goes overlooked, and “The Black Report” does this well.
The performances all create memorable characters that allow your curiosity to wonder who is being truthful and who is not. The film is full of now classic stars, people like Shigeru Koyama, Eitaro Ozawa, and frequent collaborator of Masumura's, Hideo Takamatsu. The cast really shines thanks to Ken Utsui's enthusiastic performance, as he portrays the youthful tenacity of Kido that conflicts with the bleak narrative as it unfolds. He will do anything to solve the case, and unlike the often beaten down archetype that operates within this line of duty, Utsui's character still has hope.
Overall, “The Black Report” is a film where nothing is overtly aesthetic or fantastical, which is often the case in crime dramas. Here the director disregards the style approach and relegates the audience to the drab reality of solving a murder. There is no room for long winded cigarette breaks, femme fatales, shadowy lights, and overtly obvious red herrings, here nothing escapes the bright lights of the courtroom, provided you have all your facts straight and evidence well presented. Finding the murderer is only the beginning, proving them guilty, that's when the real work begins.
