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Film Review: Twisted Justice (2016) by Kazuya Shiraishi

Twisted Justice Go Ayano
A true story about a corrupted cop’s descent from glory to decay…

The film is based on the notorious “Inaba Case” an actual turn of events that occurred in Hokkaido in 2002, and was called the biggest scandal in Japan’s police history. The perpetrator, Yoshiaki Inaba wrote a book about the case after spending 9 years in prison, with the script following the novel.

The story starts in 1970s Hokkaido where Moroboshi, an unemployed Judo champion is hired by the local police department to help them win the national judo championship. Starting in his new job without knowing the ropes at all, Moboroshi soon becomes an object for mocking and bullying, until a senior colleague named Murai, decides to make him his protégé. Murai however, has ties with the local Yakuza, who help him by giving him tips for other criminal organizations, and is actually a brute, who spends his time drinking and womanizing in hostess clubs. Moboroshi follows his advice of finding moles from the criminal world and a woman to soothe his needs, to the point, though, that he eventually becomes a cruel, sex-crazy bully, who does not differ at all from those he is supposed to fight. Through the years, he becomes more and more corrupt, as he cooperates with Pakistani and Russia mafia. However, his supervisors do not bother him and even award him, since he manages to excel at everything they ask of him.

, who knew the case quite well as a Hokkaido native, presents a film that looks like a modern version of ‘s “” pentalogy, although, in this particular case, the protagonists are cops and not criminals. The aesthetics, though, remain the same, with the constant antagonisms among them, the corruption and betrayals, and even the violence, which is chiefly represented by Moboroshi, the most Yakuza-like of all. Also like the aforementioned films, Moboroshi has his own gang, which includes an actual Yakuza named Nakamura, a lowlife ex-addict named Yamanobe, and a Pakistani with Russian mafia ties named Rashido. However, with the exception of Yamanobe, who actually adores him, the rest of the gang stay with him for the profit, rather than out of devotion, as was the case with Fukasaku’s films.

The general aesthetics of the movie have a distinct slapstick nature, as a peculiar sense of humor permeates a large part of its duraton, which, sometimes is offensively hilarious (as with the scene where Moboroshi calls Rashido an Indian, infuriating him) and sometimes seems completely out of place, as the film takes a turn for the dramatic during the end. Add to that the fact that women are presented solely as objects of lust (there are unusually many scenes with sex and nudity for a Japanese film), and you have a rather offensive movie in your hands that manages to simultaneously cause affront to the police force, the Yakuza, women, immigrants and the notion of male friendship alike. Evidently, the film is not at all sanctimonious, a trap that similar productions often seem to fall into.

Shiraishi based “” almost exclusively upon , who does not seem to be missing even from a single shot, and he delivered in slapstick fashion, in par with the rest of the film. His acting is so excessive, in the distinct Japanese way also witnessed in “The Yakuza Papers”that, he looks like a caricature, at least most of the time. The same applies to who plays Rashido, actually looking like a true Pakistani with his mustache and strange Japanese accent. is also very persuasive as an actual Yakuza and Young Dais plays the small role of Moboroshi’s lackey to perfection.

Takahiro Imai’s cinematography manages to portray accurately each of the decades the film takes place, assisted by the wonderful production design by Tsutomu Imamura, in a rather difficult task as the film, apart from the change in eras, also takes place in a plethora of different locations, indoors and outdoors. Hitomi Kato’s editing is also great, keeping the film’s rather fast rhythm moving smoothly, and occasionally implementing music-video aesthetics with the assistance of oriental and Balkan music by Goro Yasukawa.

“Twisted Justice” is an unusual mix of real crime, action, comedy, and drama, which manages, though, to be very entertaining despite the fact that it fails in the dramatic aspects.

About the author

Panos Kotzathanasis

Panagiotis (Panos) Kotzathanasis is a film critic and reviewer, specialized in Asian Cinema. He is the owner and administrator of Asian Movie Pulse, one of the biggest portals dealing with Asian cinema. He is a frequent writer in Hancinema, Taste of Cinema, and his texts can be found in a number of other publications including SIRP in Estonia, Film.sk in Slovakia, Asian Dialogue in the UK, Cinefil in Japan and Filmbuff in India.

Since 2019, he cooperates with Thessaloniki Cinematheque in Greece, curating various tributes to Asian cinema. He has participated, with video recordings and text, on a number of Asian movie releases, for Spectrum, Dekanalog and Error 4444. He has taken part as an expert on the Erasmus+ program, “Asian Cinema Education”, on the Asian Cinema Education International Journalism and Film Criticism Course.

Apart from a member of FIPRESCI and the Greek Cinema Critics Association, he is also a member of NETPAC, the Hellenic Film Academy and the Online Film Critics Association.

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