Masayuki Suo's new film press conference held

Masayuki Suo has been absent from the movie scene since his epoc-making hit "Shall We Dance? " in 1996.  After 10 years of hiatus, he is coming back with the new and very different style film, "Soredemo Boku wa Yattenai" (literally "But I still did not do it"), a court drama surrounding a false charge as a sexual molester.  The press conference was held in Tokyo with Suo and leading actors/actresses on Oct. 10.

Suo says, "the starting point of this movie is the same as my previous works, such as 'Shall We Dance' and 'Sumo Do, Sumo Don't'.  I was interested in a theme and I wanted to let everyone know about it.  I was interested in a newspaper article about the incident one day, and as I researched  the current Japanese court system, I was very surprised how little I knew about it and also became angry about many problems."  There are many court dramas recently in Japanese TV dramas and movies, but they mostly focus on human drama in the situation, while this film deals directly with the problems of the sytem.

The leading role, the falsely charged defendant, is played by Ryo Kase ("Letters from Iwo Jima").  His lawyer team played by Koji Yakusho ("Shall We Dance?") and Asaka Seto ("Death Note") also play important roles.  My favorite Masako Motai ("Always - Sunset on Third Street") - supporting actress staple of many great Japanese movies in recent years - plays the mother of the defendant, a rare serious role for her.  The film is scheduled to be released in Japan on January 20, 2007.

Source:  Cinema Topic Online

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As always, Pymmik has detailed info about the film.  See Pymmik's "Soredemo boku wa yattenai" page.