Summary
Anshul Chauhan delivers another understated character study, which works in part due to the stellar performances and a measured understanding of the tensions that lay just beneath the surface of human interaction.
If you’ve been following filmmaker Anshul Chauhan’s work for a few years now, especially the excellent Kontora (2019) and his more recent mid-length film Leo’s Return (2021), you’ll know that he is a master of slow-burning character studies. Opening with a striking drone shot of a body on a beach, here he continues in DECEMBER (赦し), a courtroom drama that has a lot more going on under the surface.
In the film, Katsu (played by the singularly named Shogen) is a former novelist who is dealing with the aftermath of a family tragedy. His teen daughter Emi was brutally murdered by a classmate seven years earlier, and since then he has barely worked, separated from his wife Sumiko (Megumi), and fallen hard on alcohol.
When the murderer Kana (Ryo Matsuura), who was 17 at the time of the crime, is up for early release, the ensuing trial dredges up the past. While Katsu and Sumiko deal with their unresolved relationship issues, and Kana confronts her own crimes publicly for the first time as an adult, some harsh truths emerge about Emi that nobody seems willing to confront yet.
Chauhan has shown time and again that his superpower is tuning into the subtleties of human relationships. This continues here in part thanks to the powerhouse turns from Shogen, Megumi and Ryo Matsuura.
Yet their interactions are more than just good performance. Chauhan recognises that real human drama doesn’t always come from the courtroom floor — although there are a few standout moments in that space — but from those times when people are at their most vulnerable.
This is illustrated best through two key scenes, both involving Emi’s parents individually visiting Kana in prison. The first is at the request of Kana, and marks her attempt at reaching out and revealing her own traumatic past. The second meeting is filled with so much tension, Katsu’s clenched fists begin to trickle with blood. (This later pays off in a cathartic scene for Katsu, one that literally and symbolically washes away what’s come before).
While it is never the focus of the film, there’s inevitably some commentary on the swift nature of the justice system in Japan as well. Japan’s legal system boasts a 99.9% conviction rate, and the swiftness of an institution that relies on confessions in detention has been referred to by Human Rights Watch as Japan’s “hostage justice” system (or hitojichi-shiho). So, the trial itself is about whether the juvenile sentence was in line with the law and not about guilt or innocence. To this end, Chauhan’s dialogue for the judge is pointed: “I hope this experience hasn’t soured your view of the justice system.”
Chauhan shows us the way out of DECEMBER the same way we came in. A crisply framed overhead shot, only this time it’s of Katsu and Sumiko walking a literally complicated path. Where they are going, we don’t rightly know. Chauhan lets us simply observe them as they remain a few paces apart, walking closely in step.
2023 | Japan | DIRECTOR: Anshul Chauhan | WRITERS: Anshul Chauhan | CAST: Shogen, Megumi, Kizu Toru, Ryo Matsuura | DISTRIBUTOR: New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) | RUNNING TIME: 99 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 14-30 July 2023 (NYAFF)
