Movie review: Suspect X (Yogisha X no Kenshin)

I truly liked the series Galileo, which I watched back in 2012, though I never continued it. I decided to watch the segments, starting from the SP and then Suspect X (have yet to see the 2nd season and what follows it!). As it is based on the novel The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino (who I truly respect, and, by the way, if you like Galileo series you should read his novels!), I was curious on how it would turn out to be. Of course, you can't compare a detailed book with a 2h movie, but I was satisfied with the outcome of it.

Yasuko Hanaoka (Yasuko Matsuyuki), a single mother and ex-host that now owns a bento restaurant, lives with her daughter in an apartment. Their neighbor is an avoidant man called Ishigami (Shinichi Tsutsumi), who teaches mathematics at a highschool. He goes to her shop every morning to buy a bento box.

One night, Yasuko's abusive ex-husband goes to her house only to make trouble. She gives him money, but her daughter Misato (Miho Kanazawa) couldn't hold her anger about how he treats her mother, so she ends up hitting him with a snow globe, so he gets angry and they start to fight. It ends up with mother and daughter murdering him. Ishigami hears all that noise and goes to check what happened.

The police gets involved when the body is found. Their main suspect is Hanaoka, however she has a perfect alibi. Detective Kaoru Usumi (Shibasaki Kou) and her superior, Detective Kusanagi (Kazuki Kitamura) go seek help from Professor Manabu Yukawa (Masaharu Fukuyama), who, however, shows no interest for this case until Ishigami's name is mentioned. Yukawa revels that he's an old classmate of his and also a genius. After that, the Professor has a meeting with Ishigami, who he holds in high regard, and starts to feel suspicious about his friend's involvement in the crime. This leads Professor Yukawa to personally investigate this case.

I won't say much because, if spoiled, the fun of watching will all be gone, like most mystery movies. Suspect X was well executed, entertaining, smart and so sad that some scenes will get your heart broken. I felt very sad and almost like crying, even though I'm someone who rarely cry in movies (however, I shed one tear and a half after reading the book). I'll confess that I wasn't expecting it to be a movie-leveled, but director Hiroshi Nishitani worked it to fit the movie style, therefore different from the drama series in a good way. It's more serious and deep than the series.

One of the things that appealed to me was how different Ishigami, a underachiever (status-wise) genius, is seen by a society's perspective and by Yukawa-sensei's and how Yukawa had such great admiration for him. I think he would have tried to deepen his friendship with Ishigami if not met by that circumstance. We get to see new sides of Yukawa, too.

The acting is good, I didn't expect Fukuyama to pull off scenes that requires a lot of emotion, but he did a decent job. He was outshined by Shinichi Tsutsumi, though. He really impressed me, his character was not an easy one to play, but he did a great job! I like Shibasaki Kou and thought Utsumi could have been more explored, so when you watch, keep in mind this film is focused on Yukawa. 

For the fans of the drama/novel, and especially Yukawa-sensei, it is a must watch!

Note: The character that only appears briefly in the SP will be reveled in the movie.
You don't exactly need to watch the drama or read the book to enjoy Suspect X.

MY RATING:

 

Director: Hiroshi Nishitani  | Writer: Keigo Higashino (novel), Yasushi Fukuda | 2008 | Genre: crime, drama, mystery | Country: Japan