Nippon No Kuroi Natsu - Enzai

• 2001
• 1 hr 58 mins

• Watchlist

In 1994, prior to the saran attack of Tokyo's subway at the hands of the Aum Shinrikyo, a sleepy neighborhood in the provincial town of Matsumoto became a massive crime scene when a cloud of the same poison gas was somehow released, killing seven and injuring 600. The man who first reported this freak crime was a normal salaryman named Kanbe. Though he and his wife were victims, he was branded the criminal by Japan's voracious press and by the city's bumbling police department -- only to be declared completely innocent following the subway attack. Veteran filmmaker Kei Kumai -- who has made a career out of addressing Japan's social ills -- takes up this true story about one man's journey into hell. Shortly after Kanbe (Akira Terao) gains consciousness at a local hospital where his wife remains in a coma, the police tag him as the prime suspect. Though he denies everything, the police led by detective Yoshida (Renji Ishibashi) cajole Kanbe into giving a confession. Following leaked information that Kanbe had fertilizer and chemicals in his gardening shed that could be used to mix the lethal gas, the press was soon hounding any and everyone connected to Kanbe, demanding that he be punished for his alleged crimes. One local TV station news editor, Sasano (Kiichi Nakai, remained unswayed by the police's thin evidence. Together with his tough-minded ace reporter Asakawa (Yukiya Kitamura), he seeks to uncover the truth. This film was screened at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival.