Shotai (2024)

The law’s got a face... but It’s hiding!

Faceless / Shotai is a suspenseful crime drama that highlights just how flawed and corrupted the justice system can be and how it affects the innocent.

It's a story of Kaburagi who is wrongly accused of murder and has escaped prison, becoming a fugitive. Throughout his journey he meets several people, each with a new identity,  to find answers on his own when the system fails him, earning the trust from all of them.

Faceless was an appropriate english title for this. The disguises he adopts definitely serves the practical purpose in hiding his identity, but they also symbolize the psychological pressure to forced to exist as anyone but himself.
There is an eerie tension surrounding everyone, whether it’s the suspect or those investigating them.
The background score was really on point, adding a lot to the suspense without being too extra. It totally helped build the vibe and kept things tense in the best way.

The only issue for me was the pacing. The first half felt extremely slow compared to the climatic second half. They were trying to paint a picture in the first half, but it could be expedited a bit. And maybe they could have provided more context about Kaburagi and his background to help connect more with him as a character.

The acting across the board looked solid with everyone fitting perfectly into their roles. No one seemed out of place or unsynchronized. Yokohama Ryusei particularly stood out in the emotional scenes.

Overall, this was a good movie that kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end, questioning some serious flaws on how law works and serious consequences of turning a blind eye.

Note: I have neither read the novel nor seen the series, so this review is based solely on the movie, without any prior background.

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Life On The Run With Plenty To Keep You Engaged

Shotai deals with what happens to someone who is wrongfully convicted of a heinous crime, and finds themselves on death row and then manages to escape. It also has a parallel story regarding what has happened to the FL’s father who has faced injustice, the show’s main theme. It would seem the Japanese detectives are biased, although troubled by past events from earlier investigations into the ML.

The film is a slick production and the two hours passes by quickly. Our protagonist, although on the run, is seeking the truth of what happened that lead to his arrest and subsequent trial. During his life on the run, he adopts different disguises, works in different jobs, but his personality remains consistent throughout - he is kind and thoughtful.

Although we don’t get to see much regarding the legal side, apart from court scenes, show undersells how the Japanese justice system works -which is different to what little we see on screen. In this respect, I marked the movie down half a star for this very point. However, it doesn’t detract from the overall enjoyment of this movie.

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