I Just Didn't Do It (Soredemo boku wa yattenai) poster & wallpaper
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Ryo Kase, Asaka Seto, Koji Yakusho, Koji Yamamoto, Masako Motai

James Cameron wasn't the only major director of the 1990s who scored a huge international hit and waited twelve years to emerge with a follow-up; Japanese director Masayuki Suo did the same following ... read more read more...his 1995 box office sensation Shall We Dance?. Suo's much-different sophomore effort, the dark, earnest drama I Just Didn't Do It, emerged in 2007. A four-barreled excoriation of the Japanese legal system - slamming its hypocrisies and its weaknesses - the film concerns Teppei Kaneko (Ryo Kase of Letters from Iwo Jima), a man en route to his premier job interview on a crowded Tokyo train when he's unjustly accused of groping a Japanese schoolgirl. The court system tries to encourage him to plead guilty, but he passionately insists on his own innocence, which plunges him into a Kafkaesque black hole of bureaucratic suffering - endless interviews with police and attorneys, periods of incarceration, hearings, and other indignities. At the last minute, it appears that fate has dealt Teppei an encouraging hand, once he inherits an enthusiastic, skilled defense attorney - but alas, that attorney hands the case to a female junior partner (Asaka Seto) who believes in Teppei's guilt and refuses to be convinced otherwise. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

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90% liked it

638 ratings

Unrated, 2 hr. 23 min.

Directed by: Masayuki Suo

Release Date: November 1, 2006

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Flixster Reviews (101)

  • DragonEyeMorrison
    December 5, 2010
    DragonEyeMorrison
    Chillin, frustrating, revolting and the list of adjectives goes on. A sharply written and directed criticism towards a justice system based on public acceptance instead of the persecution of justice. The movie wisely avoids easy routes and traps of the genre. No big emotive speec... read moreh, no outrageous over the top melodramatic antics. Burocracy is a painful elevator that never seems to stop, and is always playing the same damn song. The detectives, and even the second judge are never portrayed as "evil" characters, they are just pieces of a big well oiled machine. Molesting a woman is not the real crime they chase, but the refusal of somebody to admit they did it, even if they didn't. Refusing to do the "honorable" thing in a situation where there is hardly any honor. Where molesting a woman is pretty much like paying a ticket for parking in the wrong place, and even that is probably a more expensive affair.

    No big shocks, no gore, and yet this was more shocking and scary than watching a dozen of stupid "torture-porn" flicks in a row. It's scary not only because it's real, but because of how little it seems that it can be done to change this horror.
  • sitenoise
    December 10, 2008
    sitenoise
    It must be chauvinistic to suggest that a film about a young man accused of touching a young girl's hip and right buttock under her skirt on a crowded train doesn't sound like a compelling two and a half hour legal drama, but this film is compelling and impeccably done. Japan's 9... read more9.9% conviction rate is the star of this show and it's scary stuff.
  • sfazenbaker
    April 15, 2008
    sfazenbaker
    WOW! What a view of the justice system. Beyond a shadow of a doubt means nothing here. Screening was packed at the Philadelphia Film Festival 2008.

View All I Just Didn't Do It (Soredemo boku wa yattenai) Reviews

Critic Reviews

Rich Cline
November 8, 2007
Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall

Throughout the overlong running time, Suo keeps us gripped with a witty, insightful approach. Full Review

Nick Schager
October 10, 2007
Nick Schager, Slant Magazine

Righteously infuriating in its comprehensive portrait of a system that values public approval ratings and a high conviction rate above the truth. Full Review

October 13, 2007
Variety

Click to read the article Full Review

October 18, 2008
Boxoffice Magazine

Click to read the article Full Review

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
January 3, 2008
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice

Click to read the article Full Review

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