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HALF A CONFESSION

HAN-OCHI

By Kiyoshi SASABE

TOEI COMPANY, LTD. - as SALES All rights, World

Drama - Completed 2004

Based on a best-selling novel by Hideo Yokoyama. What was the former detective doing in the two days before he turned himself in for strangling the wife he loved? Putting flame in the deepest part of the human heart, this 'ultimate story of married love' burns its shadows deep into screen.

- Year of production
- 2004
- Genres
- Drama, Crime
- Countries
- JAPAN
- Languages
- JAPANESE
- Budget
- 3 - 5 M$
- Duration
- 121 mn
- Director(s)
- Kiyoshi SASABE
- Writer(s)
- Hideo YOKOYAMA, Toshiyuki TABE, Kiyoshi SASABE
- Cast
- Akira TERAO, Mieko HARADA, Kyohei SHIBATA, Kirin KIKI
- Synopsis
- “Three days ago, I, Soichiro Kaji, have strangled and killed my wife, Keiko, at home.”
  
  Half a year ago, Kaji resigned from his detective post to look after Keiko who was diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s disease and took up the position of training young police academy officers. How could someone like Kaji who was widely respected and loved by all commit murder?
  
  During officer Shiki’s examination, not only Shiki but the senior officers at the Prefectural Police Agency who join in are all lost when they see an adamant Kaji who speaks nothing of what has happened in the 2 days since he strangles Keiko to death until he turns himself in. This case caused by an officer in service threatens the Prefectural Police Agency’s prestige and the trust held by thousands of officers there. The senior officers order Shiki to fabricate the facts of the “missing 2 days” through leading questions. What has happened between this husband and wife who have supported each other since the loss of their only son, Toshiya, who died from acute myeloid leukemia without waiting for his 14th birthday?
  
  As the case shifts, the prosecutor in charge (Sase), the lawyer (Uemura), the newspaper reporter aiming for a scoop (Nakao), and the judge (Fujibayashi), all bearing their own lives on their shoulders and holding their own thoughts approach in on the human side of Kaji and the life that he has led in order to reveal the truth behind this case.
  
  In the midst of this, there is Shiki who searches for the “truth”. There is Sase who is forced to withdraw from the case due to the behind-the-scene dealings between the Prefectural Police Agency and the District Public Prosecutors Office. There is Uemura who takes advantage of this situation and is eager to get closer to Kaji in order to gain a good reputation of his own. There is Nakao who grasps one end of the picture of Kaji’s “missing 2 days”. There is Fujibayashi whose mind is grazed by his father who had the same illness as Keiko. And then, there are the words of Doctor Takagi who was in charge of Toshiya that had past away, saying “ Not long after Toshiya had fallen ill, Kaji and his wife had registered themselves as donors.” In court on the witness stand, there is Yasuko, Keiko’s older sister who breaks down crying with the words “I…couldn’t even kill Keiko…”. In Keiko’s diary that is held in custody, an article from a reader’s column titled “Thank you for this life” is found stuck onto one of the pages. And there are the words that Kaji questions Uemura who has undertaken the position of defending him, “Don’t you have that someone that you want to protect?”…
  
  What is the “truth” behind Kaji’s life where he is desperately wanting to live just one more year no matter what sacrifice he has to make or criticisms he may receive, as he tediously waits for “the day that was meant to come”!?