My Impressions of The Snow White Murder Case

(Using image from: http://asianwiki.com/The_Snow_White_Murder_Case)

I recently watched the Japanese movie, The Snow White Murder Case. Overall, I found it interesting. The movie is a murder mystery type of story, but it is told through multiple perspectives where one of the characters is an entertainment reporter investigating on the incident for his TV network to broadcast. We don't see anything from the police's point of view. There is a high focus on social media with Twitter being the main tool that is used in the movie. The movie is about the murder of Noriko Miki who worked at a cosmetics company. The entertainment reporter, Yuji Akahoshi, starts to investigate about the incident through an university friend, Risako Kana, who happens to work at the same company as the victim. The primary suspect for the case as told from Risako is Miki Shirono, another co-worker that works at the same cosmetics company. That is because Miki disappeared the night of the murder.

Throughout the whole movie, Yuji asks questions to various people and we get their perspective on the events that led up to the murder and their own point of view on the character of Miki. Each time, there is some variations told in the story and you begin to wonder which person is telling the truth and which one is telling lies. It keeps you guessing with anticipation on who is actually the murderer until the last act of the movie. I think all of the actors and actresses in the movie acted well, especially the main actress, Mao Inoue. I really like the relationship with her childhood best friend, Yuko Tanimura. It brings a fresh take on the murder mystery genre with a story that does not focus on the investigation from the police detectives, and CSI stuff. It brings up that the internet is truly a scary place where people can hide behind their computers and say whatever they want. They could be good or bad, and they are completely anonymous with no consequences on their actions with what they said. Their words can really hurt people without realizing it. They could be just words, but without any context, they could be interpreted however they want by the recipient. The movie also include the effect of how strong the TV network can play in portraying the personality of an individual. They could paint them to be a good person or a bad person, and it could just escalate with the help of social media. I think one of the messages this movie wants to say is to not judge someone by its cover.

As I said at the beginning of this short review, I really enjoy watching this film. This movie is sort of like a social commentary on modern society that incorporates the power of social media into a popular news topic. 

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