Judging by the title, you'd think "Suspect X" refers to a detective story with a shady, unknown suspect that the protagonists struggle to identify. Not so; from the start the viewer is shown exactly who the murderer is, and despite a supposedly genius cover up, the police have a "hunch" that is exactly correct within five minutes of finding the body, and spend most of the film trying to prove it (completely ignoring the possibility of other suspects despite a total lack of evidence).
If you're a fan of the Galileo TV series you may be disappointed by the lack of complicated pseudo-science in the film's mystery. Likewise, the chemistry between Yukawa and Detective Utsumi takes a back seat. What the film is really about is a character drama between a single mother, a reclusive Maths genius, and Yukawa.
Single mother Hanaoka divorced her abusive husband and fled to establish her own business. But her ex-husband catches up to her, and after a three-way struggle between mother, daughter and husband, he winds up dead. Enter Ishigami, Hanaoka's reclusive next door neighbour who hears the struggle. In the aftermath of the fight, he approaches the family and proposes to help them create an alibi. Using his genius mathematics he covers it up and tells Hanaoka how to perfectly avoid police suspicion- until Yukawa gets involved. And old friend of Ishigami's, Yukawa is suspicious but more than anything else he is driven to find out his friend's motivation. This forms the main drive of the film.
... and that part is pretty good. The character of Ishigami is genuinely well played and intriguing. His interactions with Hanaoka and Yukawa are convincing and help to carry the movie.
There's only one real problem with the film- but it's a big one. It's stupid. At the end of the day, when you actually stop and think about Ishigami's "genius" plan doesn't make sense. It involves a second completely pointless murder, and it turns out that the original body was disposed of in a way that the police never found it. Despite this, Ishigami decides that it's necessary to kill someone else and dump their body in plain sight as part of his bizarre master plan. On top of this, we're supposed to believe that the police force devotes dozens and dozens of officers to investigating the murder of a deadbeat divorcée.
Your enjoyment of the film will boil down entirely to how much you're willing to ignore. If you can switch your brain off and just enjoy the acting then the interaction between Ishigama, Yukawa and Hanaoka will keep you interested. Otherwise you'll be left frowning and saying "Hold on a minute..." as the credits start to roll.
If you're a fan of the Galileo TV series you may be disappointed by the lack of complicated pseudo-science in the film's mystery. Likewise, the chemistry between Yukawa and Detective Utsumi takes a back seat. What the film is really about is a character drama between a single mother, a reclusive Maths genius, and Yukawa.
Single mother Hanaoka divorced her abusive husband and fled to establish her own business. But her ex-husband catches up to her, and after a three-way struggle between mother, daughter and husband, he winds up dead. Enter Ishigami, Hanaoka's reclusive next door neighbour who hears the struggle. In the aftermath of the fight, he approaches the family and proposes to help them create an alibi. Using his genius mathematics he covers it up and tells Hanaoka how to perfectly avoid police suspicion- until Yukawa gets involved. And old friend of Ishigami's, Yukawa is suspicious but more than anything else he is driven to find out his friend's motivation. This forms the main drive of the film.
... and that part is pretty good. The character of Ishigami is genuinely well played and intriguing. His interactions with Hanaoka and Yukawa are convincing and help to carry the movie.
There's only one real problem with the film- but it's a big one. It's stupid. At the end of the day, when you actually stop and think about Ishigami's "genius" plan doesn't make sense. It involves a second completely pointless murder, and it turns out that the original body was disposed of in a way that the police never found it. Despite this, Ishigami decides that it's necessary to kill someone else and dump their body in plain sight as part of his bizarre master plan. On top of this, we're supposed to believe that the police force devotes dozens and dozens of officers to investigating the murder of a deadbeat divorcée.
Your enjoyment of the film will boil down entirely to how much you're willing to ignore. If you can switch your brain off and just enjoy the acting then the interaction between Ishigama, Yukawa and Hanaoka will keep you interested. Otherwise you'll be left frowning and saying "Hold on a minute..." as the credits start to roll.