Nippon dorobô monogatari

An excellent film from Satsuo Yamamoto, a compelling social conscious crime drama, the setting is 1949, chaotic times economically and socially. Nippon dorobô monogatari is a fictional story built around a true life incident. A flawless multi faceted drama with an absorbing screenplay, excellent performances creatively illuminated with stylish b&w cinematography. Hayashida (Rentaro Mikuni) is an illegal dentist during the daytime, in the evening he moon-lights as a professional storehouse burglar. One eventful outing, Hayashida becomes witness to a train derailment. Members of the Japanese Communist Party are blamed &,arrested, but witness Hayashida is not so sure, he could save innocent people, but for that he must confess and acknowledge his own crimes...

The Matsukawa derailment occurred on August 17, 1949 when a Main Line passenger train derailed and overturned between Kanayagawa and Matsukawa stations in Fukushima Prefecture Japan, killing three crew members. The case received tremendous publicity, it was one of three major criminal cases involving allegations of sabotage blamed by the government on the Japanese Communist Party and the National Railway Union. Twenty people were arrested and seventeen were convicted in 1953 (four of whom received death sentences), however eventually all were acquitted on appeal, and the case was finally closed without determining the real cause in 1970.