Camera Japan Rotterdam 2023 Review: DECEMBER

Courtroom drama films, they are a dime a dozen. The why of it is no mystery: they allow for the telling of excellent stories, twists can be inserted aplenty, and the upcoming verdict carries an automatically incorporated suspense. And for actors? Depending on the crime involved, you can portray a rollercoaster of empathy, fear, anger and loathing.

All of this means that if you don't mess up as a director, there is a good chance your courtroom drama will be at least decent, though you run the risk of it being derivative. With December, Anshul Chauhan does better than "not mess up". He delivers a compelling drama with a pretty unique viewpoint, and casually decides to chuck away the verdict suspense. Instead, without getting into abstract sophism, he invites his audience to think on the nature of guilt.

In December we initially follow Katsu and Sumiko, a divorced couple whose daughter Emi was murdered seven years ago. Both get a letter from the court, telling them that the prison sentence of Kano, the woman who murdered their daughter is about to be evaluated. Seven years earlier, Kano was a high school classmate of Emi, but one afternoon in December, Kano stabbed Emi to death. Due to public outrage Kano was tried as an adult and sentenced to an extremely long prison sentence, something her lawyer now tries to get rescinded, claiming that after seven years in prison, his client should be released.

Outraged, Katsu and Sumiko team up to show the judge that the initial verdict was indeed the right one. Interestingly, they're not the only one who doubt the justice behind a lesser sentencing. Kano herself wrestles daily with her conscience over the murder she committed and fears that even when she is released, society will never accept her anyway.

What follows is a character sketch of everyone involved, and everyone gets an extra layer. From the parents who have seen their lives destroyed by grief but who have chosen vastly different coping mechanisms, to the lawyer who wants to earn a quick buck but also sees a clear miscarriage of justice, to the murderer who sincerely wonders what to do next.

There are numerous pitfalls such a film can fall into, from the overly sentimental to the depressing, to the ridiculously uplifting. Director Chauhan veers close to them all but manages to avoid fully falling into them too. His film stays interesting and watchable even when devoid of grand twists or mounting suspense. There are no blacks and whites here either, the spectrum offered is as grey as its titular month often is.

December was well-received by the Rotterdam audiences, ending in the Camera Japan film festival's top 10. And I know a few people who thought it was the festival's best this year. Me, I'm a bit more in the middle, but it is definitely a good film, well told, and very well acted.