Based on a real-world case known as the Yakai Incident, Tadashi Imai’s Mahiru no ankoku (US: Darkness at Noon) is as much a social drama as a crime thriller, a brutal criticism of corruption in the Japanese judicial system and its effect on the everyday lives and relationships of a small society in Yamaguchi Prefecture. Unmakeable before the end of Imperial Japan in 1947, the film ostensibly stars Teruo Matsuyama as Takeshi Kojima, a young, broke craftsman arrested for brutally murdering the elderly Nishina couple and stealing the money they had been rumored to be hoarding (Kojima’s reenactment for the detectives of his stealthy break-in, discovery of the couple, axe-chopping of the old man, and hanging of the old woman is a highlight in terms of both visual style and dramatic suspense). Given the elaborate crime scene, investigators don’t believe Kojima did it alone, so they torture him into naming four innocent accomplices, whom are then tortured into admitting doing what they didn’t do; the disturbing torture sequence comprises four detectives passing him around to punch him in the face, karate flipping him onto his back in quick succession, kicking his ribs, holding a lit cigar to his flesh, etc. Due to his criminal past, Seiji Uemura (Kôjirô Kusanagi) is targeted as the ringleader, which sets him on a path toward the death penalty. Despite the dark, despairing subject matter (and a devastating final shot), the film still makes room for occasional lightheartedness, most notably in the defense lawyer’s courtroom narration of the prosecutor’s ludicrous theory of how the gang executed the crime, the film’s “reenactment” using almost Keystone Kops editing and circus-like music to convey the absurdity.