Must say it’s quite jarring to be watching the first Galileo theatrical film from 2008 after watching so many of he more recent ones…everyone is SO YOUNG here!
Originally following the popular 2007 Galileo series, which was based on Galileo short story collections, the first film release was based on Keigo Higashino’s first novel proper featuring the eccentric genius Manabu Yukawa, “Yougisha X no Kenshin”, AKA “The Devotion of Suspect X”.
Suspect X tells the story of an introverted man named Ishigami (played by Shinichi Tsutsumi). A reserved Mathematics College professor, he is a loner who rejects all social relationships, and has even thought of ending it all…until a light enters his life.
Her name is Yasuko Hanaoka (Yasuko Matsuyuki) whom, along with her teenage daughter Misato (Miho Kanazawa) have just moved in to the apartment next to Ishigami, and though they don’t know it, they become the everyday sight that cheers him up on his dreary routine. Easily falling for the beautiful Yasuko, Ishigami even begins frequenting the bento shop she works at, jsut to be closer to her. Everything seems to be fine.
But what Ishigami doesn't realize is that this Mother and daughter are on the run from a hostile and abusive ex-husband Togashi. One night, he appears on Yasuko’s doorstep, having found them and deciding to re-enter their lives. Yasuko tries to fend him off, but when he begins assaulting her daughter, things take a turn and the Mom and daughter end up accidentally killing the man in the struggle.
The panicked women don’t know what to do, but just then Ishigami arrives at their doorstep. Seems that through the walls, he’s heard it all and, worrying for their safety and well-being, takes it upon himself to get rid of the body and use his genius mathematical mind to come up with the perfect alibi for the two.
The next day, a body turns up dead on the banks of the river, with Shunpei Kusanagi (Kazuki Kitamura) and Kaoru Utsumi (Kou Shibasaki) as the first investigators. Though the face of the corpse is mangled and the fingerprints burned away, they are able to identify him through various effects such as clothings and witnesses. But who is responsible for the killing?
They have list of suspects, but at the top of the list is Yasuko Hanaoka. By interviewing her past employees at her hostess job, they know that she has been on the run from her estranged husband and also find that Togashi had even mentioned that he was going to pay her a visit. it soon becomes clear that Hanaoka had a hand in the murder…but her alibi is rock solid.
Once they have hit a wall, Utsumi and Kusanagi do what they’ve come to rely on: paying a visit to the stoic professor Manabu Yukawa for help in cracking the seemingly unshakeable alibi of the suspect.
Initially Yukawa declines to assist in the case , for the usual reason of it not being stimulating enough to hold his interest. But when he finds that a person of interest is Hanaoka’s next door neighbor Tetsuya Ishigami, he is suddenly keenly intrigued in the case.
It seems this Ishigami is a old colleague of Yukawa’s back in his early college days. “I rarely call anyone a genius”, Yukawa relates to Utsumi, “But if there was one, Ishigami is it.”
Yukawa decides to pay his old friend a visit and talk about their college days. On the surface, things seem fine, but Yukawa senses an underlying unease between he and his colleague.
With a reluctant heart, Yukawa begins investigating the murder case on his own, and he is to find that his old college classmate may be more intricately intertwined in the murder than he ‘d ever believed.
When I found out it was based on the first novel, it made sense as you could feel the story’s grandness, and though it didn’t make a mark here in the states, it was EXTREMELY popular in japan and Devotion of Suspect X became the 3rd highest grossing film of 2008!!!
In any case it paved the way for yet another full season of Galileo and LOTS more TV specials and movies to come, ALL of which I'm completely enjoying right now!
