‘Do Unto Others’ review: Dir. Tetsu Maeda (2024)

thehollywoodnews.com:

Adapted from the 2013 novel by Aki Hamanaka, Do Unto Others directed by Tetsu Maeda is a dramatisation of Japan’s ongoing morality debate on the subject of euthanasia.

What initially starts out as a criminal detective story, soon leads audiences into questioning their own position on the very touchy subject of assisted death of elderly patients suffering from degenerative diseases such as dementia. A spate of deaths amongst the elderly community under the care of the Yaga Care Center, as well as the murder of the care center’s manager causes detective Hidemi Otomo (played by Masami Nagasawa) to investigate the seemingly quiet and empathetic carer Munenori Shiba (Kenichi Matsuyama).

What is soon revealed is that the unassuming and mysterious Munenori is in fact, a prolific serial killer with 42 victims under his belt.

Munenori murders elderly patients in order to relieve not only the patients of their suffering, but also their family carers of the“burden”, stemming from his own past experience of caring for his incapacitated father.