The disappearance in July 2000 of Lucie Blackman, a 21-year-old British bar hostess working in Tokyo, was one of the biggest stories to come out of Japan at the time. It was a case that grew more sensational and sinister with each passing week, involving a massive police operation working under intense scrutiny, some controversial interventions by Blackman’s family, and a tight-lipped suspect who seemed to be a manifestation of pure evil.
The case was so singular, it was a natural candidate for the Netflix true-crime treatment. Hyoe Yamamoto’s “Tokyo Police Files: The Lucie Blackman Case” offers a different perspective on an investigation that was often characterized by the media as sluggish, even downright incompetent.
Inspired by journalist Shoji Takao’s exhaustive chronicle of the case, “Elegy for Detectives” (2010), this glossy, fast-paced documentary features interviews with many of the police officers involved. They don’t always set the record straight, especially on some of the most nagging questions, but they offer genuine insights into what was really happening behind the scenes.