They Don’t Do Film Like This Anymore
Sep 1
2 min read
Released in 2011 and directed by Kōki Mitani, A Ghost of a Chance (ステキな金縛り) is a courtroom comedy that dares to put a ghost on the witness stand. Eri Fukatsu plays Emi Hosho, a third‑rate lawyer without much of a future, tasked with defending Goro Yabe, a man arrested for the murder of his wife. Without much hope of winning, Yabe proclaims his innocence, saying he was under sleep paralysis at the time of the murder. Emi travels to the inn where Yabe stayed and encounters the ghost of the fallen samurai Rokubei Sarashina, who claims he was the one who paralyzed Yabe. Rokubei is brought to court as a witness, but the prosecution denies the existence of the occult, asserting his testimony is inadmissible. So begins the struggle to prove Yabe’s innocence.
The film grossed over $54 million in Japan, proof that audiences embraced its eccentric originality. Yet watching it today, the absurd premise feels like a relic. A film that treats the supernatural with straight‑faced sincerity, that stages comedy as theatre, that believes in whimsy without irony.
The film’s message is about the fragility of truth when institutions refuse to see beyond their own rigid frameworks. Insisting that a ghost can testify reminds us that what is invisible or unbelievable can still shape reality. Emi Hosho’s fight to prove Yabe’s innocence becomes a metaphor for ordinary people struggling against systems that dismiss them. In 2011, with Japan shaken by disaster and mistrustful of official narratives, this message resonated deeply. The Fukushima nuclear crisis and the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami had eroded public confidence in authority, leaving society painfully aware of unseen forces that could upend lives. Against this backdrop, the film’s courtroom absurdity became more than comedy — it was a reflection of a world where official truths felt brittle, and where imagination offered a way to confront uncertainty.
A Ghost of a Chance shows that comedy can carry moral weight, absurdity can reveal human reality, and cinema should dare to embrace ghosts if it helps us see ourselves. It is a reminder of a cinematic tradition that valued wit, sincerity, and humanity over cynicism. They truly don’t make films like this anymore.
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