(Matsumoto Mao) Right after birth…
I was dropped in front of a police station.
16 years later…
My mother suddenly wished to reconnect with me.
The first time I saw my mother, was as a corpse.
Whether it was an accident or an homicide or a suicide.
No one knows how she fell from that roof.
(Yashiki Ichiro) What's the connection between your victims and Matsumoto?
The truth always comes walking from the other side.
(Kosugi) It's time to tell you the truth.
The truth behind my mother's death?
8 years ago, when Matsumoto's mother fell…
Is when I met you. You know the circumstances of her death…
You autopsied her. -It's all in the report.
Matsumoto had moved to the States, but came back to Japan…
Found a position at the Medical Examiner's Office…
In order to expose your lie.
8 years before.
Dear Mao, the 12th Aug at 3pm I'll be waiting for you in front of Tokyo tower. I'm looking forward to seeing you soon, Mao. from your mother Natsuko.
(Mobile phone).
(Kosugi) "Are you Mao-chan?"
"Your mom won't be coming"
Huh?
(Inspector) Dr. Indene, this is Natsuko Matsumoto's daughter.
(Inspector) Could she identify the body?
She died from a fall from the roof of the General Hospital.
(Inspector) Is she your mother?
I don't know.
This is the first time…
I see her.
I don't know.
Were you hiding something from me?
How did she fall from that roof?
Someone pushed her?
I don't know.
The police didn't know if it was murder, suicide or accident.
That's why we don't know.
You could very well be lying.
Enough of that.
So now you see me as a liar?
Maybe Matsumoto and that inmate are manipulating you.
Dr. Indene.
[Post-mortem report Natsuko Matsumoto signature: Dr. Indene]
What's this?
You have it, so what?
Be sure I will elucidate how my mother fell to her death.
"Zero Truth" Medical examiner Matsumoto Mao.
Shinagawa station West exit.
(Man) You're always late.
We're going to that bar, come quick.
What? Where to? -I told you.
Hey, what's this?
Aaaah!
Jumper!
Call the police!
(Police siren).
(Tomita) Where do you come from?
We took the same cab.
Medical Examiner's Office.
How did you manage to be together?
Back off. Brief me.
(Tomita) Uchino Hikari, 25.
Fell from the roof of this building at 19:46.
Many witnesses. She left her bag up there.
With wallet, insurance card, mobile phone…
One hour before she sent a mail "I want to die"…
Looks like a suicide.
(Indene) How high is it? 40 meters.
(Indene) Your first time. -Yes.
Where are the witnesses? (Tomita) Here.
The shoes fell first. -Yeah…
Then she fell. right behind us.
So scary, she could have killed us too!
Right?
Wounds with a fracture to the left heel bone.
Left femur fracture.
(Male) She may have fell feet first.
(Tomita) Feet first?
Like this.
Thank you.
Skin exfoliation on the left and right outer side of the forearm.
Epidermis exfoliation on right elbow.
(Indene) At first sight, it's obvious she fell feet first.
Jumper often fall feet first.
I would go feet first. because there's always fear.
But if they are pushed, they often fall head first.
This and her suicide note… definitely a suicide.
No autopsy needed.
Cause of death multiple organ damage due to fall. -No way.
We don't know if it's suicide.
There is no S-shaped laceration.
The issue of suicide is for the police.
S-shaped?
The right hand fingers have an unnatural bend.
Exfoliation in the palm of her hand.
This too has to be examined.
Please take her to the Medical Examiner's Office.
You have to be so finicky on a jumper?
Leave your personal feelings in the locker when you come to work.
This has nothing to do with my personal feelings.
The task of the medical examiner is to establish the cause of death.
Uchino Hikari, 25, Employee size: 162cm.
(Iwamatsu Masahiko) What kind of body do we have today?
(Iwamatsu) Oh, a drowned body.
And there, a jumper.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
A sample from the exfoliation of the palm was sent to the lab.
It's sent already? -Yes.
I did an AI scan this morning too.
(Sigh).
This is the image.
Ring-shaped fracture at the base of the skull due to the fall.
(Indene) Typical of a suicide jumper.
Is that what it says?
Her feet took all the impact of the fall…
The shock wave went up the spine…
Along the bones up to the skull…
The spine suddenly shoots straight up…
And hits violently the skull from beneath.
So the spine penetrates the skull.
I'll open the head to check.
But you already scanned the head?!
Please check chest and abdominal organs first.
… yes, sir.
(Kodama) Check the nails for cyanosis. -Yes.
Are the girls quarreling?
They usually do. -Oh, they do?!
Contusion of the right inferior pulmonary lobe by fracture of the ribs.
The left liver lobe is crushed.
Crush of the spleen.
Death by organ damage and brain contusion by annular fracture.
This supports the suicide angle.
Do you have any complaints?
(Phone).
I'll answer this.
(Phone).
Autopsy laboratory.
Thank you.
The sample taken from the right palm exfoliation of Uchino Hikari…
Contains traces of metal.
And so what then?
That means, Uchino Hikari…
Fell head first or back first…
And in her fall tried to grab something…
She grabbed a metal bar in mid-fall, her body rotated.
And fell on her feet.
… isn't that the explanation?
You mean that someone pushed her?
It's probable.
(Iwamatsu) The mood is turning sour.
Aren't they already working overtime on this body?
It's fine.
You concluded that last night she had grabbed something in her fall?
No. I realized it only at the autopsy.
Bullsh*t! Why didn't you say so last night?
I'm not lying.
You'd have closed the case too soon and overlook something important.
I close the abdomen.
Hosaka, next body please! (Hosaka) Sure.
(Tsukuda Kentaro) the metal component is analyzed.
(Kume green) You didn't have to rush it.
They're dealing with dead people, it's not like there's any emergency.
I see you have that same burden on your mind.
You want your transfer back to the municipal hospital?
Any place where I'd work for the 'living'.
Chief Izumisawa said it.
(Izumisawa Ikuo) Don't think that corpses are anything special.
Death is just one of the stages of a body.
Between life and death there's a line thinner than paper…
Life and death have the close intimacy of a kiss.
Whether dead or alive…
Our analyzing task is just the same.
You're so smart with your lecture… move aside.
(Tsukuda) Good, I'll do it. -Thanks a lot.
Oh!
(Nakayama) It can turn nasty quickly.
"Before you realize it, the sunlight has softened.
Someone leaves you, autumn is there." [poem]
Chief, we did not break up in autumn.
As for me I don't know when I'll leave.
Finally?
So you're appointed Professor at the university? -Hm.
It will be me or Pr. Yamashina.
(Nakayama) When do they decide?
Next month, I count on your support. -Yes.
(Hosaka) But we're city clerks.
How can we be appointed in a University?
Hosaka-san!
The heart has no boundaries. -The heart?
Whatever you find interesting in that ivory tower, good luck in any case.
I'm leaving.
Goodbye.
Dr. Indene, such a wise soul.
That ivory tower has long collapsed.
And left a place for something new to be built…
A Forensic Faculty with a new spirit.
Right chief? -Are we going for the sparkles tonight?
A celebration in advance! -Let's go get it!
Akiyama-kun. -(Akiyama Haruko) Yes. -You come along.
I'm good. I have an appointment.
so, we'll be the usual gang.
Hey, you!
It's dangerous! Stop!
Watanabe! -Yes.
Easy, easy now!
What do you do?
She's Dr. Matsumoto with the Examiner's Office. -Sorry.
Did you check this terrace thoroughly?
Uchino Hikari grabbed a handrail in her fall…
There could be traces of her DNA midway through the fall?
That means, the metal in her palm would come from here?
Dr. Indene told you?
Indene is as bad as you think.
(Wireless) We'll test for blood deposits with luminol…
"Starting the test."
(Tomita) You'll upset the boss again with that much personnel overtime.
How is that wimp ever gonna arrest criminals.
A suicide-like case he won't look into the report.
(Examiner) Test positive for blood on the 4th floor.
Look at that, Heaven is favoring us.
You spent that much on overtime without notice.
We don't have funds left for the slasher of Arakawa now.
It's only today.
Don't disrupt hierarchy and orders, don't place yourself above it.
(Tomita) We have a footage from the elevator.
Let's see that.
Chief, the coordination meeting.
(Tomita) There she is, Uchino Hikari.
Just that girl with her.
(Tomita) Is she a friend?
How did you fall?
(Siren).
Uchino Hikari fell from that roof head first…
At the 4th floor she tried to grab the rail and flipped.
She has traces of metal in her right palm.
We found blood on the rail…
There is no doubt she grabbed the handrail.
Her body flipped as she grabbed it.
She flipped right side up.
Then touched the ground feet first.
The shock wave went up the spine…
Along the bones straight up to the skull.
And hit violently the skull from beneath.
At this point, further autopsy isn't necessary…
The police chief says we can return the body to the family… -Let's do so.
Matsumoto-kun contradicted the suicide conclusion of the police.
Then took upon herself to show them that this case is criminal…
It was necessary in order to elucidate the correct cause of death.
You're going too far!
But… it's laudable.
Dismissed!
His manner of speech he's changed.
Now he has the Tokyo University professor's hat.
Who will be chief after him Dr. Indene or Dr. Iwamatsu?
Dr. Iwamatsu is following Chief to Tokyo University. -Is that a deal?
(Kodama) Congratulations! (Nakayama) Congratulations.
(Chime).
Is there anything new?
We'd like to talk to Yoshimi, her elder sister.
Yoshimi.
(Uchino Yoshimi) I was dating him first, she stepped into our couple.
It was awkward.
I wanted her to give him up.
To forbid her to disrupt our happiness.
I called her to tell her that.
(Tomita) But why meet on that roof?
I don't know.
(Uchino Hikari) Which of us both would he not mind vanishing, you think?
(Yoshimi) You want me to vanish? -I don't know.
I was dating him first.
Respect that precedence.
(Hikari) What's that 'precedence'.
I'm asking you.
Answer me!
(Yoshimi) Oh…!
(Hikari) There…!
(Thud!).
You pushed her?
If the wind hadn't blown.
(Yoshimi) This wasn't supposed to happen.
(Yoshimi) I killed my little sister.
I can't believe it…
(Indene) We're done.
This case is closed.
But……
But there's still a fall that I need to elucidate.
We're back to square one.
Young as you are, you keep a heavy past.
The parents are here to see the body.
Why did it happen?
Doctor!
The police will tell you.
An autopsy can't answer that.
(Father) This is terrible, the two daughters we raised.
I pretended not to see.
(Crying mother).
Now it's all clear…
The parents failed to be present.
How did my mom die?
Matsumoto Natsuko jumped…
From the roof of the General Hospital…
She broke her cervical vertebrae and died.
Why would a cervical break in such a fashion?
You'll have to ask the police.
An autopsy can't tell you that.
Today……
Was the first day I met my mother.
I gave my word.
[Unknown cause of fall]
Autopsy : Dr. Indene.
松 -Matsu -本 -moto -夏 Natsu -子 -ko.
Matsumoto Natsuko.
[Photos of autopsy]
Data erased.
What's up?
Please show me photo of my mother's body.
You have them at your office.
They've been erased from the autopsy record.
Indene is hiding something.
You have to have examination photos at the Police Department.
Let me see them. -And to see what?
If I look at them I'm sure I'll see something.
It won't be possible. you don't have clearance.
I want to see them, I'm asking.
I'm sorry your mother died…
But that was 8 years ago.
How much longer this obsession?
Come back to your senses.
Look at your life ahead.
The anodyne of oblivion… will be in the truth.
Go back.
What if I told you why Kosugi-san killed those three?
Is that a trade?
It's my last bet.
Wanna gamble?
I do.
My mother was an assistant of Pr. Kosugi at Keimei University.
She was studying science and engineering.
(Kosugi) Your mother was among my students…
She was by far the smartest and most beautiful.
(Kosugi) I fell in love with Natsuko's brain.
And of her beauty too, of course.
I dreamed for her of a glorious future as a scholar.
You know…
Everything I had, I bet on Natsuko.
But her research was not top priority for her.
What was it?
A man.
She told me she felt alive only at the arm of a man.
This was so petty.
So ridiculous and at the same time fascinating.
She'd tell me openly about her love for him.
Then she was the most radiant.
Natsuko had no secret for me.
She got pregnant with you just before entering her doctoral program.
Her companion was a twenty years old art school student.
He was living with her.
When her term is approached…
He said her graceless silhouette was dejecting him… he dumped her.
So that's why she gave me up at birth?
Yeah.
Of course, if she didn't have a child…
He would come back, she thought.
My father is Mamiya Manabu that you killed first?
That's right.
A man who hurts Natsuko…
And insulted her, deserved no pardon.
Were you involved with my mother?
The second man I killed was violent.
(Kosugi) I made sure he had a painful death.
Asao Ryuta, the third man, was an excellent doctor.
He was single.
At first I felt he was suitable for Natsuko.
But then…
Why did she want to meet me 16 years later?
Maybe she thought you, her and Asao would be a family…
(Sigh).
So selfish.
Selfish as she was, she was your mother.
Her self-indulgence was her charm.
Because of her self-indulgence.
(Laughter).
But Asao soon got tired of her intensity and impetuousness …
He called her on the phone to break up.
The day I was to meet her, 16 years later?
Between you and Asao, she chose to meet him.
She said should sent you a text message to meet you…
"See ya", she told me, then went.
(Kosugi) Something was odd about it.
I went the General Hospital where Asao worked.
(Kosugi) Excuse me.
Are you Mao-chan?
Your mom won't come.
Eh?
Go to Kotokei police station by taxi.
(Kosugi) "Your mother will be there."
Who are you?
Why is my mother not coming?
(Kosugi) You didn't push Natsuko Matsumoto from that roof, right?
(Asao Ryuta) As I said to the police…
At the time she fell I was with colleagues and nurses…
I couldn't possibly push her.
So why would Natsuko fall from that roof?
(Asao) I have no idea.
Don't lie!
Natsuko died and then…
I died too, and her daughter too.
You've killed the 3 of us.
Wh… what do you want to do?
Why didn't you tell that to the judge?
Death……
For you, will be a relief.
You remember. -I remember everything you said.
From this day, forget about your mom.
I won't.
This is Matsumoto Natsuko's archive.
Inquiry report.
Archive photos.
I can't let you take photos.
There's a CCTV.
I'm already taking a risk by bringing you here, be quick.
Exfoliation on the left cheek.
Exfoliation on the right shoulder.
Skin discoloration on the right upper arm rear.
No wounds on the lower limbs.
Exfoliation on the right cheek.
S-shaped laceration of the right armpit.
I saw a photo of the body of my mother.
Yashiki, then.
Inside her right armpit…
She had a clear S-shaped laceration.
When people jump feet first, the S-shaped laceration is caused by skin stretching…
Each floor of the hospital has a balcony…
With concrete only on the second floor.
My mother fell feet first.
Then came the S-shaped laceration…
Then the protruding concrete of that 2nd floor gave her a spin…
She hit the ground head first.
While investigating Uchino Hikari's fall I realized.
You probably had it all figured out…
But why didn't you tell the truth 8 years ago?
For your own sake.
When you were 16, you were not that strong yet.
(Indene) You were scared, shocked and lost.
[Dear Mao… I'll be waiting for you… Tokyo Tower… ]
(Indene) It's finished, where's your accompanying adult?
(Indene) The first time you came to meet your mom.
A 16 years old coming alone to Japan…
Your mom broke her promise and chose death instead.
I didn't want you to realize.
That's why I wrote in the report that we couldn't determine…
If it was accidental death or suicide or murder.
But…
It was a suicide.
It was.
(Indene) The S-shaped laceration was clear.
When you showed up 8 years later at the Medical Examiner's Office.
I saw your exceptional determination.
You had come to solve the death of your mother…
That's when you first touched my heart.
I had wondered if I had made the right call.
There I realized it was right, it had born into fruition.
Your mom's motive for jumping from here…
You'll never know for sure.
by this act, she stripped you off of your future.
My future? -Yes.
Your future.
Her motive for jumping from here?
I have a fairly good idea.
Instead of her daughter, she had chosen a man.
She gave me up at birth.
And gave me up 8 years ago again.
What a horrible mother…
But until now I had only the image of her corpse…
But now I start to grasp the 'life' part of her.
When you told me she had a S-shaped laceration.
I was convinced.
However hard it may be…
However sad it may be…
The fact is…
I'll always be dedicated to the truth.
And let it know.
So stubborn.
Yes.
(Prison officer) Kosugi says he won't see you.
If you could give this to him. -Sure.
Thank you.
(Nakayama) They'll chose the professor at 1pm.
(Iwamatsu) Normally. -It's tough to wait.
Good luck.
(Nakayama) If all works well Dr. Indene is our next chief.
(Hosaka) We're back. (Nakayama) Hi.
Matsumoto-kun?
Matsumoto-kun, please.
Yes.
The Forensic Faculty of Tokyo is choosing a professor.
If I won, I'd be back to my Faculty…
I'd like you to come with me.
You're a pain in the neck as an examiner.
You often stray away from our guidelines.
However, you're talented.
You'd be a valuable asset in my Faculty…
And also to hone your talent…
Please, consider my offer.
They haven't chosen their professor yet.
If you said yes now, I'm sure they'd chose me.
I became a medical examiner to work in the Medical Examiner's Office.
My place is here, i have no other ambition.
I am sorry.
Matsumoto, we have an on-site assignment.
Coming right away.
I don't have a clue about them.
Not a clue.
I'm out. (Nakayama / Hosaka) Have a nice day.
(Election Commission) Professor Izumisawa.
Professor Yamashina.
Professor Izumisawa.
(Hosaka) We're the Medical Examiner's Office.
(Police) Police Department. -Some things never change.
Hi there. -I need money to buy water.
You have a dollar coin in your ear.
But I have to add the tax.
Hosaka) Dr. Indene is not your ATM machine…
What a dull civil servant. -I'm going ahead.
The autumn races are coming, you lend me $500, you'll have 1000 back.
Let me do my job first.
Yesss!
This is my Queen Indene. -Let's get to work.
No trauma noticeable on the head.
(Hosaka) Yes.
(Kosugi Sadao) The medical examiner is the last to take care of a person.
The medical examiner determines the correct cause of death.
To return dignity to the dead…
He connects that single death to the many lives he left behind.
Eric Paroissien subtitles.