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In-flight screen: Could we interest you in a movie? Me: Not that interested in superheroes. “How about a slice-of-life story for a Japanese salaryman?” Me: You have my attention. “He works in a bank.” Oh they made this for me. “It’s a melodrama about financial fraud.”
If you share my interests the title is “Shylock’s Children” and there is a (very serviceable) English translation available in, presumably, lots of places. (New word for the day: “statute of limitations.” Need to look the Japanese up again when I get home.)
If you’re not used to Japanese cinema be forewarned that this is not exactly a hard-hitting true-to-life accounting procedural; to make the plot move one particular bank branch in Tokyo sees about as much crime as Japan does in a year. But it’s good and keenly observed.
(For example, the dressing down of subordinates is practically verbatim how that goes in real life, my salaryman-dar said “This is the point where the four managers should offer to fall on their swords to protect their branch” and not *ten seconds later*, etc etc)
“Did it involve crypto?” Goodness no it involved high tech Japanese banking like knowing how to fold an 印鑑証明書 so that you can verify a company stamp on a mortgage prior to unfolding it for the old hold-up-to-the-light test. It was a good crisp fold. 10/10 no notes
Melodrama aside the movie knows where it is taking dramatic liberties and respects the audience enough to say “This would of course get caught in a boring way but we’ll introduce a layered conspiracy for some excitement.”
If I were watching this with civilians I’d have to keep a running commentary like “Oh the junior banker running approximately $70k in cash to a fishmonger in a paper bag? Yeah we absolutely do that. Not fishy business at all. Good customer service for a valued business client.”
“They were able to just F5 an internal bank application to catch a transfer made in under a second of reload time? The special effects team probably worked on Godzilla. Look at that web app it’s like you could almost imagine it actually happening.”
They even capture the terrible ennui of a bank branch manager who knows he is at the peak of his career and is about to be transferred to CEO of small subsidiary, which a character helpfully explains to audience is not the promotion it sounds like but costs money and status.