The Third Murder (三度目の殺人, Sandome no Satsujin) is a 2017 Japanese legal thriller film written, directed and edited by Hirokazu Kore-eda.

At Yokohama Detention Center, Shigemori, a criminal defense attorney, and Kawashima, his assistant, meet Misumi, the suspect, who is charged with robberyα and murder.

Misumi states that the man he killed is the owner of the food factory in Kawasaki he has recently been fired from and that he committed the murder to pay off some debts.

The trio visit Misumi again, this time showing him a magazine he may have come across that includes an article about a wife that paid a man to murder her husband for insurance.

They go to a bar and ask a man whether Misumi has sent his estranged daughter, Megumi, any money or tried to contact her, but he claims to not know and states that she wants him dead and will not testify for him.

While the court is adjourned, Shigemori meets with Sakie, who claims that the victim – her own father – had been sexually assaulting her for years and she had insinuated to Misumi that she wanted him dead.

Shigemori visits Misumi again and wonders out loud about why he denied committing the crime – perhaps to protect Sakie from having to reveal herself as a victim of sexual assault.

"[4] During the development process, writing the script was the hardest part for Kore-eda to tackle, due to his unfamiliarity with how lawyers worked in the justice system.

The website's critical consensus reads, "The Third Murder makes satisfying work of its weighty themes, even if it doesn't quite stand with writer-director Hirokazu Koreeda's best efforts.

[6] Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter gave a positive review of the film, stating that "though different in feeling from the Japanese writer-director's perceptive family tales like After the Storm, it has the same clarity of thought and precision of image as his very best work.

"[7] Ben Sachs of the Chicago Reader gave the film four out of four stars, stating that upon a second viewing, "Kore-eda’s surprises seemed less like a screenwriter’s tricks than Dostoevskian revelations deepening everything that came before.