It is not often that a true crime series will feature an exclusive interview with a killer
— especially one who is still behind bars, and not even halfway into a 19-year sentence.
Perhaps that's why Netflix's new docuseries, "Elize Matsunaga: Once Upon A Crime," has
managed to generate so much buzz.
In 2012, the wealthy businessman Marcos Kitano Matsunaga was reported missing from his home
in São Paulo, Brazil, by his wife, Elize. His dismembered body was later found scattered
around the local area, his body parts wrapped in trash bags. Matsunaga had been shot through
the head, and his throat had been cut. And, as the docuseries makes immediately clear,
it was Elize who was responsible. In the years that followed, the slaying of Matsunaga became
one of Brazil's most sensationalized and debated cases — particularly Elize's murder trial.
As the docuseries shows, Elize first met her late husband while she was working for an
escort service, with the businessman leaving his first wife for her after months of infidelity.
In her interview, Elize explains that it was Matsunaga's cheating ways and mistreatment
of her — which, she argues, amounted to psychological and emotional abuse — that
led to her getting her gun and killing him in a crime of passion.
It is no wonder that "Once Upon A Crime" has attracted plenty of acclaim from TV critics
and true crime aficionados, with Elize breaking her silence for the first time since her imprisonment
in 2016.
"I still can't tell you what kind of emotion made me pull that trigger."
The documentary shines new light into a case that in 2012 captivated the Brazilian public
and has remained in the nation's popular consciousness for almost a decade. Not only that, but the
documentary offers an unprecedented insight into the mind of a convicted killer whose
guilt is never in doubt, and who looks back on the tragic circumstances and emotional
turmoil that led an otherwise unassuming woman to commit such heinous acts of violence.
Director Eliza Capai — who has made a name for herself as a socially-conscious filmmaker
and whose latest short film, "Your Turn," was a double prizewinner at the 69th Berlin
International Film Festival in 2019. Capai explained her motivation for making "Once
Upon a Crime," saying,
"I felt a great moral responsibility to direct this series. Not only for Marcos' family and
friends who suffered with this tragedy, but also for Elize's family, people who knew nothing
about it but also suffer the consequences until this day."
"Once Upon A Crime's" extended interviews with Elize give the series the feeling of
a confessional; that the killer is being honest about their crimes. However, not everyone
is convinced.
The set-piece that has ensured "Once Upon A Crime" turns heads is, of course, the interview
with Elize herself, which took place in 2019 during an unsupervised furlough from her prison
sentence — a right all Brazilian prisoners have, according to the Independent. In her
interview, Elize discusses her marriage, the killing, and how the traumas of her childhood
and early life contributed to her eventual killing of her husband Marcos.
But though unprecedented access to the killer promises to offer such insights into the crime
in question that very few docuseries have ever given before, the approach makes the
final product highly suspect. As discussed at length by Daily Beast critic Nick Schager,
"Once Upon A Crime" is constructed in such a way that we the audience are invited to
take Eliza's testimony at face value. Schager argues that the show is "on the side of Elize,"
despite the fact that she had previously tried to cover up the crime and that the version
of events as told by Elize remains self-contradictory.
The final episode of "Once Upon A Crime" makes plain that it is attempting to paint Eliza
as the real victim, despite the horrifying nature of her crimes and the fact that a young
man — as awful a husband as he allegedly was — was brutally murdered. Schager argues
that the series effectively absolves the killer of blame, and thus, in light of court findings,
is fundamentally flawed in its approach.
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National
Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources,
and support at their website.