Good, savage lil Japanese thriller

DVDs:

	• Vengeance Is Mine - Criterion Collection Ken Ogata, Rentarô Mikuni Criterion Collection, 2007 average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This is a masterpiece!

I was glued to the screen for more than two hours when I watched Vengeance is Mine. This is now one of my all-time favorite films (and one of Roger Ebert's "great movies"). I am having difficulty conveying why I loved this film so much. Aside from the great cinematography, story, directing, and acting, there is something else special here. It is one of those extremely rare films which I knew I was going to love as soon as it started. It continued to get better and better with each minuet. Maybe it was the sheer originality of this Japanese masterpiece... Anyway, I would urge every film-lover to see "Vengeance is mine" as soon as possible.

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Portrait of an unrepentant killer

We like killers. Not your run-of-the-mill murderer thugs or violence-prone thieves who kill for profit, but the inverted psyche of serial killers is a fascinating subject. They hold the fascination of a predator species, like the great white shark or the alligator, dangerous and somehow cool. We don't want to meet them, and hope to god that they never walk though our door, but from the safety of a screen it is a thrill to flirt with their danger and ride along with them for a little while down a truly dark path. Especially in the hands of a master director like Shohei Imamura.

"Vengeance is Mine" ("Fukushu suruwa wareniari") is Imamura's take on Japanese serial killer and fraudster Akira Nishiguchi who went on a 78-day killing spree in 1964, claiming the lives of five people before being captured. Re-named to Iwao Enokizu in the film, he is a cold and reptilian character, able to lie and murder without any apparent shadow of a conscious, only taking the actions that advance his needs at any given moment. A rare Catholic in Japan, Iwao is an outsider, but not a loner, and he keeps companions for as long as he needs them.

Considering the source material, Imamura maintains an almost documentary-like feel throughout the film, as emotionless and reptilian as the killer himself. This is not the "serial killer as hero" motif of "Natural Born Killers", or even an attempt to explain and empathize as in "Monster". The camera takes no opinions, offers no point of view other than "These things happen", "This is life, and these things happen". The beast that is Iwao seems to take neither pleasure nor pain, just sensation, from his activities. He plays his game without passion, and that makes it all the more chilling.

The Criterion Collection DVD maintains the usual high standards expected, with two interviews with Imamura, and an essay by critic Michael Atkinson. The picture and sound are all of the best quality, and the film is pure 5-star Imamura.

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Imamura Does It Again

Shohei Imamura's reputation is growing in my mind the more films I see by him. I recently saw the impressive 1979 film Vengeance Is Mine (a film that is included in Roger Ebert's Great Films). It has an impressive performance by the lead actor Ken Ogata (who would go on tot star in several other later Imamura productions) as Iwao Enokizu a thief, con man, lady-killer, and murderer who went on a 78-day killing spree throughout Japan. The events are based on a true story. This film contains many of the themes that have come to be associated with Imamura-lower class criminals, prostitutes, incest, and tortured criminals. Enokizu is unrepentant killer who felt no remorse for his crimes, but is essentially a coward who killed weak people rather than those who he hated like his father and his mistresses sadistic lover. Thus, Enokizu doesn't get his vengeance, but the title refers to a quote from the bible that suggests that it is god that gets vengeance in the end. Enokizu has been brought up as a catholic, but it has never stopped him from committing transgressions. Instead it is his father who holds out against taking Enokizu's discarded wife as a mistress until his wife dies. He holds himself responsible for Enokizu's transgressions. At the end there is an odd Imamura touch to the film where the killer's father and ex-wife travel to a mountain to throw his bones from the cremation from the peak only to have them suspended in air as if the earth is rejecting his evil remains.

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The human animal forgoes art

A film which holds your attention for all of its 140minutes, Vengeance is Mine prompts the audience to consider the question of art and reality. Art, given that cinema is accepted as a significant art form, cannot replicate reality in any way, though it can create a semblance of reality. Visually, Andy Warhol tried to replicate time in cinema in his film of the Empire State building. In his way, Director Imamura tries to replicate the reality of human feelings in a range of ordinary Japanese which is to say, the characters are not depicted in any sentimental or romantic way, but revealed, as one of the characters says "as animals", as "human animals" driven by their appetites, by greed, by envy. Sex and death feature prominently as subjects throughout the film and Imamura draws the connection between erotic feelings and death quite remarkably well. It is a cinema of the power and beauty of the themes of sex and death, and whilst there are the signs of civilization, in particular the influence of Christianity, the raw depiction of human appetites dominates the film with considerable visual power. The characters seem to give into their feelings and needs even when faced with the horror of a multiple murderer - Iwao's lover just wants to serve him and service him, whilst the police are drawn to his wit and charm - characters divorced of any moral compass. A brilliant work.

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Good, savage lil Japanese thriller

Shohei Imamura's Vengeance is Mine is savage, coldblooded, intense, and one of the best foreign films ive seen in a while. It tells the true story of Iwao Enokizu, played by Ken Ogata. The film begins with his capture by the police and then traces the events of his life. Enokizu, you see, is a vicious serial killer and thief. The Devil incarnate. The film deals with complex issues concerning the nature of fate, evil, psychosis and immorality. As you watch this film youre torn between feeling absolute repulsion toward Enokizu and yet some kind of sympathy, and that was what i liked about the nature of this film. No easy answers at all. Great film, but be prepared.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

LIKE ALL GREAT SHOHEI IMAMURA PROTAGONISTS, VENGEANCE IS MINE?S IWAO ENOKIZU (KEN OGATA) LURKS ON THE MARGINS OF JAPANESE SOCIETY. A THIEF, MURDERER, AND CHARMING LADY-KILLER, IWAO IS ON THE RUN FROM THE POLICE. DIRECTOR SHOHEI IMAMURA TURNS THIS FACT-BASED STORY, OF THE SEVENTY-THREE-DAY KILLING SPREE OF A REMORSELESS MAN FROM A DEVOUTLY CATHOLIC FAMILY, INTO A COLD, PERVERSE, AND, AT TIMES, DIABOLICALLY FUNNY TALE OF THE PRIMITIVE COEXISTING WITH THE MODERN. MORE THAN JUST A TRUE-CRIME CASE, VENGEANCE IS MINE BARES MANKIND?S SNARLING ID.

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