Vengeance Is Mine Movie Review:


A masterpiece of Japanese cinema, Imamura's profile of a vicious sociopath boldly digs into the soul (or lack thereof) of its central character and post-war Japan. Gripping and haunting, it's a strikingly timeless film.

After watching the government undermine his father's business, Iwao Enokizu (Ogata) has led a life of rebellion and mayhem. Now in 1963, at age 37, he turns to murder and theft, going on a cross-country rampage starting with the sudden killing of two friends (Baba and Shibata), heaping even more humiliation on his parents (Baisho and Miyako) and his achingly lonely wife (Mikuni). While the manhunt widens, he hides with an ex-con innkeeper (Kiyokawa) and her daughter (Ogawa), who pays the bills with sex.

The story's told out of sequence, with flashbacks swirling around scenes of Iwao's police interrogation and the narrative backbone of his murderous odyssey. But this is more than a crime thriller; it really digs into the characters' desperation, agony, action and inaction. The one exception is Iwao himself--he is a smiling, heartless, compulsive criminal without even a hint of a conscience. He seems to murder simply because he doesn't have the imagination to do anything else. Vengeance is his feeble excuse.

And putting such a merciless black hole at the centre of the film is what makes it so remarkable. Ogata is note-perfect--we can see why people are drawn to his intelligence and charm, even as we know he's up to no good at all. All around him, the strong cast vividly expose their Christian guilt, misplaced passions and family dysfunction. We can see why Iwao seems to be such a ray of hope to them, even though he's brazenly throwing life away.

Imamura films with style and energy, combining snappy humour and creepy subtext. It's electric right from the start, taunting us with its expressive visual imagery and jazzy Dragnet-style score. And the themes gurgling underneath the plot give the film a strong depth, mainly in the economic and religious issues that create a society that requires a seedy undercurrent to maintain the shiny surfaces. Utterly essential cinema.



Rich Cline

Site Contents Copyright© The Z Review, unless used with permission.This site has no intention to infringe on the rights of the film owners of Vengeance Is Mine and intellectual copyright holders of the movies mentioned herein & hold copyright over the movie, characters, merchandise & storyline.