Vengeance Is Mine

1979 Japanese serial killer drama

Rating: 16/20

Plot: Cops try to apprehend a guy who is running around killing people.

"I will punish those who do wrong. I will repay them. Sometimes their foot will slip. Their day of trouble is near. And their punishment will come quickly." Deuteronomy 32:35

I had to use the International Children's Bible for that verse because the King Jame's Version had too many big words. I spent most of this movie trying to figure out whether "vengeance" is the appropriate word for the title. Ken Ogata, who is terrific in this, plays this main character who has some things from his past he could gripe about--a spineless father, oppressive Catholicism--but there's really nothing here that molds the character into the sociopath he becomes. It seems as if director Shohei Imamura is deliberately keeping motives foggy while telling this guy's story. It's gloopy, but it's gloopy with a purpose.

Maybe there was another period in his life when he had difficulty locating a can opener. Those kinds of things can add up, you know.

With a special effects team, the last shot--one reminding us that we aren't dust in the wind after all but instead bones in the air--could have been an all-time great. In addition to that scene, I loved a shot of hanging galoshes, the clean-up after a 4th murder, a shot of Ogata sinking in his seat in a movie theater, an opening cabinet surprise, the first two rough and sloppy murders which show the audience that this character is no professional, and a great shot where the camera follows Ogata down and alley before he abruptly turns around to look directly at the audience.