384 - Vengeance Is Mine (1979)

Shohei Imamura’s study of a killer on the run and the family members and victims that he leaves in his wake is presented as a fact-based accounting of dates, names, and crimes.  At least, that’s what it seems to be at first glance.  Really the film sutures together a largely non-chronological sequence of flashbacks, obliquely phrased conversations, and both random and coldly-calculated murders that leaves the viewer perfectly unsure over the question of underlying psychological motive.  What trauma, mistreatment, spiritual failing, or mental disorder leads Iwao Enokizu (Ken Ogata) to his spree?  Regardless, the resultant view of Japanese society is sordid and bleak.  And one of us thinks this is awesome filmmaking.  And the other is left deeply upset by it.  But the conversation engendered by this one of our best.

If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Claude Sautet’s Classe Tous Risques (1960).