Customer Reviews

Vengeance Is Mine [VHS]

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Again, Shohei Imamura's total control of his craft shows itself in his brutal masterpiece Vengeance Is Mine. This true story follows Iwao Enokizu (Ken Ogata), a con artist, thief and killer. The film starts with Enokizu's capture and uses unusual, but brilliantly effective editing and pacing to unravel the story of his life. We see Enokizu as a troubled boy in a strict Catholic home and turn into a scam artist and womanizer. As an adult Enokizu's resentment towards his religous father is compounded by rumors of an affair with the father and Enokizu's wife. As his hatered grows stronger and his crimes become more serious, we see first hand Enokizu's downward spiral into murder and the devastating consequences for those around him.

The disturbing nature of this film doesn't lie in it's gore factor (there are very few actual murder scenes), but rather with the non-judgemental view taken of the killer. Imamura neither glorifies nor condems Enokizu. He simply lets the character exist, and lets his inherent nihilism reveal itself. This nihilism is something that both Enokizu and the audience must grapple with throughout the film. Ultimately, Enokizu can only kill innocent people, being too much of a coward to face those he truly hates. This is fully realized in two emotionally gutwrenching scenes at the end of the film; one with Enokizu's lover and another with his father.

The family drama, the cat-and-mouse game between Enokizu and the cops, and some interesting third-act revalations make this two hour plus film quite an undertaking. Don't watch it while making dinner. But with the great acting (Ken Ogata especially), outstanding editing, interesting shooting locations and masterful direction, Imamura takes this messy story and turns it into an artistic, esoteric thriller. A sort of japanese Taxi Driver. The ending is pure Imamura; a poetic farewell to Enokizu that is both eerily enigmatic and profoundly meaningful.

In the beginning of Vengeance, there is a key scene of the film's main character. He is unrinating, in order to wash his hands off the blood of his victim. He then notices he's under a tree, wipes his hands with his jacket and picks an apple. He takes a bite and spits.

However, the point -we understand as the story unfolds engrossingly to contain many other characters in similarly true moments- is in fact to lay bare the human soul.

Immamura achieves very successfuly this main objective, through his immense storytelling powers: the over the top performances he pulls from his superb cast and his brilliant melding of the many subplots.(The editing here, in my opinion, is one the best works ever done in a movie.)

In a little over two hours, Vengeance speaks volumes about the many complexities of the human soul and offers many opportunities to confront its dark side. Thus, it is not an easy movie to watch. Yet it offers many insights to the Japanese culture, and is a great point to start knowing the Japanese cinema as well. Highly recommended.

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.

In this highly ambiguous tale of moral uncertainty--both in terms of the killer himself and all those around him (his father, his wife, his lover and her mother), Imamura is at the top of his game. I saw this film at a film festival in Berkeley the first time and it haunted me for a long long time. The commentary on the back cover of the VHS says it best "Imamura's refusal to either despise or forgive his protagonist makes the movie a devestating experience."

Imamura constucts a telling portrait of an impassive sociopath. The pacing is purposefully slow and minimal, giving the killer character ample room to reveal himself while both doing the simplest things and, especially, when interacting with those around him. This film is the higher brained cousin of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.

I think its important to note that the killer in Vengeance is Mine, is by no means a serial killer. I've heard him described as that, and its a misinformed judgement. A serial killers pathology revolves around sex. In this film, the killer murders out of a distance, a coldness for human life. He kills for money, shelter, for survival, having little care (although he does try) for anyones life but his own.

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.

Vengeance is Mine is the kind of film Martin Scorsese would make if he were born and raised in Japan - it depicts the life of a brutal, remorseless, serial killer. Heck, the serial killer is even raised Roman Catholic, in a country with few Christians - and therefore has that built-in catholic guilt-redemption thing going for it. The fact that the film is based on actual events makes it even more brutal.

However, even though there are a few scenes of extreme violence, most of the film is that of a more thoughtful look at the killer's childhood and young adulthood, full of unhappiness and strife. Much of the film concerns the police hunt for the killer during a span of about three months when he was on the lam from authorities. Well-filmed, well-acted. Not your average Hollywood-style crime movie, this one is made with real feeling and quality.

On January 4, 1964, a convoy of patrol cars traverse a provincial countryside to escort captured criminal Iwao Enokizu (Ken Ogata) to the local police precinct for interrogation. Callous and unremorseful, Enokizu laments his inevitable fate as unfair, citing that his arresting officers will outlive him and continue the pursuit of hedonistic pleasure now denied him. The indignant and self-absorbed Enokizu refuses to answer questions that will aid the police trace his fugitive steps from the first inexplicable murders a few months earlier, on October 18, when Enokizu decided to murder his coworkers, an affable deliveryman named Tanejiro Shibata, and the quiet, unassuming driver, Daihachi Baba. Despite his unwillingness to cooperate, the police investigation has uncovered an accurate, albeit unsettling, account of Enokizu's destructive path. His mistress provides a glimpse into his insatiable sexual appetite and emotional cruelty. His father, Shizuo Enokizu (Rentaro Mikuni), recounts a difficult episode in the summer of 1938 when a Japanese officer humiliated Shizuo, and his seeming cowardice causes a lifelong animosity and estrangement with the young and impressionable Iwao. Enokizu's neglected wife Kazuko (Mitsuko Baisho) has left him, but agrees to return at his father's request, only to be accused of having an affair with Shizuo. Driven away by his family and determined to evade the authorities, Enokizu moves into the Asano Inn, a secluded retreat near a cemetery that is managed by a trusting, repressed innkeeper named Haru (Mayumi Ogawa) and her interfering, eccentric mother, Hisano (Nijiko Kiyokawa) who reputedly spies on all the guests. Posing as a benevolent university professor, Enokizu continues his destructive double life of theft, swindles, and senseless murders.

Based on the true story of convicted murderer, Iwao Enokizu, Shohei Imamura creates a harrowing, bizarre, and fascinating chronicle of aberrant, self-destructive behavior in Vengeance is Mine. Combining the naturalistic, frenetic elements of documentary filmmaking with the stylization of elliptical narrative, Imamura creates a chaotic and fragmented portrait of a serial killer: the disorganized and awkward execution of the murders; the achronologic temporal leaps in the narrative structure; the rapid, cinéma vérité styled camerawork as Enokizu checks into the Asano Inn. In essence, the disjointed appearance of the film reflects the underlying dark soul of the inscrutable and amoral Enoziku. In a puzzling, surreal final scene, Shizuo and Kazuko travel to the top of a mountain in an attempt to bring closure to Enoziku's misguided life only to find their actions thwarted by an irrepressible, divine force - a cruel final reminder of the inescapability of justice and retribution.

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.

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.