By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Starring: Koji Yakusho | Manami Konishi | Tsuyoshi Ihara
Original language title: Sakebi
Country: japan
Year: 2007
Running time: 104
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0843302/
Bruce says: “RETRIBUTION is a thought-provoking mixed genre film – . part police procedural, part horror, part thriller – which is a bit of a muddle. The acting, editing, set design and cinematography are all outstanding so there is much to like in spite of the flaws. The problem is not so much that the film does not know what it wants to be, rather that the film switches styles towards the end and suffers from poor writing. The film doesn’t fizzle out; in fact it rushes to completion with an enormous bang. Emotionally the viewer becomes detached, and the strong rapport between the actors and viewer is shattered in the process.
“The plot evolves around three murders which are stylistically similar enough to be the work of a serial killer. All victims have been drowned in salt water after a difficult struggle. Problems ensue when head detective Yoshioka (Kôji Yakusho) realizes that many of the clues in solving the mystery point to him as the killer. His sidekick Detective Miyaji (Tsuyoshi Ihara) even begins to suspect he is the killer. He tells the police psychiatrist that he has been seeing ghosts who express doubts by using the victims’ voices. Yoshioka thinks the ghost may have visited the wrong person but his psychiatrist offers the unnerving suggestion that a ghost’s voice is the voice of truth. Later, when the police get confessions from different killers, the drama heats up.
“There is a subtext to the film involving selective memory, responsibility, guilt and mysticism. In a grim area of Tokyo where Yoshioka lives, there is constant building and demolition. When land becomes scarce landfill is used to solve the problem of insufficient real estate. One building called ‘the black building’ abuts the waterfront but mysteriously has never been demolished since WW II. It once housed an asylum but the//” sadly, Bruce’s review was cut off at this point.