Vengeance is Mine (1979)
aka Fukushû suru wa ware ni ari
Genre: Drama | Crime | Thriller
Country: Japan | Director: Shôhei Imamura
Language: Japanese | Subtitles: English (optional, embedded in Mkv File)
Aspect ratio: Widescreen 1.66:1 | Length: 140mn
Bdrip H264 Mkv – 1794×1080 – 23.976fps – 5.36gb
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079182/
Audio 2: Commentary by Film Critic Tony Rayns
Based on the true story, ‘Vengeance is Mine’ is the story of Iwao Enokizu and his murderous rampage which sparked a 78-day nationwide manhunt. Enokizu is a day-laborer and smalltime con-artist who, after killing two of his co-workers, embarks on a psychopathic spree of rape and murder. Eluding the police and public, Japan’s infamous “King of Criminals” passes himself off as a Kyoto University professor, only to become entangled with an innkeeper and her perverted mother.
Immamura Shohei, one of Japan’s best directors, does not put a foot wrong in VENGEANCE IS MINE, one of the best films ever made. This is a searing, raw, uncompromising study of a disturbed, callous, opportunistic killer, husband and son.
The film, running just over two hours, takes an almost doco-style approach to the crimes of its protagonist (played with chilling conviction by Ken Ogata) and takes great pains to examine the impact his behavior had on his mother, father and wife. A flashback, which goes some way towards explaining how Ogata developed such a disdain for authority, is a masterstroke of cinematic brevity.
Although Immamura is known mostly for such brilliant work as THE PORNOGRAPHERS, BLACK RAIN and the excellent THE EEL, this is surely his crowning achievement, a film so rich and involving that it personifies everything that is so amazing about Japanese cinema, truly a cinema of the soul.
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