听 User Rating 
Contains strong violence.
One of cinema's most accomplished portraits of a serial killer, Vengeance Is Mine is the true-life-inspired tale of a sex-mad murdering fraudster who led the cops a merry dance across 60s Japan. Made in 1979, the film has aged superbly, the shock of its violence and acuity of its insights still retaining their punch. True, its lengthy running time is demanding and the momentum does dip in the second half, but it's held together by cool-headed technique and Ken Ogata's imposing lead performance.
Starting with the 1964 arrest of Iwao Enokizu (Ogata), helmer Shohei Imamura (Warm Water Under A Red Bridge, Black Rain) unpacks his story via a series of flashbacks. We see the brutal double murder that kicked off Enokizu's 78-day crime spree, then rewind to the childhood episode that shattered our anti-hero's faith in his dad. It'd be easy here to make a Freudian diagnosis, but Imamura doesn't force the issue - or any issue for that matter. His quietly controlled direction observes the killer without editorial intrusion. There are no pat, Psycho-style explanations in store.
"GLIMMERS OF BLACK HUMOUR"
Lest this all sounds terribly grim, it's worth mentioning that there are several moments of humid eroticism, as well as glimmers of black humour. And in Ogata's intense performance you get one of those ingenious feats of acting that makes an unspeakable character irresistibly compelling. The meandering mid-section disappoints after such a taut first hour, but Imamura regains his form for a charged finale. There's a strange switch from docu-realism to dark whimsy in the closing scene, but chances are you'll come away as haunted as those on screen.
In Japanese with English subtitles
