Best Japanese Films of 2007 (5): Retribution
Feb 2nd, 2008 by Ad Blankestijn
The next film, No. 5, on my list of Best Japanese Films of 2007 is Retribution by Kurosawa Kiyoshi, a perfect film-noir that treads a fine line between thriller and horror. As always by Kurosawa, there is also a wider, philosophical context.
The Japanese title of this film is Sakebi or “Scream” - in the most haunting moments of this dark film we see a woman in red who utters an incredicle, ear-splitting wail… But the title Retribution fits just as well, as it suggests the film’s underlying idea: we are all collectively guilty, both for things we did and for things we neglected to do, and will get our “retribution” when time is ripe.
This is of course linked to the old Japanese concept of urami, grudge. Ghosts full of a grudge, such as Michizane, already plagued the old capital of Heian 1,200 years ago and even modern Japanese still shiver when you pronounce the word urami. A grudge is the final revenge of the downtrodden and the forgotten and it is therefore all the more terrible.
What is it about?
Retribution starts out like just another thriller, with a cop, Yoshioka (Yakusho Koji, a favorite actor of Kurosawa), investiging the murder of a woman on a plot of reclaimed wasteland on the desolate coast of Tokyo. A woman in a vivid red dress lies murdered with her face down in a pool of water. In the pool Yoshioka finds a coat button that matches his, and later his fingerprints are discovered on the body. He also starts seeing a ghost in just such a red dress (played by Hazuki Riona).
Is he himself the murderer? Also his partner in the investigation, Miyaji (Ihara Tsuyoshi), starts having doubts.
In between police work we get glimpses of Yoshioka at home, in an old flat, where he is now and then visited by his etheral and demure girlfriend Harue (Konishi Manami), who almost seems unreal.
A second and third murder happen, seemingly resolving the mystery. But then the woman in red apears again to Yoshioka and he gradually discovers her background and how she became a ghost full of grudge, demanding retribution for a past wrong, enticing others to kill…
In the end, in a final twist, Yoshioka also learns a terrible secret about himself - as in Loft, no one can escape the misdeeds done in the past…
What do I like about it?
- The haggard looks of Yakusho Koji
Yakushi Koji is generally regarded as one of Japan’s finest contemporary actors. Here he plays a brooding, haggard man, with an unshaven face and wild long hair. He suspects himself, thinking that in an attack of madness that he later subconsciously forgot, he may have becoma a murderer. He is lonely, too, the first and most important thing he protects when his flat is shaken by an earthquake, is the whisky bottle. His girlfriend Harue seems more a fantasy than reality, because she does not interact with him, and always seems to be leaving. At work, he quarrels with his partner Miyaji and even visits a psychiater, played by Odagiri Joe in a nice, small role.
- The world falling apart
Tokyo is crumbling, ravaged by a series of small earthquakes. The film is situated in Ariake, on the waterfront of Tokyo with all its reclaimed land - a city literally built on garbage. Future building sites still lie abandoned, it is a most desolate landscape. Puddles are appearing everywhere, as if the sea wants to take the land back (also a form of retribution). The police station and other buildings are old and dilapidated, a far cry from the high city of shining glass and steel that we associate with the name Tokyo. These old buildings are like the past we try to forget.
- The screaming woman in red
Hazuki Riona lets out fantastic eardrum-shattering shrieks (I saw the film on DVD, in the theater this really must be a body-shaking experience!), while she floats into and out of Yoshioka’s presence. We see her in mirrors, only half-glimpsed, or behind a dirty, opaque window pane. There are no cheap horror effects here, she appears before us as a normal woman. The dread of this film is in the leaden atmosphere, in the constant feeling of unease. Abandoned fifteen years ago, and dying a lonely death, she now asks retribution from the world. “All of you, please die.” Apocalypse is not caused by the hand of some god, but by our lack of care for others: therefore we are all doomed.
Links
Wikipedia article on Kurosawa Kiyoshi.
Tom Mes interview with Kurosawa Kiyoshi (held a few years ago).
Official site of Yakusho Koji (including his Japanese blog)
Have you seen Retribution? What did you think about it?
