Vengeance is Mine (Fukushû suru wa ware ni ari )

Shohei Imamura's interests as a filmmaker were mainly focused on the lower section of Japanese society. Vengeance Is Mine is a 1979 film directed by him.  The film was inspired from a true story of a serial killer.

Iwao Enokizu is a middle aged man who loves to commit insane and violent murders.The film starts with the capture of the killer Iwao Enokizu (Ken Ogata). In the first sequence, we see him in the back seat of a police car, after his capture .  He sings in the police car, assumes on the date of his hanging. The narrative structure of the film is non-sequential, it switches between killer’s interrogation by the police and the reenactment of the actions leading up to each murder.  If we try to understand the reasons behind his murders, then this film offers a few.   Vengeance is about an almost undefinable evil that seems to have no remorse . The story goes way back to when he was a child. We see him hating his father for being weak in standing up against oppressors (in truth ,there is a little he can actually do). His father is also a religious hypocrite. His father develops a relationship with his son's wife Kazuko. It seemed like his father was Iwao's most hated person on earth. 

Elaborating through several flashbacks,  Ogata delivers an excellent performance as a killer. Ogata handles the role with natural charm and great confidence.  The flashback here is not straightforward, shifting back and forth sequentially and circling around these murders. The style of this film has an effortless minimalism and sense of dilemma.

There are no easy answers behind the murders committed by Iwao. For the most part, his crimes seem to have no powerful motive at all but if u think deeply, u can discover some reasons. There are apparent ideas of family, with the complicated relationship between husband and wife, father and son, mother and son all driving him to commit these crimes. The cultural and spiritual taboos of the post-war Japan are also themes in this film. Vengeance is  Mine is a bold and disturbing work that forces the audiences to ask some serious questions.