by Allan Fish
(Japan 1968 90m) not on DVD
Aka. Minagoroshi no reika
The cycle of divine punishment
d Tai Kato w Tai Kato, Haruhiko Mimura, Yoji Yamada story Tadashi Horomi ph Kenji Maruyama ed Shizu Osawa m Hajime Kaburagi
Makoto Sato (Isao Kawashima), Chieko Baisho (Haruko), Yuki Kawamura, Junko Toda, Sanae Nakahara, Ran Fan O, Kin Sugai,
Think of serial killers in Japanese films and what do you think of? Oshima’s Violence at High Noon perhaps, or Imamura’s comeback to fiction from documentary, Vengeance is Mine. Both are good films, the Oshima one of his better mid sixties outings and the Imamura probably his best film of the seventies and rivalling The Insect Woman as his best period. I, the Executioner is surely its director’s most famous and probably best film. So how can no-one see it? Look online and you’ll do well to find a single review, even your humble author was unable to match up most of the cast to characters because there is no listing anywhere. The only reference I found to Kato’s opus was Tony Rayns’ typically effusive entry in the Time Out Guide. Reasons? Kato’s not being known outside of Japan may have something to do with it, while Oshima and Imamura are respected, and accepted, masters. And then there’s the approach to the notion of a serial killer. Both Imamura and Oshima analysed the serial killer’s psychosis through his crimes, but Kato’s film is a bit different…
It begins with a murder, a brutal post-coital stabbing frenzy of a woman by a man in an apartment. The landlord of the apartments tells a local copper how it’s the second death in a week or so, following the suicide of a 16 year old laundry boy jumping off the roof. Totally unconnected deaths, you’d be forgiven for thinking, but the connection links back to Hokkaido Island and the geographical link between the boy and the killer. It transpires that the killer has found out that the boy was raped one night by five women in a flat and that the killer is setting out to kill these five specific women by having sex with them and then butchering them. In the meantime, the killer befriends another girl with a shadowy past…
The subtitle of the film is ‘Requiem for a Massacre’, which sort of implies a sort of divine justice being meted out by killer to victims, or killer to killers as he sees it. The boy was an innocent kid from Hokkaido who just loved music and wanted to save up cash for his family back home. These women took his virginity for their sport and leave that tightrope question in the mind of both audience and the police. They reason that if it was their own sister being raped, they’d do the same thing, but as a man, they would be delighted if a group of women decided to do that to them. It’s the antithesis of political correctness, and yet it also reminds one of the unhealthy fascination the Japanese have with rape; think of the gang-rapes of various nubile lovelies in sickening detail in all those Wakamatsu and Kumashiro films, often featuring women docile enough to accept their terrible fate as part of the cycle of life. Our killer has different ideas, talking of fulfilling a different cycle entirely, and while it leaves one pondering the reason for his own psychosis, Kato subtly transforms the audience into revellers, into accessories by proxy, actually getting some pleasure as these women are despatched one by one. It’s that same impulse for violent retribution that once made ancient Romans watch in their thousands as Nero made Christian scapegoats into human torches on the Vatican hill. Vengeance is seen to be its own reward, any chance of happiness with Haruko is always slim, and our killer hero is left to take the same option as the poor laundry boy had taken, jumping from the same spot on the same roof to his death, but not before a sort of divine judgement has been pronounced on him, the dark of the early hours replaced by the sudden rising of the morning sun, bathing the killer in light in direct contrast to his previous life in the shadows. One can only wish that eventually the film will come out of its own tunnel to be acclaimed as one of the finest Japanese crime films.
Hmm, this one sounds intriguing — not sure if I’ve ever heard of a film that flips the tables on the rape/revenge trope as you purport Kato’s film does. Will have to track this one down.
Allen since you basically have seen more films than anyone else alive…… I wonder if your obsession also includes stuff like Hot Tub Time Machine and Porky’s 2? Do you bother to watch obvious garbage as well? In between obscure Japanese films will you also view Eat Pray Love or anything by Jennifer Aniston? I ask because while I’ll listen to obscure experimental music like Rosy Parlane and Keith Fullerton Whitman I only recently found out who Justin Beiber was. I tend to dismiss most popular music outright or at the very least ignore it into oblivion. I wonder if you take a similar tact with movies……
No, I avoid shit.
Always to the point!
Which has been my stance with Pixar, but Joel has gotten me to bow and I will see 4 or 5 (whatever we decided, he knows the set titles) in one day, then I plan a piece for this blog about it.
But yes, avoid shit. Not just in film (and music as Maurizio notes), but in everything. Life is pretty short (and many wish it shorter) to waste it on the dreck.
Some people prefer to worship the dreck and set up an altar to excrement.
Ah I will never forget that girl I fought with at a party many moons ago who had the audacity to tell me that Jacob Dylan was better than his father…….
Well, I’m no Bob Dylan fan but that is a ludicrous statement to make.
I was involved in a drunken ‘discussion’ about the ‘merits’ of POLTERGEIST recently. People have no shame…
Yes, the Pixar piece should be interesting. For the record, I’m not the biggest Pixar booster, I just think their movies are pretty entertaining (Wall-E I would consider for greatness, but not sure about any of the others). Myself, I watch shit on one condition – that it involves me for whatever reason (subject matter, nostalgia, attractive actress) – one reason I distinguish between “great” and “favorite”. I don’t claim to have foolproof taste – I’m as susceptible to guilty pleasures on the next guy – but I do have a pretty low tolerance for trash.
There’s a social aspect too though – I watch zero TV, even the good stuff, but with company I’ll watch a crappy show and enjoy myself well enough (perhaps because it’s such a rare occasion).
Btw, Jamie, is Poltergeist as despised by horror fans in general as it is by you? I ask because I always kind of liked it, the weird Munchkin lady, the ghosts in suburbia theme etc. but not so much as a genre icon just as an interesting movie. I’ll chuckle if Robert or someone treats it to a highly-placed countdown tribute and a (pleasant) firestorm ensues, but I’m not sure how the rest of the crew feels about it.
No, I don’t think POLTERGEIST is as hated as I hate it by Horror fans. I think it was out on at least 2 of the 4 ballots for our countdown.
It’s just clearly not what I want from a (supposedly) great Horror film. (plus I have the baggage from that discussion hanging over the film now)
Poltergeist isn’t a piece of shit, but it’s certainly on its way down the alimentary canal.
Maurizio, when I first saw a picture of Justin Beiber I said, “What is the chick from Juno doing on the cover of a music magazine?”
Allan, what’s your take on Heroic Purgatory? I just discovered it while researching films that came out 40 years ago for a series I’m doing, but as you didn’t review it in your series I wasn’t sure if you hadn’t seen it or just didn’t consider it one of the “greats”. I must say I was pretty intrigued by the screen-caps I found.
If I might jump in here Joel, your intrigue is warranted. I watched this abstract Yoshida during a rainy day when I was in Wildwood in late August and was hugely impressed. It’s underpinnings are political and it makes excellent use of flashbacks.
I gave it **** 1/2 of *****
Furthermore, I just now discovered Joel’s THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS (Part 2) post, and it was truly a wonderful read that brought back fond memories. Everyone should avail themselves.
Heroic Purgatory isn’t quite top range Yoshida, hence wasn’t one of the ten I have done reviews for, but is still fascinating stuff.