Retribution - Sakebi

I saw this movie at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. The movie was announced as being "horror for those who did not like horror". I was afraid it would be a typical Japanese horror, with creepy sounds, dark colors and mean ghosts. Now, there was a ghost and annoying sounds (the title in Japanese means "the scream"). But there was more.

The main character is a detective, who investigates murders in Tokyo. It seems like there is a serial killer out, because the murders have the same method of killing. But then he gets haunted by what seems to be the first victim.

The movie evolves from solving a crime and catching a murderer to a search for mysterious connections. It may not all seem to make sense, there is an explanation in the end. Maybe not satisfying enough for some, but I don't think the explanation is the whole point of the movie.

There remains a vibe of mystery. If you come in expecting a typical American horror, you surely will be disappointed. But if you like some dark, Japanese mystery, including some scares, you will certainly enjoy this one.

This is a rather forgettable horror film, which is a letdown coming from Kiyoshi Kurosawa. I see people on the messageboard for this film claiming that disliking it shows a lack of sophistication, or a failure to appreciate Japanese cinema. I'm a fan of the Asian horror wave of the past decade or so. I had no trouble following movies like Suicide Club, The Eye, and A Tale of Two Sisters. And I love several of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's other works: Cure, Charisma, Korei (Seance) and Kairo (Pulse.) I didn't like Retribution. It has long tension-building takes and quirky observed moments like Kurosawa's better works; he's an assured director who excels at atmosphere. But the plot of this film may actually be TOO clear. Cure, Charisma and Pulse are evocative films that leave central questions unanswered, haunting viewers.

In Retribution, everything is revealed, and the supernatural comes to seem ordinary, a little boring and even a little silly. Techniques and images repeat from Kurosawa's better films. Retribution has its moments, but there's nothing here that Kurosawa hasn't already done better elsewhere.

Kyoshi Kurosawa is a talented but maybe too prolific director. Since the early 90's, he had almost directed 30 movies. No wonder that, when Takashige Ichise, the master producer of J-Horror ("Ring", "The Grudge") asks him to direct one of the Jap-Horror trilogy movie along with Hideo Nakata and Shimizu, you get a little feeling of "Déjà-vu" in front of his new movie : "Sakebi" (Retribution).

Of course, there's still lots of excellent ideas in the movie, and some parts are majestically directed : all the ghosts apparitions are really beautiful, and the movie take there and then an experimental approach in their representation. It almost looks like a modern art installation. Some shots are also really well thought, as the one of the interrogation of a suspect, filmed in continuation, with the help of a mirror in the back in order to create a double space. But the most original aspect of the movie is the depiction of the modern Tokyo, witch doesn't look modern at all. In the movie, the city looks like a post-war town, everything is rotten and lugubre, there's nobody in the dark streets. You don't often see such a representation of Japan, far from the clichés of the ultra-modern society it's supposed to be.

But the problem is that all this was ultimately in others Kurosawa's movies, as if he wanted to offer a sort of best-of his previous works here. His style haven't change, and the story isn't really surprising for any "Kaïro"'s spectator. This lack of surprise leads to a feeling of boringness, and I couldn't get out of my mind, after the movie, the idea that it was clearly unoriginal (for a Kurosawa's movie, of course) and a little bit too long (maybe cutting 20 minutes of the movie would have been a good thing).

But all in all, this movie is a good introduction to his tormented universe, and for those who already know it, well, a new Kyoshi Kurosawa's movie certainly comes out in 3 months.

"Retribution" could just as well have been entitled "Recapitulation," since it returns to all of Kurosawa's themes, not only reiterating but enriching them. This time, however, the narrative is a little clearer, the cinematography richer in palette and more conventionally noir, and somehow these changes make the film slightly less disturbing than "The Cure"." As an introduction to his work, however, this may be the best place to start.

(2006) Retribution (In Japanese with English subtitles) PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR/ SOCIAL COMMENTARY

Another subtle masterpiece from Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure, Pulse) and definitely not for the simple minded which is the alternate and the Japanese equivalent of "The Sixth Sense" showcasing at the beginning of an unknown person drowning a girl to death in a puddle of salted water. Then the next scene shows a police detective Kôji Yakusho as the unshaven Noboru coming out of a hangover and conversing with his girlfriend whose assigned to the case of the drowned girl and begins to find materialistic things linking him to the murder itself. At the same time a ghostly image of the drowned girl consistently appears haunting him like he was the one that did it. To say anymore would ruin it's subtle social commentary message about 'owning up a crime and then act like it never happened at all'! There is hardly any blood but a lot of unexplainable things which would be answered toward the end. I might've enjoyed this film had it been a lot longer than it's current running time of 103 minutes.