Serial killer movies come dime a dozen, but
rarely does a director delve into the psychological angles of the crime and deftly
paints a picture that is at once grim, disturbing and "real". Imamura’s
true-life account of a sociopathic killer who became national news in Japan
during the 60’s, is a dark and grimy chronicle of a man who took to crime and
violence as a duck takes to water. The film begins with Enokizu, the vicious
and cocky bespectacled antagonist, in police custody, and thereon Imamura made
use of an exquisite fractured narrative to present who this mysterious man was
and what led him to leave a trail of innocent bodies on his way. Played with
incredible power and intensity by Ken Ogata, Enokizu is shown as a naturally
aggressive, masochistic and volatile individual with pathological and
anti-social tendencies, and a voracious libido. His strained relationship with
his staunchly Catholic father and his twisted psyche do not just turn him into
an aimless drifter, but also eventually into a murder – there’s hardly ever any
well-set agenda to his crimes apart from his existential angst, general sense
of apathy, the need to keep alive, and that he is, quite simply, a force of
nature at direct odds with the world he lives in. Fine supporting turns by Miluni
as his passive father, Baisho as his beautiful but neglected wife, and Ogawa as
a luscious inn-keeper and the only person with whom he shares a semblance of
relationship, made this well photographed, darkly comic
exploration into the grotesque and primitive sides of human behavior an
arresting watch.
Director: Shohei Imamura
Genre: Crime Drama/Psychological Drama/Black Comedy
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan
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