“An incredible strength film”: this absolute masterpiece taken from a true story is the model of one of the greatest thrillers of the last 20 years

The Japanese filmmaker Shohei Immamura was one of the most important directors of what we called the Nuberu Baguthat is to say the new Japanese wave. His dark works have often destabilized spectators, by exploring and exposing oppression in society, through a gallery of characters who were often poor, criminals, rebus of society, pimps, black vendors.

In 1968, he came out devastated from the bitter failure of his film The deep desire of the gods, a fresco of almost 3 hours, in addition to being riddled with debts at the end of this disaster. For ten years, Shohei Immamura is only devoted to the documentary; A parenthesis which ends up leading to a new film released in 1979, and which is an absolute masterpiece: revenge is mine. Not only will the film seal its reunion with the public, but its great success will even allow it to reimburse its creditors.

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Drunkenness

The script, itself based on a novel written by Ryuzo Saki, is inspired by an atrocious and above all perfectly authentic story, which occurred in Japan in the early 1960s. In October 1963, the police discovered the corpses of two tax collectors in the countryside. The suspect is one of their colleagues: Iwao Enokizu, a crook several times convicted.

Refugee in an inn in Hamates, Enokizu pretended to be a university professor and continues his misdeeds while his portrait is displayed throughout Japan. Learning that the owner of the hostel, which has become his mistress, is pregnant, he removes it as well as his mother. Denounced by a prostitute, he was finally arrested in January 1964 and sentenced to death.

Wearing an entomologist look at his characters, without ever judging them or administering any moral lesson, Shohei Immamura delivers an extraordinary film, carried by the composition of a fabulous and icing Ken Ogata, who seems literally possessed by his character.

A huge actor that Immamura will find for the Ballad de Narayama, Palme d'Or in Cannes in 1983. And especially a breathtaking Mishima at Paul Schrader in 1985; Biopic evoking the life of the famous Japanese writer Yukio Mishima who made Seppuku in November 1970.

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“Those who love cinema will find this film essential”

Revenge is mine has had a strong impact in the South Korean director Bong Joon Ho, who has never hidden the preponderant influence of Imamura's film on his masterpiece Memories of Murder; One of the biggest thrillers of the 2000s.

He was also one of the favorite films of the late and very film buff William Friedkin. “This film differs from the formal style of the great Japanese filmmakers like Ozu, of which Imamura was the assistant. When Imamura embarked on the realization, he wanted to make films as different as possible of those of Ozu, and revenge is mine is the best example” he confided to the editor Criterion.

He leaves the spectator to judge his characters, and the film is both operational and contemporary. Beautifully photographed, it is sometimes surreal, sometimes documentary, which some spectators have found confusing, in particular because of the fragmentation of the chronology operated by Imamura. Those who love cinema and know the other films of Imamura, as The eel And Narayama's ballad, will find it essential “.

Have you ever seen this wonder before? She was recently published in a very beautiful Blu-ray copy at The Jokers.