Ong-Bak Ong-Bak
Aug
17
2007

RETRIBUTION (Sakebi 叫) Review

Posted by Kurt Halfyard at 3:18pm.

Posted in Film & DVD Reviews , Cult, Horror, Asia, Toronto After Dark 2006.

retribution_still01.jpg

Perhaps in this day and age of blog and forum discussion, the word Auteur is thrown around a little too lightly. Nevertheless, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s work of the 1990s and early 2000s has lifted the prolific filmmaker into auteur territory by the benchmark that you can simply tell you are watching one of his films by viewing only a few frames. It is fair to consider his latest work, the J-Horror police procedural whodunit Retribution, both a primer for and a culmination of his work.

A woman in a red dress is drowned in a puddle on a dilapidated and non-descript landfill site. Kôji Yakusho, a very familiar face in Kurosawa films, is the competent, if rundown, police detective Yoshioka who is brought in to work the case. A button found in the water near the crime scene catches his eye. It is familiar enough looking to cause him to go through his own closets. One of his own coats is missing an identical button. Soon the ghost of the woman in red visits upon him some (highly effective) waking hallucinations. Although the ghost is indeed creepy, perhaps more unsettling is the distant relationship with his girlfriend who often walks away seemingly in mid-conversation. Yoshioka is close enough to the edge of depression that he begins to suspect that he himself is the murderer. Things get more complicated when another body shows up, with an obvious suspect (not Yoshioka), but also with the same salt-water drowning MO.

There is (literal, if the subtitles are to be trusted) name checking of other iconic entries into the genre such as Ju-On (as well as his own Kairo (Pulse) - look for a decidedly different take on the classic ‘jump’ from that film) but the film is also infused with a canny sense of humour. Jô Odagiri has a small role where the nature of his character is the source of more than one instance of dead-pan humour.  This is strangely at home in the grungy, non-descript interior and exterior locales. Japan here seems to be changing much for the worse into abandoned industrial sites and half-completed landfills riddled with puddles; stand-ins for tears for the criminal carelessness of planning. The fact that earthquakes punctuate many of the key scenes signaling the entrance of calamity further underscores the decay present, puddles rippling in anguish.

Following Kurosawas themes of identity crisis, self worth, aimless youth, violent – yet curiously detached – crimes, and pending apocalypse - familiar enough in Cure, Bright Future, Doppelgänger - things here are mixed up, inexplicable and evocative in a way that cannot help but conjure a Lynchian echo or two. Kiyoshi Kurosawa is elliptical and surreal at the best of times, but even more-so here. Simply put, Retribution is the Mulholland Drive of his particular brand of horror.  Accepting the fact that this is not a retread of his earlier films, despite the many similarities and visual nods contained within, is tantamount of being able to suspend disbelief and not write the film off as the product of a writer looking back (or dumbing down via producer Takashige Ichise). This is clearly a forward thinking experiment.

Make no mistake though, the scares in the film are of the long, chilling variety. Kurosawa has a well developed ability to hold a scene much longer than anyone (including Takashi Shimizu) and make it play (paradoxically) high in tension and coolly remote. Destined to be misunderstood in the same way that Hayao Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle was, I believe Retribution is to be enjoyed as an ambitiously different take on familiar sights.

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The new DVD release comes from Hong Kong’s AVP, a relatively young company that seems to specialize in bringing quality Asian films from outside Hong Kong into the territory.  This release follows the same pattern that they have established so far, namely extras are minimal - non-existent, in this case - and the menu system basic in the extreme, but the film itself is treated to an excellent, anamorphic transfer with high quality english subtitles.  Basically it appears that AVP aim to keep their costs down by cutting out the frills so that they can focus on treating the films themselves properly and as long as they keep sourcing such quality stuff and keeping the core content at a high level, that’s fine with me. 

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Reader Comments

  1. Blake 10/23/2006 @ 2:36pm

    Excellent review! The shriek from the ghost in the red dress is still ringing in my ears. How the ghost is realized onscreen is really impressive.

    Definitely has the best sound design of a Kiyoshi Kurosawa film IMO to date.

    SPOILER

    *

    *

    *

    The one sequence of the ghost morphing into an almost Van Gogh like “The Scream” painting was a trully excellent blend of practical effects and CG. A beautiful blurring of the supernatural and reality (which .

    The two sequences of the ghost flying came off really silly for me.

  2. Kurt 10/23/2006 @ 4:23pm

    Hey Blake, are you at TAD? If so, I am looking forward to meeting you. I generally sit in the sixth row from front and am wearing a brown jacket, with black glasses. Cheers.

  3. Kurt 10/23/2006 @ 4:25pm

    BTW, I’ll be at Funky Forest & Behind the Mask...those 6:30pm shows are hard to get down to from the ‘burbs after work.

  4. The Visitor 10/23/2006 @ 8:25pm

    to me, Shimizu doesn’t even come close. Kurosawa - he the real thing! can’t wait to see this.

  5. Blake 10/23/2006 @ 11:07pm

    I thought about going to TAD but I had already seen most of the films in the lineup having just attended Fantastic Fest and Sitges. TAD has a great lineup. Funky Forest is great fun and probably the only film where I’ve asked someone which side of the film they liked better, “A” or “B.” I also really liked Behind the Mask.

  6. Kurt 10/23/2006 @ 11:54pm

    mmm, Sitges. That explains where you caught Retribution. It hasn’t played too many times thus far. Just got back from Funky Forest. Can you say instant group-viewing masterpiece. Liked Side A better (slightly) - especially the entire beach dancing sequences.)

  7. Spiceee 10/24/2006 @ 12:22am

    Was this one filmed before or after the “j-mummy” (heh) movie?

  8. Kurt 10/24/2006 @ 7:05am

    Yes, Retribution is post-"Loft" (A film I’ve not seen yet).
    -----

  9. logboy 08/18/2007 @ 9:13am

    yes, this HK disc is just fine. i was surprised, though i shouldn’t have been, to see lionsgate’s logo all over the front of this… the subs are superb, and the film (although familiarly grainy in look for a kurosawa film) is fantastic as far as i can tell. i ordered the soundtrack the day after watching this too… i don’t do that often, especially not considering the ‘pulse’ soundtrack doesn’t really work for me on CD… nice stuff, this film, though not as good as prime kurosawa, it’s certainly better overall than it initially seems to be. i actually quite like the ghosts odd behaviour too.

  10. Drewbacca 08/18/2007 @ 9:16am

    Barely remembering this film, other than I didn’t really like it all, here are a couple excerpt from my review at the time.

    “The plot itself (besides being a ghost story) is ludicrous and makes very little sense as there are holes all over the place and events and characters are not thoroughly explained at all…

    It looks pretty in places and there were one or two, brief moments of chills, but otherwise the preposterousness of the entire story had holes big enough for me to drive through… or better yet, drive away from.”

    I can’t really back these statement up, because as I said, I’ve forgotten most of the film.  I just remember myself and the audience laughing at unintentionally funny scenes.  But I guess I’m biassed as I really dislike J-Horror.

  11. crazybee 08/22/2007 @ 7:26pm

    Then you’re obviously biased.

    I watched this for the second time tonight, and I still cannot get that final image out of my head.  Anyone care to offer up their interpretations?

    Also, when the ghost resembles Munch’s “Scream” painting, why do people think that’s CG?  For one, she’s out of focus, coming up behind Yakusho.  And it isn’t like it’s hard for a person to make that expression in the first place.

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