The Cinematheque

Vancouver Premiere

“Coldly compelling … A brisk, harsh, and clinically professional update of [Kurosawa’s] own 1998 thriller.”

Guy Lodge, Variety

In 1998, the year after his breakthrough Cure, Kurosawa Kiyoshi directed two companion thrillers offering divergent takes—tonally, morally—on a similar revenge premise. The earlier of the pair, penned by Takahashi Hiroshi (Ring), was Serpent’s Path. (The other, Spider’s Eyes.) A quarter of a century later, Kurosawa returns to the scene of the crime, albeit now on French soil with different characters and differently disturbing machinations. Bereaved father Albert (Damien Bonnard) is on a mission to avenge his murdered daughter. Japanese psychiatrist Sayoko (Shibasaki Ko) is abetting Albert for reasons opaque, orchestrating the kidnapping and torture of targets who may or may not be responsible. Steelier and more formally exacting than the original, Kurosawa’s transplanted update demonstrates how adaptable the director’s pet themes (and post-industrial set pieces) can be when situated in a new place with a new set of rules. Mathieu Amalric and Grégoire Colin costar; Drive My Car​’s Hidetoshi Nishijima cameos.

In French and Japanese with English subtitles

“[A] tricksy and conceptual work … Another intriguing exercise in cultivating a tone of extreme unease.”

David Jenkins, Little White Lies

“Expanding upon the original’s psychological terrain while retaining its eerie inevitability, Kurosawa crafts a masterclass in atmosphere and existential dread, proving once again why he remains one of cinema’s great architects of unease.”

KimStim