Review of Vengeance Is Mine (1979) by Justin B — 28 Nov 2007

I'm still not sure whether this is a cruel film or a film about cruelty. I'm thinking it's more the latter, though, as it doesn't play out so much like a serial killer movie, but rather like an all-inclusive portrait of societal malaise; unfortunately, in some ways this is a weakness, as the killer is the most interesting character by far.

Instead of just telling us the story of one single evil man, every level of civilization is shown as corrupt, hypocritical, and sadistic--to some extent director Imamura is right, but I dare say the film might actually have gone a little TOO far; it reminded me of Pasolini's Salo (of all things) on more than one occasion.

It's damned unpleasant--but then, on the other hand, who ever said that art had to be fun?