- I love crime dramas and murder mysteries, but very few of them acknowledge the fact that the average killer is not exactly a criminal mastermind. From what little I know about the subject, I gather that most real-life murderers are either mentally unbalanced, under the influence of behavior-altering drugs, or affected by incredibly adverse circumstances and intense emotions. As such, they're not particularly good at what they do and generally get caught or turn themselves in pretty quickly. After all, if murderers were perfectly reasonable, wouldn't they have pondered the probable consequences of their crimes and decided against such a course of action before it ever occurred?
- With those considerations in mind, it is rather refreshing to see Shôhei Imamura's Vengeance is Mine, which recounts the based-on-real-events story of Iwao Enokizu (Ken Ogata). Iwao is not what you'd call a professional killer or, for that matter, even a remotely competent one. His first murders, depicted in convincingly gory detail, involve stabbing two men repeatedly, stealing their blood-soaked money, and then escaping by train. At one point, he desperately urinates on his hand to wash off the blood, which isn't the sort of thing I remember Hannibal Lecter having to do. His destination? Any small out-of-the-way inn with plenty of access to prostitutes. Again, hookers aren't generally high on the priority list of most fictional killers, but now that Iwao finds himself hiding out with a bunch of extra money, they seem to him like a good way to pass the time.
- Incidentally, Iwao doesn't have a particularly convincing criminal origin story, either. His parents (Rentarō Mikuni and Chocho Miyako) both loved him, even if his father Shizuo was a little harsh and controlling. Sure, Iwao lost respect for Shizuo at a young age when the Japanese military conscripted his fishing boat, but is that really the sort of thing that would drive a grown man to murder thirty years later? Even Iwao's wife Kazuko (Mitsuko Baisho) was always much more kind to Iwao than his standoffish demeanor merited, despite secretly harboring an awkward crush on Shizuo. Maybe Iwao was just the sort of man who was destined his whole life for trouble. His first trip to jail was on fraud charges, but the second one is going to be for something a lot more serious.
- The strange thing is, Iwao can be pleasant when he wants to be. He's a perfect gentleman to the innkeeper Haru (Mayumi Ogawa), even if he does maintain a strange story about being a professor. Likewise, he's hardly unkind to the prostitute (Toshie Negishi), even if he does keep her up all night. But then there's Haru's mother, who peeps through the inn's windows at night. She's an ex-convict herself, and we naturally assume that she's going to be the one to realize who Iwao really is. After all, those wanted posters with his face plastered on them seem to be growing in number each day. A criminal mastermind would find a quick way to go underground, but Iwao instead spontaneously kills a lawyer (Yoshi Katō) and seals him in a wooden wardrobe. On second thought, I suppose it is difficult to catch a nonchalant murderer who never plans out his crimes more than five minutes in advance.
- In the midst of portraying such a strangely run-of-the-mill serial killer, Vengeance is Mine also depicts a side of Japan that rarely makes it into the movies. It seems like nearly every man in the film, with the notable exception of Shizuo, succumbs regularly to sexual temptation and gladly takes advantage of whichever women happen to be around. In that sense, Iwao would probably say that he's just a product of his age, but then again he'd say anything to get out of trouble. Which brings us to the film's puzzling title. Religion may have had a role in forming Iwao's conscience, or lack thereof, but it's not clear that he's properly seeking vengeance on anyone for anything. Instead, he's just a man who kills people when he feels like it without ever really reflecting on his life. You'd think then that his life story wouldn't be so fascinating, but somehow it really is.
- Based on a book by Ryūzō Saki describing the life of serial killer Akira Nishiguchi.
