SERPENT’S PATH (1998)

Japan | 1998 | DCP | 85 min. | Japanese with English subtitles
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Cast: Sho Aikawa, Teruyuki Kagawa, Yurei Yanagi
Immediately following his hypnotic 1997 horror film Cure, legendary Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa continued to explore the nature of violence with Serpent’s Path. Miyashita (Kagawa) believes he has found the man responsible for his daughter’s horrific death. Yet as he kidnaps and tortures the purported culprit in a dilapidated warehouse alongside his accomplice Nijima (Aikawa), Miyashita’s quest for vengeance steadily begets more carnage — and the discovery of uncomfortable truths about himself. Bleakly humorous and endlessly disturbing, Kurosawa’s film complicates the simple pleasures of revenge. A newly restored 4K DCP will be screened. (JM)