Having seen "Cure" and "Kairo", I was prepared for another mildly confusing and oddly structured film from Kiyoshi Kurasawa, but the man really surpassed himself here! "Retribution" is downright freaking weird!! Not just the 'I don't get it' kind of weird, but inexplicably uncanny, haunting and perplexing. Kurasawa's style and stories already were a class above the rest of the Asian supernatural horror-industry, but "Retribution" might even be his absolute best effort to date. It's an engaging thriller with an extremely charismatic protagonist (director's favorite Kôji Yakusho), a continuously tense atmosphere and a handful of genuinely creepy moments that are guaranteed to send cold shivers down your spine. Summarizing the plot accurately is a nearly impossible task to accomplish, but I'll try anyway. In a relatively short span of time, inspector Yoshioka and his colleagues of the Tokyo police have to investigate three macabre murders where the victims were drowned in saltwater. The modus operandi is identical in all three cases, but there's no connection to be found between the victims and – moreover – the culprits aren't difficult to track down. Yoshioka arrests three different killers that immediately confess their crimes, but can't give a proper explanation for what it was that drove them to kill or why they specifically drowned their victims in saltwater. The more Yoshioka investigates the three murders, the more the evidence points out that he himself might be an important suspect. He's definitely guilty of something, as he's soon stalked by the creepy appearance of the first murder victim. The girl is dressed in a bright red dress and produces chilly screams that pierce you to the very marrow. "Retribution" is slow-paced and soberly filmed, but somehow Kurasawa manages to hold your attention simply with great dialogs and intriguing character drawings. There's no gore and not even that much action, but the tone of the film is constantly ominous and the Lady in Red is at least 10 times scarier than all the eerie kids of "Ringu", "Phone", "The Grudge" and all the other phony ghost-appearances in Asian thrillers combined! "Retribution" is an impeccably stylish and well-made film, containing enchanting photography and flawless editing as well as atmospheric music and great acting. The script is stuffed with ingenious little plot-details (like the constant wave of earthquakes and the significance of the saltwater) and the talented Yakusho is always a joy to behold. However, exactly like in "Cure", the exaggeratedly complexity towards the end of the film nearly ruins the whole viewing experience. I said it before and I'll say it again: just ONCE I'd like to see a Japanese occult-thriller that doesn't leave me scratching my head after the final denouement. The events in "Retribution" were fairly comprehensible for about three quarters of the movie, but then suddenly it seemed like everyone involved in the production lost interest and just came up with the most confusing finale imaginable.
Review of Retribution
