Retribution

Retribution is one of the better post-Ring J-horrors, and certainly one of the best J-ghost flicks. In fact, upon reflection, I'd have to include it in my top 20 ghost movies of all time. Retribution builds slowly and obscurely, in director Kiyoshi Kurosawa's classic style, beginning as a pretty confounding police procedural but then morphing into a disturbing, even heavy, ghost story.Following the standard mode of exposition he employs in all of his horror films, Kurosawa does not impart information to the viewer in a straightforward manner, and I found myself having to use a lot my own reasoning to draw conclusions about motives and to fill in information gaps in the plot development. This is not a criticism, but simply to say that this is a pretty challenging movie. The main theme of the film is also more complex than we often see in genre pictures - as I see it, a fairly complex prism of abandonment, emotional isolation, and culpability, set amid urban desolation. (Thematically, in how it is shot, and in how it ends, Retribution actually reminds me in some respects of Michelangelo Antonioni's Red Desert.)Retribution is shot in an unhurried fashion, and some viewers may grow restless. I have to admit that I myself did for a few minutes until I reminded myself of who was at the helm. The reward for my patience was a slowly building sense of suspense and unease, heightened by some very creepy and outright unusual ghost shots. No spoilers, I promise, but it will not come as a surprise to fans of Kiyoshi Kurosawa that the ending is not pat, though it may be a little less obscure than some of his other films.So, all in all, far above average. I was going to give Retribution 3 stars, but after thinking more about the ending, and how intriguing the movie ultimately is, it rates a strong 4 or 4.5.

A detective (Koji Yakusho) investigates a series of murders by drowning, while at the same time questioning his own possible involvement. Like his last movie (Loft), Kiyoshi Kurosawa focuses mostly on the concept of memory. This time, however, the consequences that lie behind the motive for the killings reach far beyond the primary characters. The horror sequences themselves are nicely done and incorporate a variety of techniques. The pacing is glacial but there's more than enough here to satisfy.Reading some of the negative reviews on IMDb only confirms that audiences are getting more and more stupid by the day. No doubt this is due to the endless flooding of Hollywood movies (if you really want to call them "movies") that are made for brainless halfwits who have completely abandoned their cerebral skills in favor of special effects and potty humor. That said, one can only shrug their shoulders at the mass of confusion expressed by some of the reviewers here who claim that this film "doesn't make a lick of sense." Allow me to explain.START OF SPOILERSThe woman in red is behind every killing that occurs. The murders that the detective is investigating were committed by people, but the woman in red influenced them to kill because they experienced the same rejection that she experienced - they are not an integral part of the future of their loved ones. The detective is the only one who is forgiven, but the rest of the world must die, because she was abandoned by all. Therefore, her influence over the human murderers was simply a foreshadowing of the apocalyptic doom that would later befall the entirety of humanity.END OF SPOILERSThere are more specifics to the story, of course, but the synopsis above is rather simplistic and shouldn't be all that difficult to understand. Then again, if someone feeds their brain with dim-witted tripe like Friday the 13th and Hostel all the time, it's possible that their movie IQ has degraded to such an extent that even the slightest bit of indirect communication by a filmmaker will go unnoticed. For those of us who don't need (or simply don't want) everything spelled out in BIG RED LETTERS, Retribution offers a bit of interest.The rest of you Hollywood fanboys may as well not even bother with stuff like this. Just go and watch Freddy vs. Jason or Alien vs. Predator a few hundred more times until your brain turns into a quivering mound of jello.

This definitely is a movie that demands focus and thought from its viewers. Watch this to give your brain exercise. There's plenty of other movies out there to keep you mentally lazy as heck.Cure and Pulse are my two favorites by this director, but this movie is right up there too.

My mistake was in expecting this movie to follow the synopsis given. Instead, about midway, the entire plot shifts from an intriguing detective yarn to a bizarre end of the world scenario. What one has to do with the other is anyone's guess. Yes, I suppose it's the filmmaker's right to abruptly change genres but for someone who's expecting one thing, only to be told, never mind, it's not what you thought, it's another matter entirely, it's a bit of a cheat. It's like changing channels from CSI to Supernatural at the half way mark. As a viewer, I hate being purposely misled.That said, after awhile, I did get used to Kiyoshi Kurosawa's willy-nilly approach to filmmaking and found parts of this film interesting if not enjoyable. Would I ever watch it again, definitely not.

Amazing movie

Very weird "Who done it". Very introspective and the ending was weird enough to make the movie fit. I do like it. You just gotta sit and watch it with no breaks. Also the director made the right choice in eliminating the alternate ending. Just a let-down. The packaged ending was best.

Great service, great product!

Utterly boring, dull dialogue, unsympathetic main character, and overly dark scenes where you can't even tell what's happening on the screen (I was in a dark room and still had to turn my laptop up to full brightness!). I'm a lover of subtle Japanese films, but this one is just... not good. I feel like this is one of those movies that pretentious people like to brag about loving, and that anyone who doesn't like it just doesn't "get" it. The truth is, it's just a boring movie that tries way too hard to be deep.*SPOILER*The moral of the story is that society is in decay and people are consumed by guilt about stuff. There, I just saved you from having to watch this film. (You're welcome)

Great ghost story by the director of Pulse (Kairo).

Il dvd funziona perfettamente ed è come nelle condizioni descritte.

Der bekannte Horrorfilm Produzent Takashige Ichise bat ab 2004 mehrere namhafte japanische Regisseure darum für ihn einen Horrorfilm zu drehen, die inzwischen gesamthaft die J-Horror Theater Serie ergeben. Diese Serie setzt sich aus den Filmen "Infection" von Masayuki Ochiai, "Premonition" von Norio Tsuruta, "Reincarnation" von Takashi Shimizu, "Kaidan" von Hideo Nakata, "Kyöfu" von Hiroshi Takahasi, "Noioi" von Kōji Shiraishi und "Retribution" von Kiyoshi Kurosawa zusammen."Retribution" ist ein Polizeifilm, der zuerst sehr konventionell mit einem mysteriösen Mord in einer nicht gerade einladenden Gegend am Hafen von Tokio beginnt. Eine Frau in einem roten Kleid wurde die Nacht davor von einem unbekannten Killer einer einer schlammigen Salzwasserpfütze ertränkt. Der versierte, schwer depressive Noboru Yoshioka (Koji Yakusho) übernimmt die Ermittlungen. An seine Seite gestellt ist sein jüngerer Kollege Toru Miyaji (Tsuvoshi Ihara). Zwischen den beiden Polizisten herrscht ein latenter Konkurrenzkampf. Noboru Yoshioka leidet sehr stark an seiner privaten Einsamkeit, gelegentlich besucht ihn die Prostituierte Harue Nimura (Manami Konishi). Er hegt für die junge Frau tiefere Gefühle und wünscht sich mehr Zweisamkeit. Doch die Frau muss für einige Tage verreisen. So kann sich der Polizist auf seine Ermittlungen im Fall des unbekannten Opfers (Riona Hazuki) konzentrieren, die bei der Mordkommission die Bezeichung F18 erhält. Erschreckend stellt der Bulle fest, dass er möglicherweise viel mehr mit dem Mord zu tun hat als ihm lieb ist. Er entdeckt einen fehlenden Knopf an seinem Mantel und wenig später findet er ihn am Tatort, wo es ihn magisch hinzieht. Auch erscheint ihm der Geist einer Frau in einem roten Kleid. Sehr schnell geschieht ein zweiter Mord. Dieses Mal wird der Zuschauer Zeuge wie der angesehene Arzt Seishinkai Takagi (Jo Odagiri) seinen eigenen Sohn mit einer Spritze betäubt und ihn im Salzwasser ertränkt. Der Mann gibt seine Tat zu und gibt an, dass er Geister sieht. Es bleibt aber nicht bei diesem Mord. Die Lösung des mysteriösen Rätsels liegt womöglich in Der Vergangenheit, im Verdrängten, das seinen Fluch auf die Gegenwart ausweitet und seinen Ursprung in der Gegend um den Hafen hatte.In langsamer Erzählweise und ruhigen, sorgfältig komponierten Einstellungen gelingt es dem Regisseur Kyoshi Kurosawa gleich von Anfang an eine sehr bedrückende und morbide Stimmung zu erzeugen. Das Grauen entfaltet sich langsam und es dominiert das unheimliche Mysterium. Kyoshi Kurosawa verzichtet weitestgehend auf drastische Schocks. Langsam aber sicher entsteht bei "Retribution" ein hypnotischer Sog und dem Hauptdarsteller Koji Yakusho gelingt das Kunststück eine Identifikation mit dem Publikum zu schaffen und dennoch in gewisser Weise undurchschaubar zu bleiben. Beklemmend auch die Subtexte, die der Film mit den Themen "Kollektivschuld" und "soziale Krankheit" anbietet. Die Location ist perfekt für diesen subtilen Thriller gewählt. Mitten in der Metropole ist der Mittelpunkt ein einsamer Ort der Isolation.

Artwork claims two alternate endings. There is one rough cut alternate ending and a making of the alternate (original) ending with some feedback with Kiyoshi Kurosawa (with English subtitles).

Le tre stelle sono una media tra la singola stella, in quanto il DVD si blocca ad un certo punto (provato su diversi lettori), e le cinque stelle sul servizio reso che è stato rapido ed efficiente.