The point of view shot of a car driving down inner city roads; there’s an emptiness to the streets. In the car, two men are on a mission of revenge, Nijima (Sho Aikawa) and Miyashita (Teruyuki Kagawa). Miyadhita’s child has been molested and murdered. They know the culprit. They have a soundproofed warehouse. Revenge will be prolonged and slow. There’s something odd though; the relationship between the two men has an oddness. While one stays at the warehouse, teetering on the edge, the other leaves to teach night school maths classes. What seemed straight forward becomes convoluted: the imprisoned man points to another culprit. They are also captured and imprisoned. There’s a sick joke when the daisy-chain of blame continues to widen.
Kiyoshi Kurosawa was offered money to make two direct to video movies after Cure. Shot on a low budget and both to be filmed in the space of two weeks: Serpent’s Path (1988) and Eyes Of The Spider are both revenge stories starring Sho Aikawa. With Serpent’s Path, there’s a bleakness that takes hold, accentuated by its cheapness. We spend a lot of time in n abandoned warehouse. Often the locations outside of the warehouse also feel deserted and dilapidated, except for the full class of people in the maths class. The interplay between Sho Aikawa and Teruyuki Kagawa as screen presences is compelling: who are they to each other and what could they be hiding? They often exist as two halves of one character with one dependent on the other: Aikawa’s calm and collected attitude contrasted with Kagawa’s volatility and despondency. A bleak revenge story that prefigures Park Chan-Wook’s vengeance trilogy. There’s no real catharsis other than the knowledge that everyone is doomed. Kurosawa will soon release a French language remake under the same title which will be interesting to see.
Available on Rarefilmm, but also watched a copy on YouTube. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 