Retribution (2006 film)

Retribution
Directed by	Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Written by	Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Starring	Koji Yakusho Manami Konishi Tsuyoshi Ihara Hiroyuki Hirayama Joe Odagiri
Cinematography	Akiko Ashizawa
Edited by	Nobuyuki Takahashi
Distributed by	Avex Entertainment Xanadeux Company
Release dates	September 3, 2006 (Venice Film Festival) Japan: February 24, 2007
Running time	104 minutes
Country	Template:FilmJapan
Language	Japanese

Retribution (叫, sakebi, literally "Scream") is a 2006 mystery film, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, of a detective's investigation of serial murders that leads him to a mysterious woman in red who slowly draws him into the darkness.

Plot

Yoshioka, an experienced detective, investigates the murder of an unknown woman in a red dress. She was drowned on the Tokyo waterfront, but an autopsy reveals that her stomach is full of seawater. Moreover, all the clues he finds relate to himself: A button found at the murder scene matches one that is missing from his own coat, and fingerprints found match his own. Yoshioka realizes that the only viable suspect is himself; but he doesn’t remember a thing.

A ghost in a red dress soon starts appearing to him. As these apparitions become more intense and bizarre, similar murders occur with people killing loved ones for small infractions. All the perpetrators are found by Yoshioka as he searches for clues about the original murder. Eventually the drowned woman is identified. Yoshioka visits her parents, only to find she had a boyfriend who was extorting her parents, who happens to visit the house at the same time. He quickly confesses to the crime.

Yoshioka is visited by the ghost again who reveals that she is not the murdered woman, but a ghost of a woman whom he saw in the window of an asylum fifteen years ago who has died. All of the murderers took the ferry past the same asylum. Yoshioka sends his girlfriend away, afraid of what he might do to her. He goes to the asylum, where the woman in red agrees to forgive him for not helping her 15 years ago. He goes home, only to discover that he murdered his girlfriend 6 months ago. Going insane, he tries to forget. He collects the bones, and goes to the asylum to pick up the ghost's bones. His partner arrives at his apartment like the bowl of water, which was used to commit the murder, empty as the ghost menaces him in the background. An earthquake occurs as the bowl is refilled. The ghost suddenly appears and drags him into the bowl. The film ends with Yoshioka walking in the street holding a bag containing his girlfriend's and the ghost's bones, with the ghost repeatedly saying "I am dead" and "Please, I want everyone to die too".

Cast

• Koji Yakusho – Yoshioka
• Manami Konishi – Harue
• Riona Hazuki – F18
• Tsuyoshi Ihara – Detective Miyaji
• Hiroyuki Hirayama – Young detective Sakurai
• Joe Odagiri – Dr. Takagi

Trivia

This film is part of the J-Horror Theater series.

• Infection (2004, Masayuki Ochiai), the first release.
• Premonition (2004, Norio Tsuruta), the second release.
• Reincarnation (2006, Takashi Shimizu), the third release.
• Retribution (2006, Kiyoshi Kurosawa), the fourth release.
• Kaidan (2007, Hideo Nakata), the fifth release.
• Kyôfu (2010, Hiroshi Takahashi), the sixth and final release.

Interpretation

As F18, the ghost of the movie, is seeking revenge from past events of which every protagonist is apparently responsible, the horror in Retribution has been seen by some as expressing some kind of social illness and collective guilt in our contemporary world.

External links

• Retribution
• Retribution at IMDb
• Retribution at AllMovie
• Retribution review at SaruDama.com
• plot summary on New York-Times
• review on d-kaz