Retribution (2006, Japan)

There’s a lot I liked about Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Retribution, but unfortunately, I didn’t find it very creepy or scary. There are a couple of shots that are quite eerie, but for an ostensible J-Horror film, it’s not big on fright. As usual with Kurosawa’s films, it’s more about atmosphere. Also as usual, it feels like Kurosawa is only giving us three-fourths of the story, so that a lot of ends are left dangling. (If you’re the kind of moviegoer who likes everything to be tied up with a neat bow, I would recommend staying away from Kurosawa altogether.) But as Retribution glided to a close, I found that I quite liked how Kurosawa had pulled his threads together, even though the big reveal is fairly obvious from the outset. Also, big points for yet another strong Koji Yakusho performance. The man unravels like nobody’s business.