MovieChat Forums > Sakebi (2007) Discussion > Thoughts + impressions *SPOILERS*

Thoughts + impressions SPOILERS

posted 17 years ago by empty-vessel
7 replies | jump to latest

I'm a fan of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and I love his film "Cure". "Retribution" reminded me of "Cure" and "Kairo" a lot, in its themes of isolation, loneliness, etc.

There are 2 shots/scenes in this film that reminded me a lot of the 1965 film "Repulsion", directed by Roman Polanski and starring Catherine Deneuve. One involves the wall splitting apart. The other is when the lights go out in the detective's apartment, and as he walks past a mirror you catch a glimpse of the female ghost in red in the mirror. In "Repulsion", there is also 'wall-splitting-apart-with-a-crunching-sound' action, and a scene where the leading lady moves a closet door which has a mirror on it and you catch a glimpse of someone in the mirror. I wonder if Kurosawa has seen "Repulsion" and likes it and is paying homage to it.

The reason given for the saltwater connection was interesting. Why saltwater and not regular water? I believe it is actually not merely saltwater, but seawater. The cause of death is water from the sea, which is reclaiming the land from human beings/civilization.

When the movie showed the female ghost in red flying away into the sky, it kind of took me out of the movie because I thought it looked so unintentionally funny.

I love it when Kurosawa does one of those long takes where a ghost may or may not be in the background of the shot.

I had a feeling that the detective's girlfriend existed only in his head, so when she turned out to be dead, I wasn't surprised, but that didn't make it any less sad to me.

It seems to me that in "Cure", "Kairo" and "Retribution", Kurosawa is criticizing social/cultural values in Japan, where people probably don't open up easily or very much about their personal lives and problems to others who may be able to provide some form of help or support. In these films, as a result of this "alone in a crowd" type of isolation, people start to fall apart at the seams and their minds begin to unravel. No one is exempt, not even those whose professions are to try and understand the human mind. The therapist in "Retribution" is somewhat cold and detached from his patients, and begins to fall apart towards the end of the film. In "Cure", didn't the detective's psychiatrist/psychologist friend fall apart too?

The more technologically advanced our communication devices, the more isolated we become. The bigger the city, the lonelier the souls. In the march of progress, those who are left behind are trampled upon and forgotten. To me, Kurosawa is pointing out that if our socio-cultural values don't become as advanced as our technology and infrastructure, the result will be human extinction.

[–] maopup 16 years ago

**SPOILERS*

Kurosawa's films fascinate me because he can give you the creeps with as little as possible. In this day and age, where ghost effects are either full-on CGI or overly gory, Kurosawa always finds news ways to present his ghosts on screen to creep you out without over-the-top special effects or "shock" music to make you jump. In Retribution, I felt some of his "ghost shots" worked, and some didn't. (It's hard to come up with something new these days when putting a ghost on screen.) We've all seen his ghosts slowly approach the screen in a POV shot. It worked better in Kairo, but not so strong here. Still, there were other moments where I said to myself, "Nice. Well done." The image of half a ghost face peeking at you from behind a fence was awesome!

As for the plot, yeah - I have questions. Lemmie get this straight - some chick in a red dress got stranded in an abandoned building on an island and died there because no one came to rescue her? (???!!!) Now her ghost is pissed and she wants everyone dead for abandoning her, so she convinces people to kill for her with a kind of possession spell that entails drowning the victims in seawater? Towards the end, she gains the ability to kill for herself (the detective vs. the bucket of seawater - SPLASH!). And this "possession spell" is what led our hero to kill his girlfriend at the beginning of the movie, perhaps? And the girlfriend gets her own tormented ghost in the process.

*scratches head*

Yeah. I'm gonna need some input from ya'll. Somebody tell me what the heck happens in this movie? I watched it - I enjoyed it, but I'm still not quite sure what I saw. All underlying themes aside, let's get the plot nailed down first, shall we? HELP!

[–] empty-vessel 16 years ago

I'm not sure if the plot could ever be completely nailed down. This film is loaded with symbolism. I think the girl/ghost in the red dress could represent guilt. Her "situation" could represent rage from abandonment/being forgotten.

Anyone who's good at decoding symbolism in film/art should definitely give this one a shot. I'd be interested to hear your intepretation.

[–] itspoop 15 years ago

i think there were a lot of... half thought threads. i don't say it as a slight, but it seems that there were multiple reasons/symbols for things, in the same way there were different killers/ghosts. in the same way this movie was partially some of his other movies. the multiple killers from cure, but the social remove, desolation and wallstains/atomic shadows from pulse. in many ways this film seemed to be mixes or remixes.

perhaps it's just me, but the central ghost, seemed to be a reference to ww2, and hiroshima. forgotten buildings, and people. if i'm not mistaken, the japanese are slightly into ancestor worship, so to be forgotten is to have no place. to have no future. much is made of the future too. the detective's girlfriend talks about how disappointing the future is. the girlfriend and the woman in red are the same, (note her red is mixed with black) perhaps at different points, or perhaps in the same way f18 is the same as the woman in red, and the female accountant. these symbols in this film i think are impressionistic-- they flow from one person to another one scene to another without being solidly "fixed". they are closer to codas, notes that are repeated, almost quoted. think of the use of the button, the rope, the water jugs and the drowning bowls and puddles. we assume that the button and the rope are the detectives, but they are not. they act as stand ins for other parts of the film. in the same way there are quotes from zentropa, cocteau's orpheus and repulsion (and i have the impression, some hitchcock), these objects and people are just quotes/stand ins/ references to other parts of the film. they are dopplegangers of the real thing, but there seems to be only a strange sort of clone, and no original that is completely separate from it's knock offs, not the objects, the people, the scenes or even the film itself.

i agree, or atleast i had the same impression about the seawater symbolism. seawater is notable because unlike other water, consuming it only leads to more thirst and dehydration. it is taking something that the body requires and substituting a poison, albeit a rather innocuous one. what's more, japan is an island, so it is literally surrounded by poison. to escape that island, or to build out from it, the film seems to say, is a kind of poison nature/the past (the woman in red) will have her revenge.

[–] Boutros_Boutros_Sirhan_Sirhan 16 years ago

I think there was also a nice hint of where the story was going when he was talking to Harue and mentions the destruction of land/property to build manmade structures upon it, it tied into the sea reclaiming the land via earthquakes comment during the same time period. Environment, society, personal conflict, this movie had it all.

[–] jorgddh 16 years ago

I think the red woman didn't get lost in that building. She was a patient in some kind of asylum where the mentally ill were physically abused till death. It was kind of a legend, but after all it seems that everyone with the building in sight (people in the ferry) knew all the horrific things that were happening there, but they chose to forget. The curious thing about the movie is that Koji Yakusho's personal guilt is just a projection of society's guilt. Think about it, everyday we see people whom we know are suffering, and we don't give a damn.

[–] AsaNisiMasa_63 12 years ago

While this is obviously open to interpretation, I think you nailed it there, bud.

[–] Kawada_Kira 9 years ago

I think the red woman didn't get lost in that building. She was a patient in some kind of asylum where the mentally ill were physically abused till death. It was kind of a legend, but after all it seems that everyone with the building in sight (people in the ferry) knew all the horrific things that were happening there, but they chose to forget. The curious thing about the movie is that Koji Yakusho's personal guilt is just a projection of society's guilt. Think about it, everyday we see people whom we know are suffering, and we don't give a damn.

I like this post and agree with your interpretation. That's the impression I had too.

"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."
- Goethe