Serpent's Path (1998)

Original title

蛇の道

Directed by

Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Genre

drama film, crime film

Country

Japan

Runtime

1h 25m

Rated

15

Rating

6.9 of 10 from 24 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Two men kidnap and torture a suspect to find a child murderer. One is a calm professional and the other is a grieving ex-yakuza.

tensecoldgrimdeliberatebleakmethodicalclaustrophobicslow-burnuncomfortable

What happens

Serpent's Path (Japanese: 蛇の道, Hepburn: Hebi no michi) is a 1998 Japanese crime thriller film directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and written by Hiroshi Takahashi. It follows the story of two men who engage in kidnapping and torture in order to discover the identity of a child murderer. The film stars Show Aikawa as Nijima, a calm professional, and Teruyuki Kagawa as Miyashita, a grieving ex-yakuza. Positioned by Kurosawa as a continuation of his V-Cinema productions, the production company Daiei ensured that it had a theatrical release. The film has since become a cult classic. A 2024 remake written and directed by Kurosawa uses the same premise but is set in France. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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