80
Director Imamura effectively portrays some of the more negative aspects of the forces that have shaped modern Japanese people. In this manner the picture resembles his chilling films of teenage wanderlust made in the 1950s.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
88
Slant Magazine by Clayton Dillard
Only Imamura could irreverently intertwine Catholicism, brutal murders, and pachinko to produce such devastating ends.
80
Imamura’s detached, almost scientific style forestalls any pat sympathy for the central character—he is not a sentimental “victim of society,” but the embodiment of its darkest Darwinian forces.
91
The A.V. Club by David Ehrlich
At times a frustrating experience, Vengeance Is Mine transforms over the course of its running time, Enokizu’s impenetrable nature eventually bottoming out and blossoming into a perverse relatability.
80
Washington Post by Paul Attanasio
Shocking and relentless, the movie pioneers an unholy border between Rembrandt and pornography, finding a transcendent unity in the abasements and attainments of man.
100
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
The film gathers fearful force.
80
The New York Times by Vincent Canby
VENGEANCE IS MINE, directed by Shohei Imamura, a Japanese director largely unknown in this country, is chilly without being austere, the sort of confounding movie that tells us too much and not enough.
70
Ogata's performance is the obvious highlight, and Imamura constructs an utterly plausible scenario, but at times overreaches, and loses focus. If you can tolerate a few extraneous scenes, though, this is a dark treat.