Vengeance Is Mine

Vengeance Is Mine follows Iwao Enokizu, a thief, con man and killer who is wanted by police across Japan. The film traces the seventy-eight days between a pair of murders and his eventual capture, during which he hides out, passes himself off as a university professor and becomes involved with a woman who works at an inn. Detectives investigating the case uncover the life behind the man: a wife and children he has all but abandoned, a string of earlier convictions, and a long pattern of violence toward the women close to him.

Shōhei Imamura directed the film, from a screenplay by Masaru Baba and Shunsaku Ikehata, with Kazuo Inoue producing. Ken Ogata plays Enokizu, and the cast includes Mayumi Ogawa, Mitsuko Baisho, Frankie Sakai, Kazuo Kitamura and Chōchō Miyako. It was Imamura's first feature after a gap of several years and came fourth in his directing career, between Intentions of Murder and The Ballad of Narayama.

Released in Japan in April 1979 and running 140 minutes, the film is rated 7.7 out of 10 on IMDb from around 8,000 votes and 7.6 out of 10 on TMDB from roughly 160 votes. The two audience scores sit close together, indicating a broadly consistent response across very different sample sizes.