| Serpent's Path | |
|---|---|
| 蛇の道 | |
| Directed by | Kiyoshi Kurosawa |
| Written by | Hiroshi Takahashi |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Masaki Tamura |
| Edited by | Kan Suzuki |
| Music by | Hikaru Yoshida |
| Production company | Daiei Film |
| Release date |
|
| Running time | 85 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
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 re-make written and directed by Kurosawa uses the same premise but is set in France.
Plot
Arriving at an abandoned warehouse on the edge of town, two men drag a man from the boot of their car and chain him to a wall in the warehouse. A former low-level yakuza member named Miyashita has enlisted his friend Nijima (a schoolteacher) to track down the person who kidnapped and murdered his daughter. Miyashita watches home video footage of his daughter obsessively as the two of them torture the man they have captive. Upon finding out that he is not the killer, he confesses that more people were involved in the plot, leading the two of them deeper down the path of revenge.
Cast
- Show Aikawa as Nijima
- Teruyuki Kagawa as Miyashita
- Yûrei Yanagi as Otsuki
- Shirō Shimomoto as Hiyama
- Kaiei Okina as Ariga
- Kaoru Sunada as Otsuki's mistress
- Takumi Tanji as Girl's younger brother
- Hana Sato as Math class student
- Satoshi Morihiro as Okabayashi
- Ayami Oda as Emi
- Mizuho Tanaka as Nijima's daughter
- Kazutaka Niyama as Hiyama's Underling
- Yoshitaka Kowashi as Hiyama's Underling
- Hideo Usui as Hiyama's Underling
- Takeshi Ôshima as Hiyama's Underling
Production
Around the time of this film's creation, Kurosawa was in the middle of an extremely productive period, between 1996 and 1998 he produced eleven different films, two of them (Cure and License to Live) theatrically. He received an offer to make two films in two weeks on a very low budget, the second of these was Eyes of the Spider and was a more light-hearted take on the genre. Both feature Show Aikawa as a character named Nijima.
Release
The film was released in Japan on 21 February 1998 along with Eyes of the Spider. Despite being released direct-to-video, the production company Daiei Film ensured that Serpent's Path received a theatrical distribution also. The film is regarded as a cult classic.
A DVD containing both Serpent's Path and Eyes of the Spider was released in the UK by Third Window Films on 9 September 2013.
A 4K restoration was screened theatrically in Taiwan in October of 2024.
Remakes
In 2024, Kurosawa re-made the film based on his own script, starring Damien Bonnard and Ko Shibasaki.
References
- ^ ""Serpent's Path": Kurosawa Kiyoshi Remakes His Own Film in a French Setting". nippon.com. 2024-08-08. Retrieved 2024-12-28.
- ^ "Eyes of the Spider / Serpent's Path | Third Window Films". 2018-02-10. Retrieved 2024-12-28.
- Schilling, Mark (2024-06-13). "Kurosawa's cult classic gets a French makeover in 'Serpent's Path'". The Japan Times. Retrieved 2024-12-28.
- "Serpent's Path (4K Restoration) | KUROSAWA Kiyoshi 2X2: 1998 vs. 2004". Kaohsiung Film Festival. Retrieved 2024-12-28.
- Frater, Patrick (2023-10-26). "Kurosawa Kiyoshi's French Adaptation of 'Serpent's Path' Set at Kadokawa (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 2024-12-28.
External links
- Serpent's Path at IMDb
- Serpent's Path at Letterboxd
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