Our Arthouse 101: Japanese Cinema series jumps to the ’70’s with Shôhei Imamura’s 1979 thriller Vengeance Is Mine (original Japanese title: Fukushû suru wa ware ni ari), based on the real-life story of serial murderer Akira Nishiguchi. The story follows Iwao Enokizu, a charming drifter and remorseless killer who leaves a trail of death and deception across Japan. But this is not a crime thriller – it’s a forensic excavation of a man’s broken psyche, and a nation’s suppressed demons.

Director Shohei Imamura—known for his fascination with society’s underbelly—eschews sensationalism for something more disturbing: a portrait of evil not as anomaly, but as a product of postwar dislocation, generational trauma, and cultural repression. Winner of over 20 international awards, Vengeance is Mine presents a Japan far removed from the poetics of Ozu or the mythic ghosts of Kobayashi.

Arthouse 101: Japanese Cinema is a curated 12-film trip through the evolution of Japan—from the quiet post-war resilience of the 1940s all the way to the radical reinventions of the 1990s. Each Monday this July-September, we will explore a new facet of this incredible nation’s cinematic journey throughout the 20th century. All films will be presented in their original Japanese language with English subtitles, at a reduced ticket price of $8.