Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Penance

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Music Box Films quietly snuck this out on Blu-ray last week.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/Pen...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Anyone get it? I'm curious if it's worth picking up.

[47lab Guest Find all posts View Profile Close 47lab]

Anyone get it? I'm curious if it's worth picking up.

Despite all the critical gushing over Minato's CONFESSIONS, I wasn't particularly taken by that screenplay & movie -- so I had some initial reservations about PENANCE & truthfully wasn't expecting more than a Stephen King type morality tale especially for a made for TV mini-series but I decided to give it a chance.

I felt in the hands of a very accomplished director like Kurosawa that it might possibly end up being something special...well, perhaps I was a bit too sanguine because it ended up a mixed bag & not wholly satisfying. Some of the individual tales were quite good but unfortunately the whole just was never greater than its sum parts. Still liked it enough to pick up the physical media though.

The standout story for me was the third chapter titled "Brother and Sister Bear" starring Sakura Ando. She was brilliant playing the social recluse & borderline hikkimori who is gradually brought out of her shell due to the discovery of the horrifying secret that is kept by her brother's step daughter & her own traumatic past.