Kyôaku

The Devil's Path is a sadly overlooked Japanese crime story. It blends several film-making techniques to present a story of crime and (to use an over-used term) redemption.

Apparently loosely based on a true story, filmed at times in as a noir crime story, other times not, it presents the details of a series of grisly Yakuza murders and a newspaper reporter desperately attempting to get the story out and bring the real ring-leader to justice. It lays out the competing and sometimes opposing and antagonistic forces the reporter faces while getting the story out - the reporter versus his spouse, the spouse versus her mother-in-law, the reporter versus the newspaper editor, the inner gang rivalries, and finally the reporter and the perpetrator of the crime. These competing relationships are presented in both a narrative and nonlinear fashion to produce a movie you really have to pay attention to and watch a few times to be hit with its full effect.

At times it works as a psychological thriller, other times as a garden variety Yakuza movie. It features a character who is truly one of the most chilling psychopaths captured on film, someone who can give Hannibal Lector a run for his money.

Well worth watching and not to be missed.

Sado, a death row prisoner, makes an astounding claim that he had an accomplice. He refers to his companion as Doc (teacher) and according to Sado's testimony Doc was the real mastermind behind the crimes. A young journalist Fuji is determined to uncover the truth, but is he being sent on a wild goose chase by a man ready to do anything to postpone his death sentence?

THE DEVIL'S PATH is a thriller based on actual events, but according to the opening credit note none of the characters are real people. The film has a rather frustrating structure with an hour long "FLASHBACK" inserted in the middle of it. We do not need to know all the horrific details of each crime committed and in truth this has only slowed down the pacing. The story has an interesting take on the origins of evil. Sado and his companion commit their atrocities without second thought, almost just like our protagonist and a fighter for the truth Fujii is ignoring the growing unsettlement at home. Has he been turning away from his loved ones for too long?

Takayuki Yamada (Fujii) gives a very one sided and unlikable performance of a young man in distress, who is finding the only distraction from his hard life at home in chasing his perfect villain.

The killer Sudo (Pierre Taki) does a quick transformation from humbled to enraged whenever it is required, and his larger than life charisma plants a disturbing thought that this monster is actually really likeable.

Lily Franky in the role of Doc will make your stomach turn, he is one of the most hate inspiring villains I have seen on screen.

With it Silence Of The Lamb sort of set up THE DEVIL'S PATH fails to deliver in terms of action, but with its slow movement reaches to us nonetheless. Can any punishment fit the crime as the victims cannot be brought back from the dead? Is any obsession, even the one of justice, a way to begin the DEVIL's PATH of its own?