Penance. Episode 1, The French doll / WoWow ; director, Kiyoshi Kurosawa ; screenplay, Kiyoshi Kurosawa ; producer, Tomomi Takashima, Yumi Arakawa, Nobuhiro Iizuka.

Chicago, IL : Music Box Films, 2012.

Japanese

In Japanese with English subtitles.

1 online resource (76 min.)

011517

(OCoLC)1014215593

Tragedy strikes when Emili is abducted and murdered by a mysterious stranger. The other four girls present at the scene of the crime - Sae, Maki, Akiko, and Yuka, are unable to remember the killer's face and the crime goes unsolved. Fifteen years later, a now-adult Sae is paid a surprise visit on her wedding day. ABOUT THE SERIES Japanese master of suspense Kiyoshi Kurosawa's eerie, intense psychological thriller Penance (Shokuzai) unfolds on a sleepy small town playground, when a mysterious stranger approaches a group of young friends, then kidnaps and brutally murders one of the girls. Wracked with grief, the victim's unhinged mother Asako (Kyoko Koizumi) demands that the shaken survivors identify the killer or face a penance of her choosing. Growing up in the shadow of this tragic debt, each of the four girls cultivates a warped survival mechanism - avoidance, desperation, fear, and obsession. A disturbing, sensitively helmed chronicle of post-traumatic stress from a female perspective, Penance offers Kiyoshi Kurosawa's trademark creepy twists as well as a subtle commentary on Japanese society and gender expectations. This gripping long-form serial drama highlights a new facet of renowned auteur Kurosawa (PULSE, CURE, CHARISMA) and features absorbing performances from a stellar line-up of award-winning, up-and-coming young actresses.

Title from resource description page (viewed October 19, 2017).

Masaaki Akahori, Manatsu Kimura, Kyoko Koizumi.

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Won 2013 Fribourg International Film Festival, FIPRESCI Prize
Nominated 2013 Fribourg International Film Festival, Grand Prix

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