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Penance

Play trailer Poster for Penance Released Oct 31, 2014 4h 30m Horror Mystery & Thriller Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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Tomatometer 2 Reviews 50% Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
A grief-stricken woman (Kyôko Koizumi) demands that the friends of her murdered daughter identify the killer or face a penance of her choosing.

Critics Reviews

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Chuck Bowen Slant Magazine The film is ultimately, and disappointingly, revealed to be a contraption that's less concerned with mental portraiture than with getting all of its expository ducks in a row. Rated: 2.5/4 Oct 28, 2014 Full Review C.J. Prince Way Too Indie Penance is definitely a well-made film despite its flaws, but it should probably stay on smaller screens as good TV. Rated: 7/10 Jul 2, 2019 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member This might be one of the typical Kurosawa genre stories in opposite to his "Auteur" films, but is really a bastard. For once it was extended to a 5 episode TV series which fits the story development and the underlying novel better than a movie version. 5 central female characters are telling the story from their point of view. Despite made for TV it's still a Kurosawa film, with his heavyhanded highly expressionistic visual concept and underlying background noises. This time no wind in trees or rushing water, but train and harbour noises. The cast is a stellar Best of Japan, typecasted to the extreme, with no leading male part. Kurosawa is still the by far most interesting japanese director, even with his sometimes odd career choices to go for the masses. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Audience Member Film élégant, intense, superbe esthétisme. Fin un peu décevante pour la 2e partie cependant. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/09/23 Full Review Audience Member Un peu tordu, mais j'ai bien aimé tout de meme Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review laurent b It's just boring, very slow, and full of emptiness...It is supposed to be profund and poetic, but it's just a posture, not something really deep. I had some doubt as i was watching the two first chapters, because the look of it is pretty nice, but when I saw the final chapter my god ! It's so dumb and clumsy, that I couldn't believe it. I still don't understand how come the french reviews are so good... Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Penance

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis A grief-stricken woman (Kyôko Koizumi) demands that the friends of her murdered daughter identify the killer or face a penance of her choosing.
Director
Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Distributor
Doppelgänger Releasing
Genre
Horror, Mystery & Thriller, Drama
Original Language
Japanese
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 31, 2014, Limited
Release Date (DVD)
Nov 18, 2014
Runtime
4h 30m