Issue:
June 2024
Join the Film Committee
Join us on Wednesday, June 5 at 6:00 pm for a sneak preview of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s second France-set films, The Serpent’s Path. One of the most critically lauded, commercially successful filmmakers in Japanese history, Kurosawa has earned international acclaim with award-winning psychological thrillers that expose the horror behind the mundane. Reworking his own 1998 film of the same name, the director switched the gender of the original protagonist, moved the setting to Paris, and incorporated pressing social issues for this remake. As the film opens, freelance journalist Albert (Damien Bonnard) and a Paris-based Japanese doctor, Sayoko (Ko Shibasaki), break into a residential building and take hostage a seemingly friendly middle-aged man (Mathieu Almaric). They chain him to the wall in an abandoned building, accuse him of murdering Albert’s 8-year-old daughter, and only gradually realize that they may have the wrong man. To discover the shocking truth about the actual killer, they will take further hostages and Albert, at least, will grapple with his increasing level of brutality. But he is bent on revenge, while she has vowed to help him. But Sayoko is an unlikely accomplice and her intentions are unclear. Kurosawa will be joined by Shibasaki, the film’s lone Japanese star, for the Q&A session after the screening. (Serpent’s Path, France, Japan, Belgium, Luxembourg, 2024, 113 minutes, in French and Japanese with English subtitles)
Karen Severns is chair of the FCCJ Film Committee
