Who is Kiyoshi Kurosawa? The name might not immediately come to mind, but he’s the filmmaker behind “Toyko Sonata” and “Pulse,” and a couple of years ago he hit the festival circuit with the epic “Penance.” Well, it’s finally making its way to theaters stateside and the first trailer has arrived.
Playing out across four-and-a-half-hours (it aired as a five-part TV series in Japan), the story kicks off fifteen years after Emili, a young elementary school girl, was abducted and killed by a stranger. Four girls who had been playing with her at the time were the first to discover her body, but could not remember the abductor’s face, and as he’s never found, the crime goes unsolved. Emili’s mother Asako is consumed with grief and tells the surviving girls that they will not receive penance until they find the killer, which leads to a tragic chain of events.
It’s intense stuff and our review out of Venice called it, “a fascinating, expansive piece of work, albeit one that struggles to escape its TV origins on the big screen, and that can’t quite stick the landing.” That said, this is probably one you’ll want to experience for yourself.
“Penance” opens on in New York City on October 31st, and arrives in its five-part format on VOD on November 18th. Watch below. [Rope Of Silicon]
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
