Be prepared for very little pay-off in this slow paced, uninteresting, over-hyped 128 minute crime-mystery that is sure to put you off watching another film for a week!
With bland, bitterly unlikable characters and, at times, a cartoony approach, it’s hard to ever find any interest in The Devil’s Path and you just start clock-watching instead, waiting, praying for it to end.
When murderous inmate, Junji Sudo (Pierre Taki), on death row reaches out to an unsuspecting journalist Shuichi Fujii (Takayuki Yamada) to publish his story, nothing can prepare the young reporter as his eyes are opened to the horror’s of this world as Sudo begins to tell his story about three previous unknown killings. While telling his story will almost certainly ruin his chances of appeal, he longs for vengeance against his former business partner, Takao Kimura (Lily Franky) who double-crossed him, and uses the journalist as a pawn in his game to bring the man to justice. What follows is a story about guilt and salvation that sadly doesn’t manage to hit home the way it really should.
The Devil’s Path is billed as an ambitious broody character study, and it is just that. It’s just a shame the brooding characters are a mixture between pissed off teenagers and cartoons without any real in-between. If it was aiming to reach the gritty realism of films such as Bronson, where while we as an audience don’t like Bronson’s actions, we can appreciate that the story is gripping, then director Shiraishi Kazuya failed spectacularly.
Conscience is focal theme for the film highlighted between the two opposing characters. The bitterly evil Sudo who has had time to repent and Fujii, who’s conscience begins to make him realise this is more than just a story to sell, realizes instead it’s a duty to tell the story for the victims who have suffered without justice. His obsession gets the better of him, which prays on his personal and professional life, as he seeks to find the truth and bring the guilty parties to justice. Sudo also wants justice, but true to character in a more malicious way, as he wants his former partner dead, so while repenting for his crimes on the innocent, he is still a man capable of murder and a craving for death it seems.
The film takes a real nose-dive when, without warning halfway through the investigation, it just goes back in time to show the story from Sudo’s point of view. Perhaps it would have been best served with Sudo telling the story to the journalist in the prison and taking this approach rather than it coming out of nowhere? And once again in the blink of an eye we’re back to real time. The added personal side-story for our lead was nearly as dull as the key story, neither you care about and you’re sort of hoping they all just die at the end! Too far? Perhaps, but they’re all fictional characters anyway so it’s fine.
The problem with this morality based film is that it never really takes you anywhere as a viewer. Yes, people like this exist in the world. Yes, these heinous actions do happen to people, but The Devil’s Path never throws any real punches, it never tries to make an impact to shock us into caring, which results in the film being a rather dull experience.
You can next see The Devil’s Path at Japan Society 6pm Saturday 12th July, or you could do anything else!
Rating: This is a slow burner that actually never gets set alight, (2/10).
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