Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)   CLICK HERE to buy from Japanese language, English subtitles   CLICK HERE to buy from Blu-ray Japanese language, English subtitles Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!

A Japanese village during the early days of World War II: Tsugio (Masato Furuoya) is a pretty intelligent young man who everybody expects to become a teacher one day, and he's studying for it, too - but more than anything else he wants to serve his country in the war, not for any ideological reasons, just out of pure patriotism. However, when he's examined for service at the front he's rejected because he suffers from tuberculosis. This is a big blow for him, naturally, and it's not just because it destroys all his big plans, also the locals in his village turn away from him, even the "war widows" whom he has occasionally had sex with while their husbands had been at the front, now shun him. And his cousin Yasuyo (Misako Tanaka), whom he had always admired and planned to marry one day (and she sure loved him back) is suddenly given away to another man in marriage. Only his grandmother (Izumi Hara), his only blood relation, still sticks by him, but at her age she needs his care more than he needs hers. Of course, this gets Tsugio more and more unhinged, to the point where he, formerly mild-mannered by nature,  starts to get into fights and eventually develops a fascination for guns. This of course doesn't go unnoticed, and when the police raids his place they find an arsenal to pretty much blow up the village. This results in nothing more than a slap on the wrist though, and he soon stocks up again on deadly weapons - with the express intention to have his revenge on all those who have (in his opinion) once wronged him ...

A very compelling serialkiller drama, especially since it's seen from the eyes of the killler, takes us on his journey to do the deed, presents us with his motives - and the chilling thing about it, all of this is pretty relatable. And it is quite so relatable because both screenplay and direction take a very empathetic approach to the character, don't make him a monster from square one but actually one who has the right ideas and is actually in the beginning presented as one too innocent for a man his age. But ultimately he receives one too many blows to not blow his fuse - which then makes his killing spree all the more shocking. Likewise is the fact that the film looks very polished, down to its killing scenes, only augmenting its shock factor. And a very relatable ensemble cast also help to drag us deep into the film's rather nightmarish world, making this a very disturbing but also very worthwhile piece of serialkiller cinema.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned)

The links below will take you just there!!!

Find Village of Doom at the amazons ...   amazon.com   amazon.co.uk   amazon.de Looking for imports? Find Village of Doom here ...   eThaiCD.com Your shop for all things Thai

Thanks for watching !!!