is a 1998 Japanese

crime thriller film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as drama or gangster film, but al ...

directed by

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, film critic, author, actor, and a former professor at Tokyo University of the Arts (2005-2023). Noted for his psychological films that often focus on ambiguous narratives and on their characters' i ...

, and written by Hiroshi Takahashi. It follows the story of two men who engage in kidnapping and torture in order to discover the identity of a child murderer. The film stars

Show Aikawa is a Japanese actor. Career Show Aikawa was born in Tokushima Prefecture, Tokushima and raised in Kagoshima Prefecture, Kagoshima. Aikawa has appeared in a number of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's films, including ''Eyes of the Spider'', ''Serpent's Path' ...

as Nijima, a calm professional, and

Teruyuki Kagawa is a Japanese actor, kabuki actor (as ), and boxing commentator. Unlike most other Kabuki actors in his family (such as his father Ichikawa En'ō II and his cousin Ichikawa Ennosuke IV) who play both male and female roles, he is a ''tachiyaku' ...

as Miyashita, a grieving ex-yakuza. Positioned by Kurosawa as a continuation of his

V-Cinema Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strate ...

productions, the production company Daiei ensured that it had a theatrical release. The film has since become a cult classic. A 2024 remake written and directed by Kurosawa uses the same premise but is set in France.

Plot

Arriving at an abandoned warehouse on the edge of town, two men drag a man from the boot of their car and chain him to a wall in the warehouse. A former low-level yakuza member named Miyashita has enlisted his friend Nijima (a schoolteacher) to track down the person who kidnapped and murdered his daughter. Miyashita watches home video footage of his daughter obsessively as the two of them torture the man they have captive. Upon finding out that he is not the killer, he confesses that more people were involved in the plot, leading the two of them deeper down the path of revenge.

Cast

Production

Around the time of this film's creation, Kurosawa was in the middle of an extremely productive period, between 1996 and 1998 he produced eleven different films, two of them (''

Cure A cure is a substance or procedure that resolves a medical condition. This may include a medication, a surgery, surgical operation, a lifestyle change, or even a philosophical shift that alleviates a person's suffering or achieves a state of heali ...

'' and '' License to Live'') theatrically. He received an offer to make two films in two weeks on a very low budget, the second of these was ''Eyes of the Spider'' and was a more light-hearted take on the genre. Both feature Show Aikawa as a character named Nijima.

Release

The film was released in Japan on 21 February 1998 along with ''Eyes of the Spider''. Despite being released direct-to-video, the production company Daiei Film ensured that ''Serpent's Path'' also received theatrical distribution. The film is regarded as a cult classic. A DVD containing both ''Serpent's Path'' and ''Eyes of the Spider'' was released in the UK by Third Window Films on 9 September 2013. A 4K restoration was screened theatrically in Taiwan in October of 2024.

Remake

In 2024, Kurosawa re-made the film based on his own script. The remake stars

Damien Bonnard Damien Bonnard (born 22 July 1978) is a French actor. Filmography References External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bonnard, Damien 1978 births Living people French male film actors 21st-century French male actors People from Alès Male ...

and

Ko Shibasaki is a Japanese actress and singer who has performed in television shows, movies, and commercials. She is managed by Stardust Promotion. Biography Acting career Ko (also transcribed Kou and Koh) Shibasaki debuted in 2000, when she portrayed Mit ...

References

External links

* *
Serpent's Path
' at Letterboxd {{Kiyoshi Kurosawa 1998 crime thriller films Films about child abduction in Japan Films about kidnapping in Japan Films about murder Films about torture Films directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa Japanese crime thriller films