CHIME with SERPENT'S PATH (1998)
CHIME [チャイム] [CHAIMU]
A masterclass in escalating dread and shocking violence, CHIME reaffirms Kiyoshi Kurosawa as one of modern horror’s most innovative and unpredictable visionaries. During a class, culinary instructor Matsuoka (Mutsuo Yoshioka) witnesses the suicide of a young student (Seiichi Kohinata), driven to insanity by what he claims is a chiming sound that controls his mind. Soon, Matsuoka begins hearing it, too, and descends into a mental abyss that warps his perception of reality and gives vent to his darkest impulses. Expertly blending psychological portraiture and hallucinatory mystery, Kurosawa offers a chilling depiction of madness that interrogates the very stability of our everyday existence, with the director’s trademark creeping tracking shots and complex sound design fashioning an immersively terrifying and unnerving cinematic experience. DIR/SCR Kiyoshi Kurosawa; PROD Misaki Kawamura, Hideyuki Okamoto, Miyuki Tanaka. Japan, 2024, color, 45 min. In Japanese with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Followed by:
New 4K Restoration
SERPENT’S PATH (1998) [蛇の道] [HEBI NO MICHĪ]
Straight off CURE (1997), his international breakthrough, Kiyoshi Kurosawa directed two low-budget films using the same basic premise and the same lead actor (Shō Aikawa) to completely different ends. The experiment first resulted in SERPENT’S PATH (1998, later remade in 2024), a dark gangland thriller with philosophical overtones. Obsessed with avenging his young daughter’s murder, yakuza subordinate Miyashita (Teruyuki Kagawa) recruits Nijima (Aikawa), a brilliant yet strangely detached math teacher, to help carry out a scheme to kidnap and torture the man allegedly responsible. But the plan goes awry when their target, Ōtsuki (Yūrei Yanagi), fingers another mobster as the mastermind behind Miyashita’s tragedy. As Miyashita and Nijima ascend the yakuza chain of command in search of the true culprit, the two partners follow the cold, calculating logic of revenge, descending into a moral abyss from which they may never surface. Featuring Kurosawa’s patented long takes and his claustrophobic arrangement of space, SERPENT’S PATH is one of the legendary director’s most chilling investigations into the endless cycle of violence and the evil that lodges in every heart. DIR Kiyoshi Kurosawa; SCR Hiroshi Takahashi; PROD Atsuyuki Shimoda, Tsutomu Tsuchikawa, Masashi Masuoka, Yoshiyuki Oikawa. Japan, 1998, color, 85 min. In Japanese with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Run Time: 130 Minutes
Opening Date: Friday, May 22, 2026
Genre: Horror
