What "Vengeance" in which the title is referring?

The movie is called Vengeance is Mine but the killer seem to act out of compulsion. What is the “vengeance” in which the title is referring?

Sort-of-but-not-really-spoiler-y:

I’d always taken it to mean vengeance on his father. There’s the talk in prison near the end where Shizuo tells Iwao that he only hurts those who hadn’t wronged him; that the person he always really wanted to kill is Shizuo, his father.

Now that you point it out…..Im curious as to the title myself too. The only person he really had any anger toward was his father who he never killed…

Well that’s just my point – he takes vengeance out on his father, but through other people. Of course partly it may have to do with his wife, and her relationship with his father. Interestingly, it’s based on a true story!

sorry Daniel, I tihnk i posted this while you were posting since I didn’t know you posted at all til I just checked the thread again. So yea…you basically wrote what I was thinking….

While I think the relationship between Iwoa and his father is the most important in his motivations to kill, I don’t completely agree with the vengeance as being one solely upon his father. He seems to be seeking vengeance on many things and through many people. Interestingly, he doesn’t harm people who harmed him (as his father points out) – he kills only innocent people. His desire to seek vengeance must be a result from something done to him, but I wouldn’t pin it down to just one person (his father) or even one event (his father’s relationship with his wife, or mother, or religion). As abstract, and silly, as it sounds I think it would be more accurate to say that his desire for vengeance comes from his hatred of the lack of freedom in his own life. His desire for freedom seems to be a theme throughout the film, and I think his desire for vengeance is a reaction to being enslaved. Of course this is slightly ironic since he ends in jail. I also think this makes sense, because his killing brings him no satisfaction, as he realizes seeking vengeance will not bring him freedom.

Another interesting question would be whether he succeeds in exacting vengeance or not.

make that Iwao, not how I spelled it

There are other films to explore this kind of indirect rampage, albeit they are American but they are pretty deep. Joel Schumacher’s Falling Down (1993) and Stuart Gordon’s adaptation of David Mamet’s play Edmond (2005).

There is no vengeance in this film apart from the title.