Alternate Best Actor 1979: Ken Ogata in Vengeance is Mine

Ken Ogata did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Iwao Enokizu in Vengeance is Mine. 

Vengeance is a grisly though captivating film, though I'm not sure we needed so many scenes of Iwao's father's relationship with Iwao's ex-wife,  about the exploits of a serial killer. 

I previously covered Ken Ogata with his later Shōhei Imamura collaboration with The Ballad of Narayama. In that film, Ogata created real a very human, and humane portrait of a man dealing with a difficult life and an even more difficult fate of his elderly path destined to die by a village rite of passage. This performance is a far cry from that later work, though both films I think share a degree of kind of a randomness in their occasional shift of perspective, in the main focus of Ogata as the serial killer Enokizu. The film has a strange though effective structure in laying out his life as the film opens with Enokizu having been caught by the police already and being taken in for questioning. Ogata is striking within the moment he appears on screen through just how much he pierces through with his unrepentant portrayal of Enokizu. As the detectives question him initially, Ogata has this particularly unnerving callous delivery of a man who truly does not care about anything he's done. There is only one hint of annoyance in his performance, not even regret, as Enokizu reflects on his very likely upcoming death by hanging, Ogata's performance shows the real fixation is not getting to get laid again, and just really exasperated at the notion at what is being lost in his life. Not lost as any regret at the time being misspent rather Ogata conveys the idea of a man who truly just was interested in more vice and that's about it. 

Ogata's dominating feature of his performance is in a way in which the immorality of Enokizu strangely empowers the character and does make him darkly fascinating. We see this when the detectives are attempting to trace his crimes, given that he will be condemned no matter what, but Enokizu refuses to offer them any help in their task. Ogata's performance has essentially a trolling energy where he presents this refusal as the state of the insistence of a man without care or concern. Ogata has this natural state of hate in his eyes towards these men. What is so compelling about his performance though is the ease of the hate in his work, the hatred that he exudes is just what is within the man's blood, and it is just something in Ogata's eyes. An amazing bit of acting given that he could be filled with such humanity like in his aforementioned later turn, yet here he defines a man whose existence is defined by his vile nature. We see this more bluntly even as the film flashes back to his first two murders where he kills two unsuspecting delivery drivers. Ogata's performance in this sequence is absolutely chilling because his depiction of Enokizu's violence is with this incredible ease, and even a particularly disturbing naturalism. Even when he toys with the second victim, promising some kind of mercy for a moment, Ogata's performance shows this to be the state the man exists with ease. He has no hesitation no regret, he just has a vicious enjoyment as he brutally murders both men, where his only hesitation is to torture one of them a bit more.

We are then given minor glances of his childhood as a violent boy bothered by his father's weak will against the brutality of Imperial Japan until we again meet the adult man and see him in his somewhat briefly lived relationship with his wife Kazuko. This is probably where Enokizu is at his most human, per se, it's a sliding scale for him. Ogata's performance I think is key in creating that while Enokizu might've gotten worse, there was something wrong with the cloth he was cut from. When we see him maneuvering this human relationship with his wife as he presents her to his parents and even technically proposes the idea of being with her, in both instances Ogata delivers this fascinating kind of hostility about it. His performance in both, even when theoretically giving loving words to his wife, or standing up for her to his parents, is with a hectoring tone of voice and a strange kind of sinister intent in his eyes. As even in this instance it is as though Enokizu is committing some moral transgression by not being clear with his future wife or his parents, and surprising both by revealing Kazuko's pregnancy is a brilliant moment for Ogata. Again the typical idea of humanity seems ripped from his performance, rather a man whose basic heart is that of hate, as where Ogata portrays the joy is not emphasizing that he will be marrying his wife but rather the joy comes from the unpleasantness he seems to cause in both parties in his methods. 

Enokizu goes to jail initially for fraud and encourages Kazuko to basically move on from him. Ogata's portrayal of this is not with this deep love of a man hoping to see the woman he loves move on, rather there is this dismissive dispassion in his voice, of a man hoping to disregard anything really that is attached to him. When he finally gets out he basically finds his wife obsessed with his own father, who in turn rather haplessly attempted to satiate her by getting a friend to sleep with her, though rape her would be more accurate. I believe the purpose of these scenes is to suggest the twisted nature of Enokizu's home even separate from his own existence, however, what we see in his arrival home is not the remaining of Enokizu's humanity leaving him with Ogata's performance, not we see something a little more disturbing. Ogata is excellent in the scene of uncovering the news in basically putting the state of the need be jealous husband angry with the situation, and the violent nature is startling with Ogata's work. There is a certain façade about it almost though, and almost at times, his eyes glance with a kind of disregard nearly a disinterest with the idea. Ogata showing not a man losing his humanity from this situation but rather someone who finally decided to stop even putting on the slight airs that he has any humanity at all. Ogata's face goes so far as to convey a certain near-bemusement in the setup and is incredibly discomforting in showing the man seemingly embracing his worst self in the exchange.  

The physicality is something in Ogata's performance that deserves particular mention and must be mentioned in the scene afterward where he terrorizes his father's rapist friend, seemingly more for the money he can pilfer from him than truly any deep affection for his wife. Ogata's work is amazing though as he stalks the man, who is desperately just making promises of money while trying to avoid the man. The casual walk that Ogata brings but with this truly menacing confidence in his eyes that seem in true control of the situation. Ogata as he pesters the man both verbally, then also physically, there is a terrible command in every act. His physical manner suggests no second thoughts about it only this calm of mind of a man who doesn't mind relishing in a bit of violence. Soon afterward Enokizu goes off and we see him on the run technically rather than hide Enokizu continues to ply his trade of immorality. When Enokizu is murdering people he's lying to them, stealing from them, or misusing them in any way he can imagine.  As the confidence man Ogata is again outstanding in instantly shifting his manner when he is a lawyer suddenly or a professor. Ogata shifted his physical manner to a tighter more professional demeanor, speaking with even gentle understanding towards people with a quick smile, and an even swifter disappearing act once he takes the victim's money, or worse their lives. In each again Ogata shows a man who thrives within the amorality of the acts, in the moments of stealing he changes to suit the need of a truly unscrupulous human if you can call him that. 

Ogata's work is remarkable in showing the shifting nature of the man, though that shifting is only ever different facades he plays in front of the state of a man with morality. The trick is always that Enokizu makes himself seem an interesting person when he is pure evil. We see this when he befriends even a prostitute and her mother, a murderer herself, Ogata projects a man of any interest in them as he supports both of their confidence with these simple assurances. Although what is exceptional in Ogata's work is that he manages to be both convincing that he would persuade both to trust him as even still his manner is that of a man just barely putting the effort in with them. Ogata though has the power of charisma here that even when seeming slightly dismissive there is something still captivating within his state. Of course always in contrast to this is when we see Enokizu in his most private moments where he is also at his most disturbing. In multiple scenes, we see Enokizu as he interacts with his victims after they're already dead and in these moments Ogata's performance is that of a chilling disregard for any kind of life. Enokizu will manipulate the bodies or move around them really as though they are meaningless objects to them, stealing from them or moving them away from him just as an annoyance, certainly not any source of guilt of any kind. Ogata shows in these moments that even the people he interacts with, seemingly making some kind of connection, are just things for him to do with as he wishes in the end. 

The performance Ken Ogata's performance most reminds me of in a way is Richard Attenborough's portrayal of John Reginald Christie in 10 Rillington Place, in the especially disturbing detachment in terms of the reflection of the crimes. Ogata's work, like Attenborough, creates the portrait of this sort of evil that is innate to their very being and requires no effort. Ogata doesn't portray any of the killings as special to Enokizu, they are almost merely something to do, just as his thievery and con man plays are for him. Ogata shows this as evil as a way of life that is especially disturbing. There is no pull towards the act, no psychopathic shift or need, just a spirit defined by a complete callous disregard for humanity. Ogata's final scene is one final extraordinary moment for him when he is visited by his father. Again perhaps the closest attachment that should force humanity to be shown from him. Instead, when his father reveals his own feelings of guilt over the situation, Ogata in contrast is beaming with this most unnerving pride at the idea of being excommunicated by the Catholic church and being seen as this dreadful man. Ogata's delivery is that it is almost all meaningless to him. The only smallest chink in his state within Ogata's work is reflected by his relationship with both parents. First, his father tells him about the death of his mother, where Ogata's performance doesn't quite reflect true care, but almost as though Enokizu is attempting to show care as he did care for his mother on some level yet still can't quite bring himself to even care as a son. The most genuine humanity we get is when his son denounces him and spits in his face, where Ogata shows the only human he can muster which is just terribly vile hate he feels for his father. Ogata shows the truth of the man's heart at the moment which is a hateful distaste for the idea of care or affection, as he wishes death upon his father voicing his only regret sincerely. That regret is that he did not murder his own father. Ogata crafting a truly chilling portrait of a man's evil that is defined by an absence of any good in his soul, an evil that could only cease with his own demise.