Fantasia XXVIII Review: In PENALTY LOOP, Shinji Araki Certainly Throws You For One

4.5 min. read

Two of my favorite films are Kim Jee-woon’s I Saw The Devil, and Michael Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. One film is a blistering revenge thriller, and the other is a profound essay on post-breakup grief with a sci-fi twist. To that end, the former bares a slightly more suitable likeness to director Shinji Araki’s new film, Penalty Loop, a film that nonetheless still takes after the others with certain elements in the mix.

That could be a spoiler in some ways, in which case, I won’t get too detailed into matters of the how. I will say that it is already well known where the film’s protagonist, Jun (Ryuya Wakaba), stands in the midst of everything that occurs as the story involves him taking revenge on Mizoguchi (Yusuke Iseya), the man who murdered his girlfriend, Yui (Rio Yamashita). What’s also made clear is that Jun finds himself mysteriously waking up on the same day, ultimately performing the same routines and enacting his intricate plan to kill Mizoguchi. Funny enough, Jun doesn’t realize this until maybe the second or third kill, and little does he know that even Mizoguchi is becoming a little more aware each time he dies and wakes up the next day.

As you probably figure it, it’s only a matter of time before both murderer and avenger have to clash in what anyone may easily suspect would be a bloody fight to the finish. Even so, and after each kill leading up to an even more suspenseful one, Araki leaves you wondering just what else is supposed to happen for the film’s 109-minute runtime. Is there a bigger plan at play? There must be. Still, there remains to be seen the answer behind the bewildering timeloop Jun and Mizoguchi seem to be trapped in.

The addition of a mystery figure in the background (Jin Dae-yeon) lends another twisty ingredient as a character who sees what’s happening between both characters. Is this film a supernatural thriller pitting two souls against one another in some interdimensional hell where Jin is like “the Devil” or something? That could be one way to dissect it. Indeed there’s a moment where Jin’s character meets up with Jun after another kill and despite Jun’s recalcitrance to killing Mizoguchi, the enigmatic character pulls up and shows Jun some kind of a contract he signed.

I love how this aspect of the film adds to the conundrum of just how does one get out of this cyclic, hellish nightmare. However, this is only part of the framework that is Penalty Loop as it pertains to what we see leading up to the halfway point. Going forward, Jun’s vengeful rage and angst against Mizoguchi slowly dissipates, and the movie becomes a little more darkly comedic in nature. Tenuous friendship blooms through a humanistic lens in a space where bitter rivals become fairweather friends in the span of twenty-four hours, even if it is weird aside from the fact that there are five suns that set in the late afternoon.

Araki’s direction of this stopgap friendship is only one point to highlight in watching Penalty Loop as the film segues further. The movie is keen on flashing back to moments where Jun and Yui met, and how they got along with one another. Other intricacies pertaining to Yui’s situation don’t really get discussed, and instead, they get shelved with more focus placed on some of her immediate decisions along with what is seen before us. She doesn’t answer any questions about her past and about what it was she was doing when Jun met her one afternoon, and nor does the film let on about what it was she was running from in one scene of the film.

Agreeably, there’s a lot to sift through when it comes to a person like Yui. Hers is the proverbial immovable object amid the chaos of life in what ultimately feels like Araki’s take on something much more psychological, and therefore bleak in tone. And, it does add to the weight of what we see in Jun’s struggle as a man coping with grief on one hand, and the burden of killing on another, with looming uncertainty as to what the real world consequences are. Is there healing and redemption after this? Or, is there just more hell?

I don’t know if I did an ample enough job at conveying what I could with this review without letting too many cats out of one bag. If there are still any blanks in your head that need filling though, you’re welcome to re-read this review and try to figure out what I’ve alluded to in these paragraphs. For this, I provide a summary below that’s as conclusive as I think it can be to your hopeful benefit…

Araki’s Penalty Loop is a little crude at first. You think it’s a crime procedural or a mystery whodunit but it sooner unravels as something else. It’s also much darker in the first half of the movie than perceived to be as a whole. Alas, don’t be surprised if you find yourself halfway into the film and right smack in the middle of what feels like one of the most bizzare, oftentimes jaw-dropping, beguiling, and revenge stories you’ve ever seen. 

Penalty Loop was reviewed for the 28th Fantasia International Film Festival which runs from July 18 through August 4.