Exclusive U.S. Trailer for Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Serpent’s Path Traces a Brutal Vengeance

There has never been a better time for American Kiyoshi Kurosawa fans. The recent run of restorations and new work hits a high point with today’s U.S. release of his excellent The Samurai and the Prisoner, tomorrow’s ultra-rare 35mm screening of Charisma, and the latter’s pending release from Janus Films (acquired alongside his marvelous Eyes of the Spider). Next month will finally bring the stateside debut of Serpent’s Path, a France-set remake of 1998’s feel-bad triumph that stars Damien Bonnard (Poor Things), Ko Shibasaki (The Boy and the Heron), Hidetoshi Nishijima (Drive My Car, Her Private Hell), Mathieu Amalric, and Claire Denis regular Grégoire Colin. Ahead of a September 11 opening from KimStim, we’re thrilled to premiere the trailer.

Those who know the original will be familiar with this iteration’s premise, then all the more surprised by its eventual turns—not least some reflection on the director’s own fish-out-of-water position in France. As the first go-round was complemented by the aforementioned Eyes—a project made with overlapping cast, crew, and premise—it sometimes seems Serpent’s Path is less a remake than the third in a series. (Kurosawa at least told me he considers it more in his creative spirit.) But I’ll let you see the movie and decide for yourself.

Here’s the official synopsis: “Kiyoshi Kurosawa revisits and reimagines his own 1998 thriller in this haunting French-language adaptation of Serpent’s Path, transforming a revenge story into a chilling meditation on grief, guilt, and moral decay. Relocating the action from Tokyo to the bleak outskirts of Paris, the film follows a bereaved father (Damien Bonnard) who embarks on a labyrinthine quest for vengeance against a shadowy child-trafficking organization known as ‘The Circle,’ aided by the enigmatic and unnervingly composed Sayoko, played with hypnotic ambiguity by Ko Shibasaki. Expanding upon the original’s psychological terrain while retaining its eerie inevitability, Kurosawa crafts a masterclass in atmosphere and existential dread, proving once again why he remains one of cinema’s great architects of unease.