‘Serpent’s Path’ Review And Ending Explained: A Haunting Kiyoshi Kurosawa Thriller

A 4K Restoration of Serpent’s Path and the 45-minute short Chime is now playing in Los Angeles, and CinemAddicts co-host Bruce Purkey reviewed the 1998 movie on the latest episode. Most of the review is spoiler free, but if you have already seen the film there is a quick spoilers section at the end of the talk. Details on Serpent’s Path is featured in our post!

Serpent’s Path centers on a low level yakuza member named Miyashita (Teruyuki Kagawa) who seeks revenge for his young daughter’s killing. He recruits math teacher Nijima (Sho Aikawa) to capture the alleged murderer (Yurei Yanagi), and they team up to torture that man in a hidden warehouse. The vengeance plot gets even more complicated when more suspects come into view.

Running at 85 minutes, Serpent’s Path was Kurosawa’s follow-up to his 1997 international hit Cure. In 2024, Kurosawa released a remake of Serpent’s Path, but this version was set in France.

Check out Bruce Purkey’s full review of Serpent’s Path below in audio and video form (Spoilers start at 10:07) :

Serpent’s Path and Chime are now playing in Los Angeles at the Alamo Drafthouse DTLA, Laemmle Monica and Laemmle Glendale. Additional dates will follow throughout this month.

Share your thoughts on Serpent’s Path and Chime in the comments!