Vengeance Is Mine (1979) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

Enokizu kills Haru and her mother after becoming convinced Haru is carrying his child. He murders them to eliminate witnesses and because he views the child as a potential burden that would limit his freedom. He then pawns their belongings to obtain money for his continued flight.

Foreshadowing: Earlier, Enokizu had grown increasingly certain about Haru's pregnancy, and the film establishes his pattern of eliminating anyone who becomes a complication.

• haru
• mother
• murder
• pregnancy
• killing

Enokizu's silence at the police station is a form of defiant control. By refusing to explain himself or reveal his motives, he maintains power over the situation and denies the authorities the satisfaction of understanding him. This sets up the film's exploration of his nature as someone who operates outside conventional moral and social frameworks.

Foreshadowing: His silence establishes the film's non-linear structure, where his story is pieced together through flashbacks rather than direct confession.

• interrogation
• silence
• defiance
• police

Haru and her mother recognize Enokizu as the wanted killer but choose silence because of their own vulnerable positions. Haru is a prostitute, and her mother is a recently released convict, neither would be believed or treated favorably by authorities. They also see an opportunity for economic security through Enokizu's money.

Foreshadowing: The prostitute earlier in the film was warned not to go to police because of her occupation, establishing that societal marginalization prevents these characters from seeking justice.

• haru
• mother
• secret
• police
• prostitute

The final image shows Enokizu's ashes refusing to settle in the air when his father and wife attempt to scatter them on a mountaintop. This surreal, eerie moment symbolizes that his evil persists beyond death and cannot be easily erased or contained. It suggests an unresolved, lingering malevolence that defies normal closure.

Foreshadowing: The ending echoes the film's persistent theme of Enokizu as an unstoppable, destructive force that society cannot control or fully eliminate.

• ashes
• ending
• death
• symbolism
• cremation

Enokizu adopts the professor identity to gain trust and access to the inn without raising suspicion. By presenting himself as a refined academic from Kyoto University, he manipulates the innkeeper Haru and avoids detection while the police hunt him. This illustrates his pattern of deception and social manipulation.

Foreshadowing: The police bulletins on television featuring his face make his disguise necessary for survival, as his identity is now publicly known.

• professor
• disguise
• inn
• haru
• deception

Enokizu's first recorded murders are calculated crimes committed for financial gain. He lures two men, kills them, and takes their money before disappearing. This establishes his pattern of using violence as a tool for survival and enrichment, combining sexual predation with robbery.

Foreshadowing: These early murders set the manhunt in motion and establish his modus operandi of targeting vulnerable individuals.

• murders
• money
• early crimes
• theft

Kazuko divorces Enokizu after he is imprisoned for fraud, but she is attracted to his father Shizuo. However, she agrees to remarry Enokizo because of Shizuo's Catholic beliefs, she respects his moral stance and returns to the family. This creates a complex triangle of attraction and obligation.

Foreshadowing: Shizuo's cold rejection of Kazuko in the bath scene and his subsequent orchestration of her affair with a railway worker reveal his manipulative nature.

• kazuko
• shizuo
• divorce
• remarriage
• catholic

Shizuo persuades a railway worker to sleep with Kazuko to satisfy her sexual desires, doing so coldly and calculatively. This scene reveals Shizuo's nature as someone who manipulates others without emotional involvement. It also highlights the family's dysfunction, where sexual transactions replace genuine intimacy.

Foreshadowing: This scene establishes the transactional, emotionally hollow environment that shapes Enokizu's worldview.

• shizuo
• kazuko
• affair
• railway worker
• manipulation

After manipulting the bail money of a young defendant's mother, Enokizu befriends a lawyer and kills him to use his apartment as a hideout. He also uses the apartment to conceal the body of the young defendant he had earlier victimized. This demonstrates his escalating audacity and willingness to kill anyone who becomes useful to him.

Foreshadowing: This murder marks a turning point where Enokizu moves from fugitive survival to actively creating elaborate hiding places.

• lawyer
• tokyo
• murder
• hideout
• body

Enokizu becomes suspicious of Kazuko's fidelity during his imprisonment for fraud, accusing her of infidelity when he is released. This suspicion is fueled by his paranoid, controlling nature and the knowledge that Kazuko was attracted to his father Shizuo. The accusation deepens the family's existing tensions.

Foreshadowing: This paranoid jealousy foreshadows Enokizu's pattern of violent control over women in his life.

• kazuko
• jealousy
• prison
• suspicion
• accusation

Haru is raped by a benefactor who keeps her as his mistress while her mother and Enokizu watch silently. This brutal scene underscores the powerlessness of marginalized women, Haru cannot escape, and neither her mother nor Enokizu intervene. It highlights the transactional nature of the world Enokizu inhabits and his willingness to tolerate abuse of those around him.

Foreshadowing: This scene intensifies the film's examination of victimhood and complicity within cycles of exploitation.

• haru
• rape
• benefactor
• mistress
• abuse

Enokizu grows up as a rebellious, violent youth under his Catholic father Shizuo, whose fishing boats were conscripted by the Navy during the war. The postwar trauma, family dysfunction, and Shizuo's cold manipulation create an environment that breeds Enokizu's pattern of deception, violence, and inability to form healthy relationships.

Foreshadowing: The film traces direct lines from his childhood environment to his adult crimes, establishing his actions as products of his troubled upbringing.

• childhood
• shizuo
• violence
• family
• catholic