Penance: "Atonement"

It is 5 February 2012 and time for the final episode of Penance.

15 years ago Asako's daughter was assaulted and murdered her school gymnasium by a mysterious stranger. The murderer was never found by the police, and Asako was so incensed with her daughter's four friends - who could not describe the man - that she demanded they all pay penances for their failure. Now the fourth of those girls - now women - has given Asako the name and address of the man that killed her daughter, and offered her the long-awaiting chance for revenge.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's five-part miniseries Penance saves the best for last with this crushing and masterfully claustrophobic finale. Each of the first four episodes showcased one of the four girls, and showed how the effects of Emili's murder effectively ruined their lives. Now it is Asako's own turn to see how badly her life has been destroyed, and the causes stretch way beyond her daughter's death and all but lay the blame for everything at her feet. This is not happy television.

Penance: "Ten Months, Ten Days"

It is 29 January 2012, and time for another episode of Penance.

Yuka (Chizuru Ikewaki) is one of four girls who witnessed their friend Emili get abducted and murdered by a mysterious man. 15 years later she works in a flower shop. When her sister Mayu (Ayumi Ito) - with whom Yuka has long held a deep resentment - marries the credulous Keita (Tomoharu Hasegawa), Yuka goes out of her way to destroy their marriage.

One of the most positive aspects of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's five-part TV series Penance is how varied the tone and content of the episodes have been. The set-up for the four protagonists has been identical: they witness a murder as children, fail to identify a suspect, and are subsequently warned by the victim's grieving mother Asako (Kyoko Koizumi) that they will have to one day pay a 'penance' for their failure. Each episode so far has effectively ended in failure for its protagonist - two murders and one accidental death - but the tone and narrative of each episode had been quite different. "Ten Months, Ten Days" follows in much the same fashion. Once again there is a body count, and once again the tone and narrative is distinct from all of the others.

Penance: "Brother and Sister Bear"

It is 15 January 2012, and time for the third episode of Penance.

15 years ago, four schoolgirls watched their friend get taken away and murdered by an anonymous killer. Today one of those girls, Akiko (Sakura Ando), is a 'shut in'. She still lives with her parents. She does not have a job. She spends most of her life safe in her bedroom, reading manga and playing videogames. When her brother Koji (Ryo Kase) returns home after years away in Tokyo, Akiko is over-joyed. Then she begins to suspect that something has gone terribly wrong with her brother, and begins to suspect he is abusing his young step-daughter.

Another episode means another change in protagonist, as this five-part Japanese miniseries works its way through the four schoolgirls one by one. It makes for an odd series in many respects: after the assault and murder of a girl back in the first episode I wanted to see the killer tracked down and the open wound resolved, but in fact open wounds are all that Penance deals in. It is effectively an anthology series. A terrible thing has happened, and the series jumps forward 15 years to showcase the various ruined lives it left in its wake.

Penance: "Emergency PTA Meeting"

It is 15 January 2012, and time for the second episode of Penance.

As a child, Maki and her three friends watched Emili be taken away by a strange man, and subsequently discovered her raped and murdered body in the school gymnasium. When all four surviving girls failed to describe what the murderer looked like, Emili's mother Asako (Kyoko Koizumi) demanded all four girls pay a penance - one which Asako would approve - in return for their failure. 15 years later Maki (Eiko Koike) is a tightly-wound, ruthlessly strict school teacher, and crosses paths with Asako again.

As I noted in my review of Penance's first episode, this is a five-part television drama by noted Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa and based on the novel by Kanae Minato. The first episode, "The French Doll", was a bleak and unsettling character piece. The second, "Emergency PTA Meeting", strikes quite a different note. It is an unexpected satire about a school desperate not to displease its student's parents, and about how right and wrong behaviour can boil down to a difference of perspective.

Penance: "The French Doll"

It is 8 January 2012, and time for the first episode of Penance.

Five girls are playing together. One is drawn away from the group by a strange man, and is assaulted and murdered. When her four friends cannot remember what the man looked like, the dead girl's grieving mother (Kyoko Koizumi) promises that all of them will be forced to face a penance. Fifteen years later one of the friends, Sae (Yu Aoi), encounters the grieving mother again - the time has come for her penance to begin.

Penance was originally a novel by Kanae Minato, whose other book Confessions was turned into a particularly bleak and relentless film drama in 2010. Penance was adapted not into a film but rather a five-part television series, one directed by acclaimed filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Internationally the series was distributed as a pair of feature films, but I have decided to give it a watch in its original television format.