Film

Jealousy

Name: Jealousy
Genre: Thriller
Released: 1971
Cast: Shima Iwashita, Ruriko Asaoka, Toshiyuki Hosokawa, Kōji Nanbara, Miyoko Nakamura

Other titles called Jealousy: the 1934 film, the 2013 film.

A 1971 Japanese thriller about a widow pursuing revenge after her husband is murdered in a conspiracy. Methodical, morally ambiguous, and tautly constructed, it's a film that treats vengeance not as catharsis but as a consuming, transformative obsession. For those who prize atmosphere and moral complexity over easy satisfaction.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like slow, cool-headed crime stories where the pleasure lies in watching a patient plan take shape, with a sharp eye for composition and a bleak, unhurried mood.

Skip it if you need brisk plotting and clear motives, since this moves at a measured pace and keeps its cards close, so its coldness may feel distant rather than gripping.

What it asks of you: Ninety-seven minutes of patient attention, long held silences and a slow build where mood carries more weight than dialogue.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

In the Realm of the Senses1976

Another Nagisa Oshima provocation about desire and obsession consuming a relationship entirely. Visually bold, emotionally raw, and unafraid of its own contradictions about love and destruction.

But Explicit sexual content throughout. Deliberately unsettling rather than entertaining, and the narrative is fragmented in ways that demand patience.

Branded to Kill1967

Seijun Suzuki's masterpiece of style-over-sense: a yakuza hitman spirals into paranoid obsession. The same kinetic moral chaos as Jealousy, but filtered through genre pulp and visual excess.

But The plot is deliberately incoherent. If you need narrative clarity and straightforward character motivation, this will frustrate you intensely.

A Lizard in a Woman's Skin1971

Lucio Fulci's giallo about psychological torment and ambiguous guilt, released the same year. Baroque, unsettling, and genuinely interested in how revenge fantasies warp the mind.

But The dubbed English version is awkward. The pacing is deliberate to the point of drowsiness in some stretches.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Jealousy

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Ballad of Little Jo1993

Both films center a woman whose determination to act in a world designed to punish her becomes the entire story. The obsession isn't theatrical—it's survival.

Maggie Greenwald's Western about a woman passing as a man to survive, pursuing her own agenda in a hostile world. A revenge narrative inverted: the heroine doesn't seek vengeance so much as refuses to be victimized. Quiet, visually austere, and genuinely moving.

But The pacing is deliberate and meditative. It's a film about interiority in a genre built for action, which will feel slow and distant if you want drama over psychology.

The Silence of the Lambs1991

Jonathan Demme's thriller about a woman pursuing a predator with single-minded determination. Tense, character-driven, and genuinely intelligent about the psychology of obsession and power.

But Hannibal Lecter has become a cultural shorthand that overshadows everything else. Some find the film's treatment of mental illness reductive.

Mulholland Drive2001

David Lynch on obsession, identity, and revenge in Hollywood. Non-linear, dreamlike, but built on a core of genuine rage. The architecture of desperation beneath the surface glamour.

But Deliberately confusing. If you're watching for plot coherence, you'll be lost and irritated. Requires active engagement and re-watching.

Memories of Murder2003

Bong Joon-ho's masterpiece: a detective consumed by the hunt for a serial killer across years and obsessions. Brilliantly structured, deeply human, and about how the need for answers corrodes everything.

But Bleak and unsettling throughout. The resolution offers no catharsis, only a kind of exhausted acceptance.

Blood and Roses1960

Roger Vadim's lesbian vampire film: another meditation on obsession, revenge, and the past haunting the present. Gorgeously shot, genuinely strange, and sincere about desire as a form of possession.

But The gender and sexuality politics are dated. The narrative is more atmosphere than plot, which some will find slack.

The Third Man1949

Carol Reed's Vienna-set noir about a man drawn into obsessive investigation. Beautifully composed, morally complex, about how searching for truth can destroy you as much as the lies.

But The zither score is famously intrusive and will either charm or irritate you. The pacing feels slow by modern standards.

Chinatown1974

Roman Polanski's perfect noir about a detective pulled into obsessive investigation of corruption. Razor-sharp dialogue, impeccable structure, and the recognition that some mysteries should stay buried.

But The ending is nihilistic in a way some find depressing rather than cathartic. It's also become canonical enough to feel overly familiar.

High and Low1963

A Japanese film obsessed with vengeance and obsession as a form of moral corruption. Both understand that the pursuit changes the pursuer as much as the pursued.

Kurosawa's masterpiece about a wealthy man obsessed with pursuing his son's kidnapper across class boundaries. An investigation that becomes a moral reckoning, gorgeously composed in black and white, and genuinely suspenseful despite being sixty years old.

But It's 143 minutes long. The second half shifts into police procedural, which feels deliberate but can feel slack if you wanted the psychological tension throughout.

A Question of Silence1982

Both explore revenge and violence as rational responses to injustice, refusing the comfort of seeing the avenger as purely wronged or purely culpable. Both ask uncomfortable questions about who gets to be angry.

Marleen Gorris's Dutch film about three women who murder a man and refuse to explain why. A thriller that's actually about female rage, complicity, and the systems that drive women to violence. Radically empathetic to its 'villains.'

But It's agitprop dressed as a courtroom drama. If you're looking for neutrality or moral ambiguity, the film's perspective is pointed and uncompromising.