About

Japanese master of suspense Kiyoshi Kurosawa's eerie, intense psychological thriller Penance unfolds on a sleepy small town playground, when a mysterious stranger approaches a group of young friends, then kidnaps and brutally murders one of the girls. Wracked with grief, the victim's unhinged mother Asako demands that the shaken survivors identify the killer or face a penance of her choosing.

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Episodes

1. The French Doll

1h 15m

Tragedy strikes when Emili is shockingly murdered by a mysterious stranger. The other four girls present at the scene of the crime - Sae, Maki, Akiko and Yuka - are unable to remember the killer's face and the crime goes unsolved. Fifteen years later, a now adult Sae is paid a surprise visit on her wedding day.

2. Emergency PTA Meeting

50m

Maki is now a teacher at a strict elementary school and trains in self-defense techniques to combat her feelings of helplessness. When an attacker arrives at her school, Maki jumps into action to confront him, triggering a chain of unforeseen repercussions.

3. Brother and Sister Bear

50m

Akiko has withdrawn from society and lives a reclusive life at home. But things change when her brother Koji moves back home from Tokyo with his wife and step-daughter, Wakaba. As Akiko forges a close bond with her young niece, she begins to notice signs of a strange relationship between the girl and Koji.

4. Ten Months Ten Days

50m

When Yuka was a child, her mother always favored Yuka's sickly older sister Mayu. Now the successful proprietor of a flower shop, Yuka is still consumed by jealousy. When Mayu marries a kindly policeman named Keita, Yuka's latent childhood traumas emerge and she concocts a plan to seduce him.

5. Atonement

1h 15m

Fifteen years since the murder of her daughter, Asako is still overtaken with grief and resentment. One day she receives a vital new clue as to the identity of Emili's killer and sets out to find him. As she closes in on the truth, Asako finds herself in an unexpected location from her past.