Penance
An unsolved murder haunts the lives of four childhood friends in this eerie, intense five-part psychological thriller from master of ambient dread Kiyoshi Kurosawa (CURE, CLOUD). On a small-town playground, a mysterious stranger approaches a group of young girls. When one is found murdered, the victim’s grief-stricken mother (Kyoko Koizumi) demands that the shaken survivors identify the killer or face a penance of her choosing. Growing up in the shadow of this tragic debt, each of the four girls cultivates a warped survival mechanism: avoidance, desperation, fear, and obsession. A disturbing, intricately constructed exploration of trauma, guilt, and memory from a female perspective, PENANCE blends Kurosawa’s trademark atmosphere of creeping unease with a quietly devastating commentary on Japanese gender expectations.
Starring Kyōko Koizumi, Yu Aoi, Eiko Koike
S1 E1 · The French Doll
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.
S1 E2 · Emergency PTA Meeting
Maki is now a relentlessly strict teacher at an elementary school and trains in self-defense techniques in her off-time to combat her overall sense of helplessness. When an attacker arrives at her school, Maki jumps into action to confront him, triggering a chain of unforeseen repercussions.
S1 E3 · Brother and Sister Bear
Akiko has withdrawn from society and lives a reclusive life at home.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 stepdaughter. As Akiko forges a close bond with her young niece, she begins to notice signs of a strange relationship between the girl and Koji.
S1 E4 · Ten Months Ten Days
When Yuka was a child, her mother always favored her sickly older sister, Mayu. Now the successful proprietor of a flower shop, Yuka is still consumed by jealousy. When Mayu marries a kindly policeman, Yuka concocts a vengeful plan to seduce him.
S1 E5 · Atonement
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.