Blog - Rampo jigoku
Rampo jigoku
Last night we went to see 乱歩地獄 ("Rampo jigoku", or Rampo hell, foreign title "Rampo Noir"). The presentation consists of 4 short films based on stories by the "father of Japanese mystery writing", Edogawa Rampo (1894-1965). All of the films feature actor Asano Tadanobu. Very good, though quite disturbing.
火星の運河 ("kasei no unga", or Martian canal)
Directed by Takeuchi Suguru (music video director)
A man agonizes by a lake in a strange place, tormented by his memories.
鏡地獄 ("kagami jigoku", or The Hell of Mirrors)
Directed by Jissōji Akio
In a very Japanese setting, mysterious deaths occur and there seem to be a relation with mirrors, or more specifically, hand-crafted old-style mirrors. The photography is quite beautiful, and mirrors of all kinds are omnipresent in every scene.
The most straight-forward story of these 4 films.
芋虫 ("imomushi", or The Caterpillar)
Directed by Satō Hisayasu
Music by Ōtomo Yoshihide
A dismembered man back from war is, so to say, being taken care of by his wife. Very odd love/hate relationship. This one really grossed me out.
蟲 ("mushi", or Crawling Bugs)
Directed by Kaneko Atsushi (manga artist)
Music by Tsukamoto Saiko (Museum of Plate)
A highly allergic and misophobic (fear of dirt) man, driver for a bug-loving famous actress he venerates, manages a heavenly garden sanctuary in his apartment... Or does he?
Beautiful esthetics, especially of the fantastic garden scenes.
Posted on November 10, 2005 at 23:29 | Tweet
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Sounds very much up my alley, disturbing and feat. Asano Tadanobu!
Hope I remember about it whenever it gets a DVD release.
Posted by Anonymous on November 11, 2005 at 19:36