For being a movie based on a tale about a sex-crazed man who goes around making love with women this is pretty tame and, worst of all, void of anything remarkably sexy except the aura irradiated from the Goddess Ayako Wakao when she's on the screen, dwarfing the pretty uninteresting when not directly annoying main male lead with ease in the meantime. Problem is, no matter how much - hamfistedly or not - the director wants to convey you the idea that Japan is not a women-friendly country in general and no matter how much the viewer might agree with that point of view, in this movie theorically sexuality plays a big part in it and to not give any remotely suggestion of sexyness like the one this same director gave in other movies of his (particularly Irezumi) is a sin I can't forgive, especially considering the 1991 animated remake of this thing plotted by the Maestro Eiichi Yamamoto did indeed suggest plenty of tasteful sexyness and erotism without reaching the point of becoming a full-on Pinku movie. Hence, watch that superior one, Irezumi or even the sufficient Diary of a Mad Old Man from 1962 (sufficient except for the supersexy, naturally dominant performance of Ayako Wakao acting as herself, of course) instead and avoid this mediocre period piece with no remorse whatsoever.
