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I guess I gotta leave it at 6. While the vintage aura is beautiful, I tend to prefer horror - something like Polanski's Tenant. Here we have no suspense, and the conflict is pretty unreadable.

The film is an appealing time capsule that shows off crude sexiness, the board-gamification of sexual taboos, and the a woman's desire for the world set against every man's desire for her.

Polanski appears in the film, so you feel like you get to know the man a little better.

Similar to the Tenant, there is a kind of magical plot device that really confused me, and then kind of dazzled me. So for all reviewers who left out mention of this film's (attempted) structural finesse, I will point out that you don't just get a hodge-podge of topless vignettes. There is a narrative trick that leaves you feeling arthoused.

I wouldn't say there were a lot of laughs in the film, but the essence of it is comedic, lighthearted... you can tell from the hallucinatory, uncomfortable poster icon above, this movie is a cross between Playboy and a pinball machine. So gather round the takeout, light up a pack of Old Golds, and chill a case of Moretti for this one. Breasts aplenty.

I love Obayashi because of Hausu... but after 5 watchings over a decade, I said - Let's see if he made anything else. And so far there are gems, middling... but the middling films float upward with reflection. My score is 8 of 10 here.

Fans of the hyper, superlative and surreal films like Hausu and Labyrinth of Cinema will not get their fill here.

But those who detect the underlying Japanese knack for subtle depths, for slow and calming profoundness, will be rewarded as the film ends.

I figured the pacing wasn't great as I watched - this film seems to tug at you but not make clear at ALL what it is doing.

Another review called the protagonist "bland" but I wouldn't say so. Without going Tom Cruise, there were a few moments that really moved me for this character - however certain elements are significantly underdrawn, and this is the inverted narrative of the film that feels like a pacing problem. The viewer is constantly getting pinged with a realization that they feel might have been made clear sooner. You think, even plain reality would have made this distinction apparent sooner.

But that is the nature of Obayashi. The films are highly imaginative and play chess against you with made up pieces and rules you never heard in your life.

We're all Netflix-minds now, but when this film came out I am quite sure it met its moment and bloomed exquisitely. So ultimately, this is not "we've been at the bars and we want a midnight movie!" material like Hausu. This is "Dinner was great and I want a kind of meditative, kind of underground-feeling art experience."

Enjoy - like I did!

I am a Thrillerissimo, of sorts, though I was born decades after these aired I find some reason to which I take fancy to the best of them.

And this one is pretty good. It zipped right by, and I do like episodes that feature snappy, smug inspectors. Sorry-- "superintendents."

Why vintage British dramas? Maybe because of the palatial sets. The tourism of peeping their city streets and pubs... the fact that British people don't shout-argue or speak crudely, and they often have a cheerio attitude I've noticed. Just a reminder of a calmer, gentler era.

2 points off for not being supernatural. But still... you got me on this one, Thriller! My jaw literally dropped when I had to see this one go down-down!