Rampo Noir

This film, an adaptation of four (really three) short stories penned by Edogawa Rampo, is unfortunately more stomach-churning than it is stylish. Given the uniform elegance of RAMPO NOIR's composition and design, that makes the ick factor pretty high. After the relative subtlety and effectiveness of the first piece, "Mirror Hell," the ensuing parade of erotic leeches, quadriplegic sex, sadism, mutilation and necrophilia should be enough to put almost anyone off their dinner. Potential viewers, you've been warned. The images, which are beautiful, will stay with you, but they'll probably inspire a queasy stomach more than they will a sense of fascination and horror. Here's hoping it was more palatable on the page.

Rampo Noir is one of my favorite horror anthologies, sharing a similar disturbing, visceral feeling to Subconscious Cruelty (2000). (Check out my review for it if you have time.) The film is a fascinating, yet uneven, collection of four stories, each directed by a different filmmaker adapting a tale by Rampo Edogawa. The only constant thread is actor Tadanobu Asano, who takes on a new role in each segment, from a naked wanderer to a private detective. The movie has almost giallo-esque vibes, aesthetically and argumentatively, a strange cocktail of David Cronenberg's body horror and the aesthetic of films like Heroic Purgatory (1970) (check out my review if you have time here) and House (1977).

The directors involved are an interesting mix of seasoned artists. Legendary Akio Jissoji, whose "Buddhist Trilogy" is a work I adore and recommend, and whose name you might also have seen on the famous Ultraman TV series and his acclaimed Art Theatre Guild films, directs one segment. Another is from Hisayasu Satô, an icon of pinku cinema. Mangaka Atsushi Kaneko and director Suguru Takeuchi round out the quartet.

Of the four, the two standout chapters are Takeuchi's opening segment, "Mars Canal," and Satô's "Caterpillar." "Mars Canal" is a short, silent parable about a naked, vulnerable man at a lake, almost like a piece of living art. The simplicity and atmosphere make it a hypnotic start to the film.

The Metamorphosis of Caterpillar: The most absurd and grotesquely captivating storyline is "Caterpillar," the complete story of a war hero who returns home completely dismembered-a quadruple amputee, mute, and facially scarred. His wife, the artist, treats him not as a husband but as a living canvas. She dresses him, feeds him, and parades him around, obsessing over her creation. It's a horrific allegory about control, love, and the monstrous ways in which we can possess another. The wife's affection is a twisted kind of horror; her love is a form of artistic subjugation. She sees her husband as a prize, a bizarre specimen she has reshaped and kept in a jar. In her mind, she's transforming him from a "caterpillar" of war into something beautiful and powerless. The ending climax of this story is a shocking, visceral and fully embracing the erotic grotesque themes of the source material.

The Mirror and the Bugs:

The other two segments, Jissoji's "Mirror Hell" and Kaneko's "Crawling Bugs," are also ingenious but less compelling. "Mirror Hell" follows a detective as he investigates a series of mysterious deaths caused by a man who creates mirrors that seem to burn people's faces off. This segment explores obsession with self-image and the danger of perspective.

"Crawling Bugs" is a strange, unsettling tale of a man with a mental illness that makes him feel like bugs are crawling on his skin whenever he's near other people. He becomes obsessed with a beautiful theater actress, fantasizing about a life with her. This story is an unsettling, dirty dive into the themes of idolization and loneliness, where the protagonist creates his own reality to escape the horrors of the one he's trapped in.

Overall, Rampo Noir is a must-watch for diehards of the directors here and also for anyone who enjoys Japanese horror and isn't afraid of a little absurdity.

Lengthy anthology of films made from stories by Edogowa Rampo, that all seem to revolve around obsessive love and the consequences of feeling; 'Since I fell in love with you my life has been hell'. First up, 'Mars Canal' comprises a naked man walking across what appears to be a lunar landscape and recalling a naked fight with a lover (?). Not much in this one for me and 'experimental' would probably be the correct tag. Next up, Mirror Hell was a fairly interesting but rather convoluted tale involving mirrors and ladies dying after a tea ceremony. I liked a lot of this but thought it could have been better told. Caterpillar, I thought was masterful. We are confronted with a mere torso and head of a man who is being further injured and degraded (and whipped) by his wife. She says he has returned injured from war and only she can bear to face him but certainly does not treat him very 'lovingly' as we would conceive of the word. There is a lot here of love and hate, of need and possession and although it is at times very hard to watch I was most impressed. The final, Crawling Bugs, doesn't quite match up to the Sato film but is well shot and certainly well worth watching. All told a surprisingly good quartet and tempts one towards the writings of the mysterious, Mr Rampo.

"Rampo Noir" (Rampo Jigoku) is a gorgeous, creepy, kinky to the extreme as well as beautifully conceived and well crafted compendium of four stories by Japanese author Edogawa Rampo (a transliteration of Edgar Allan Poe and the nom de plume of Taro Hirai): "Mars Canal", "Mirror Hell", "The Caterpillar" and "Crawling Bugs". "Mars Canal" bookends the program and launches us into the three other nightmares. "Mirror Hell" was fun and simply GORGEOUS to look at! "The Caterpillar" (which is the pet name a woman has given her husband for horridly KINKY reasons!) totally CREEPED me out! "Crawling Bugs" was dizzyingly lovely to look at, though quite unnerving as the lead character's 'dilemma' was eerily reminiscent of one of my best friends! It has been released on DVD (region 3) in Japan and I. Must. Have. IT!!

I also happened to have seen this at the very same Japanese festival in Sydney, and I enjoyed it quite a lot.

These shorts are sick. The writer behind the original stories may have a disturbed and twisted mind for inspiring these disgusting tales of torture and obsession, and love (love which is so alien it doesn't really fit the word).

Of course many stories by Edogawa Rampo have been banned already in Japan for that very same reason.

However, these shorts were great examples of how dark cinema can get. These push right to the boundaries, where sense, reason, and any sort of real point is left behind in its own madness. And it does try to make points. They draw parallels between conscious and subconscious, reality and delusion. The surreal images and narratives destroy the boundaries between the two and the flow freely into each other. The film challenges what art really is. Whether it's a beautiful reflection, a horrific image, or something that is both beautiful on the outside but dead and corroded inside. Here we see that mirrors have the potential to be god, trapping us in its frame. Love is horrific. Horrific. These shorts have the potential to repel you in disgust, or to draw you in and lose yourself in its insanity, and for that reason alone it is a powerful work of art.

The four individual directors obviously had a daunting task ahead of them trying to make this. They had to present these tales honestly, and also visually uncover the madness behind them. I don't know about the former, as I haven't read any of Rampo's stories, however visually these films are amazing too. Especially Mirror Hell, which has amazing shots of the actors constantly reflected in dozens of different mirrors.

You leave the film feeling as if the makers had thrown a lot of violence and sex at you stylishly but with no real substance. The shorts are too surreal and disjointed to follow through with any of the points they try to make. The are no answers to be found in these shorts, and nothing profound to learn or re-learn. However, these shorts were never made with such intentions. They were made to show the madness of Edogawa Rampo. They were made to disgust you, and to provoke you. And they mastered that exceptionally.

Whether you like it or not, you won't forget this one.