Born Hirai Taro in 1894, Edogawa Rampo wrote tales of the mysterious and the macabre, modeled on the work of Edgar Allan Poe (from whom he took his pen name) and Arthur Conan Doyle, that have long fascinated Japanese filmmakers.
Last year two hot young directors - Takeuchi Suguru and Kaneko Atsushi -and two well-regarded older ones - Jissoji Akio and Sato Hisayasu - joined together to make Rampo Noir (Rampo Jigoku), a four segment omnibus based on Rampo’s stories. All four star Asano Tadanobu (Zatoichi, Ichi The Killer) - the king of Japanese indies.
The film’s first segment, Takeuchi’s Mars Canal (Kasei no Unga) begins with a naked long-haired man (Asano) wandering through a desolate, overcast wasteland (Iceland, standing in for the “Mars” of the title). He happens upon a circular pond and peers into the water. Seeing his lover’s face, he flashes back on a scene of violent sex with her. Then he notices a change coming over him...
Takeuchi’s films this shortest of all segments without sound - only images flashing like a schizzy nightmare, that, horror or horrors, might be, not a nightmare at all - but karmic retribution.
The second segment, Jissoji’s The Hell Of Mirrors (Kagami Jigoku) is more conventionally shot, but equally primal in its shocks. Akechi Kogoro (Asano) - Rampo’s version of Sherlock Holmes - become interested in the sudden deaths of two women. In both cases a Japanese-style mirror was present in the death room, made by one Toru Ikki (Narimiya Hiroki), a stationery shop -master who knew the victims intimately. Then Toru seduces his sister-in-law (Ogawa Harumi) - and presents her with his latest mirror.
Jissoji deftly sketches the characters of his principals, including the sexual current flowing between Toru and the poker-faced Akechi. He also generates narrative excitement as Akechi closes in on the killer, despite the absurd pseudo-scientific rationales given for the mirrors’ powers.
More straighforwardedly ero-guro (“erotic and grotesque”) in the classic Rampo style is Sato’s Caterpillar (Imomushi). Lieutenant Sunaga (Omori Nao) returns from the war a mangled human stump, with no hands, feet or tongue, able to communicate only with grunts, moans - and his agonized eyes. His young, nubile wife Tokiko (Okamoto Yukiko) tires of caring for her helpless “caterpillar” of a hubby and begins to use him as a sex toy. Then she discovers a more exciting game: torture. Meanwhile a resident artist (Matsuda Ryuhei) begins to take a twisted interest in the erotic goings on.
One of the so-called “four emperors” of the pinku eiga (“pink film”) scene, Sato films his story’s S&M horrors with an undisguised relish - if not exactly sadistic glee.
The final segment, Kaneko’s Crawling Bugs (Mushi), is also the most extreme. Asano plays doubles roles - the first as a shy driver to a sultry actress (Ogawa Tamaki), the second as the actress’s dominating lover, who can make her do things the driver can only dream of. When the driver finally screws up his courage and, bouquet in hand, confesses his love, she cruelly rejects him - and he snaps.
Kaneko lays on the S&M atmospherics, like a Wong Kar-wai with candle wax, but he also makes it hard for the inattentive to keep the two Asanos straight. All in all, though, Edogawa is well served by his four interpreters, who succeed in making him cool again for a new generation of fans. A truly sick - and talented - mind never goes out of style.