Rampo Noir is an anthology film that loosely adapts four short stories by Japan's foremost crime/mystery writer Edogawa Rampo (a pseudonym inspired by Edgar Allan Poe.) Often called Japan's Edgar Allan Poe, Rampo's macabre tales frequently involve eccentric and/or disfigured characters enmeshed in bizarre plots that can include anything from a wife who turns her husband into a 'caterpillar' to a chair-maker who buries himself inside one of his own armchairs so women can sit on him. Other (Japanese) films based on Rampo's writing include: Blind Beast, The Horror of Malformed Men and Watcher in the Attic.
The first segment is a mostly silent short titled Mars Canal directed by newcomer Suguru Takeuchi. With a runtime of only two minutes it features Tadanobu Asano (Electric Dragon 80.000 V, Ichi the Killer) on some kinda of lunar-scape having flashbacks (dreams?) of beating his girlfriend. Not really much to comment on here - definitely pretty surreal, especially when the lulling silence is suddenly broken with harsh noise sound effects.
The next story is called Mirror Hell and is directed by Akio Jissoji. Again Tadanobu Asano stars, this time as Detective Kogoro Akechi who is investigating a series of deaths in which beautiful women are discovered with their faces melted and their skulls turned into ashes. As a hand mirror is always found at the scene of the crime, Detective Akechi soon learns the deaths are the work of Toru (Hiroki Narimiya) a mad mirror-maker who is continuing the Japanese art of mirror-making the traditional way. This whole segment has an extreme kaleidoscopic feel to it as every shot seems to have 100 mirrors in it, which obviously pays off visually. Also included is a rather random rope-bondage 'n' candle wax session which perks things up a bit sleaze-wise.
Next up is Hisayasu Sato's (Naked Blood) wonderfully perverse entry, Caterpillar. This is definitely the best of the bunch - First Lieutenant Sunaga (Nao Omori) returned from war relatively unharmed but in a psychotically desperate attempt to stop him from returning to the battlefield his wife (Yukiko Okamoto) amputated both his arms and legs and now cares for him as her 'little caterpillar'. I must mention that caring for him includes brutally whipping him, slicing off one of his nipples with a straight razor, gouging out one of his eyes and other deviant acts. This is all gorgeously shot in true Sato style (albeit on a slightly bigger budget than usual) with strange sequences shot in colored negative in which we see through the 'caterpillars' eyes, desolate surroundings and a fantastic finale.
Finally we come to Manga artist Atsushi Kaneko's film-making debut - Crawling Bugs. The story centers around a chauffeur named Masaki (again played by Tadanobu Asano) who becomes obsessed with one of his famous passengers, stage actress Fuyu Kinoshita (Tamaki Ogawa). Masaki is a certified Mysophobe (hates germs & dirt) and gets a nasty rash on his neck when he touches people. Seeing as he is madly in love with Fuyu but can't exactly touch her, he figures a way round this by killing her and taking her home to live with him?! This has to be my second favorite entry as it has some of the most surreal imagery - an almost hallucinogenic set-piece in Masaki's home (mind?) where he paints the dead actress multicolors then unsuccessfully tries to inject her with embalming fluid, resulting in a bloodbath. Plenty of black humor here too - when the police burst into Masaki's apartment he calmly pulls his head free from the rotting belly of his 'lover' and says "what?''. Atsushi Kaneko is one director I'll definitely be keeping an eye on.
Overall, an excellent anthology which showcases a coupla up 'n' coming Japanese directors and which may also introduce a few more folk to the wonders of Edogawa Rampo.
The first segment is a mostly silent short titled Mars Canal directed by newcomer Suguru Takeuchi. With a runtime of only two minutes it features Tadanobu Asano (Electric Dragon 80.000 V, Ichi the Killer) on some kinda of lunar-scape having flashbacks (dreams?) of beating his girlfriend. Not really much to comment on here - definitely pretty surreal, especially when the lulling silence is suddenly broken with harsh noise sound effects.
The next story is called Mirror Hell and is directed by Akio Jissoji. Again Tadanobu Asano stars, this time as Detective Kogoro Akechi who is investigating a series of deaths in which beautiful women are discovered with their faces melted and their skulls turned into ashes. As a hand mirror is always found at the scene of the crime, Detective Akechi soon learns the deaths are the work of Toru (Hiroki Narimiya) a mad mirror-maker who is continuing the Japanese art of mirror-making the traditional way. This whole segment has an extreme kaleidoscopic feel to it as every shot seems to have 100 mirrors in it, which obviously pays off visually. Also included is a rather random rope-bondage 'n' candle wax session which perks things up a bit sleaze-wise.
Next up is Hisayasu Sato's (Naked Blood) wonderfully perverse entry, Caterpillar. This is definitely the best of the bunch - First Lieutenant Sunaga (Nao Omori) returned from war relatively unharmed but in a psychotically desperate attempt to stop him from returning to the battlefield his wife (Yukiko Okamoto) amputated both his arms and legs and now cares for him as her 'little caterpillar'. I must mention that caring for him includes brutally whipping him, slicing off one of his nipples with a straight razor, gouging out one of his eyes and other deviant acts. This is all gorgeously shot in true Sato style (albeit on a slightly bigger budget than usual) with strange sequences shot in colored negative in which we see through the 'caterpillars' eyes, desolate surroundings and a fantastic finale.
Finally we come to Manga artist Atsushi Kaneko's film-making debut - Crawling Bugs. The story centers around a chauffeur named Masaki (again played by Tadanobu Asano) who becomes obsessed with one of his famous passengers, stage actress Fuyu Kinoshita (Tamaki Ogawa). Masaki is a certified Mysophobe (hates germs & dirt) and gets a nasty rash on his neck when he touches people. Seeing as he is madly in love with Fuyu but can't exactly touch her, he figures a way round this by killing her and taking her home to live with him?! This has to be my second favorite entry as it has some of the most surreal imagery - an almost hallucinogenic set-piece in Masaki's home (mind?) where he paints the dead actress multicolors then unsuccessfully tries to inject her with embalming fluid, resulting in a bloodbath. Plenty of black humor here too - when the police burst into Masaki's apartment he calmly pulls his head free from the rotting belly of his 'lover' and says "what?''. Atsushi Kaneko is one director I'll definitely be keeping an eye on.
Overall, an excellent anthology which showcases a coupla up 'n' coming Japanese directors and which may also introduce a few more folk to the wonders of Edogawa Rampo.