I’d watched three films by the same director prior to this one: while no discernible point seemed to emerge from them other than to show the dehumanized state of modern society, I certainly wasn’t enthralled by the unrelenting gloominess of Wakamatsu’s approach. With this in mind, I knew more or less what to expect here – but, then, there were other factors involved which rendered it even less appetizing than his other works!
To begin with, the film opens on a disorientating montage of naked female bodies in a magazine being scrutinized (as it transpires, contemptuously) by the unbalanced protagonist. Then we cut to a group of female nurses in an isolated dormitory – a number of whom spy on two of their colleagues making love; in the euphoria of the moment, they invite in a male passer-by – an unwise decision, as he turns out to be none other than the misanthrope we’d been introduced to earlier…who unhesitatingly shoots dead one of the lesbians! Even if I caught the film mid-way through the credits myself, the whole thing runs for just 57 minutes: while the inherent tension within the central situation could well have sustained such modest duration, this is negated by the static direction – which renders the single-setting claustrophobic and the proceedings merely boring!
Anyway, one by one, the six women (except one who had stunned the madman by questioning his motives!) fall prey to his violent outbursts: one is tied and tortured, while another gives herself to the killer in the hope of escaping her fate!! One wonders why they just don’t turn on him all at once or, even more obviously, try to escape via one of the other rooms in the house (in any case, this is said to have been drawn from a true-life incident). For the record, the black-and-white images are interrupted towards the end by brief flashes of color (such as the aftermath of the above-mentioned bondage scene and the tableau-like depiction of all the characters – naked and bloodied – huddled together in the main hall of the dormitory). The film, then, ends abruptly with the unannounced arrival on the scene of the military forces.
To begin with, the film opens on a disorientating montage of naked female bodies in a magazine being scrutinized (as it transpires, contemptuously) by the unbalanced protagonist. Then we cut to a group of female nurses in an isolated dormitory – a number of whom spy on two of their colleagues making love; in the euphoria of the moment, they invite in a male passer-by – an unwise decision, as he turns out to be none other than the misanthrope we’d been introduced to earlier…who unhesitatingly shoots dead one of the lesbians! Even if I caught the film mid-way through the credits myself, the whole thing runs for just 57 minutes: while the inherent tension within the central situation could well have sustained such modest duration, this is negated by the static direction – which renders the single-setting claustrophobic and the proceedings merely boring!
Anyway, one by one, the six women (except one who had stunned the madman by questioning his motives!) fall prey to his violent outbursts: one is tied and tortured, while another gives herself to the killer in the hope of escaping her fate!! One wonders why they just don’t turn on him all at once or, even more obviously, try to escape via one of the other rooms in the house (in any case, this is said to have been drawn from a true-life incident). For the record, the black-and-white images are interrupted towards the end by brief flashes of color (such as the aftermath of the above-mentioned bondage scene and the tableau-like depiction of all the characters – naked and bloodied – huddled together in the main hall of the dormitory). The film, then, ends abruptly with the unannounced arrival on the scene of the military forces.