HONG KONG -- Rampo Noir -- literally Rampo hell -- consists of four short films based on the literature of Edogawa Rampo, who is a Japanese Edgar Allan Poe or HP Lovecraft, depending on your tastes. Rampo's work has been the source for Japanese films over the last several decades such as Masumura Yasuzo's Blind Beast and Tsukamoto Shinya's Gemini. This anthology, visually arresting and deliciously cryptic, is difficult to lump with the rest of the J-horror catalogue thematically, technically or artistically. Consequently, only the most adventurous distributor is likely to release for Rampo Noir, which might be a hard sell in parts of Japan much less overseas.
In the opening segment, Mars Canal by first time filmmaker Takeuchi, a naked man (Asano Tadanobu, one of Japan's best working actors) staggers in a bleak, hard gray landscape before collapsing at the rim of a reflective crater. We learn nothing about him, only that he had a violent fight with someone at some point in time. Soundless until an undefined noise becomes overwhelming, Mars Canal sets the arty tone for the rest of the film.
Asano appears in both Mirror Hell (by veteran filmmaker Jissoji) and The Caterpillar (by Sato, notorious for Naked Blood) as regular Rampo character Detective Akechi. In the former, he's investigating a series of deaths apparently related to a painfully handsome mirror craftsman, Toru (Narimiya Hiroki). In the latter, he's a bystander who watches as a photographer (Matsuda Ryuhei) discovers the truth about the gruesome relationship between a bitter, oversexed woman (Okamoto Yukiko) and her war-wounded stump of a husband (Omori Nao).
The closing segment, Crawling Bugs from manga artist Kaneko, has Asano as a chauffeur called Masaki, who becomes obsessed with his charge, a famous actress (Ogawa Tamaki).
The assumption will be that given the material and the filmmakers involved, Rampo Noir will be a grotesque, stomach-churning example of Asian trash/extreme cinema. Nothing could be farther from reality. The film is actually a beautiful, funny, disturbing look at love in many of its forms and manifestations, at reality and unreality, perception and beauty. The way each of the characters expresses love is the most extreme thing about the film.
The art direction flawlessly runs bleak, garish and cold as required, and the recurring use of mirrors and reflective surfaces binds the four stories together; one of the best uses of that motif being in Toru's breakdown following his emergence from a mirror-lined sphere. The combination of his narcissism and his over-confidence in his own power is the best example of all Rampo's threads coming together in one tight tale. Manga artist Kaneko shows off his artistic roots through elaborate, color-saturated fantasies that Masaki carries out. More than one viewer is going to find it all very pretentious, but there will be just as many fans of the film to revel in the surreal, otherworldliness of it all.
RAMPO NOIR
Ganeon Entertainment, Micott & Basara, Kadokawa Herald Pictures, Toei TV
Credits:
Director: Takeuchi Suguru, Jissoji Akio, Sato Hisayasu, Kaneko Atsushi
Writer: Takeuchi Suguru, Jissoji Akio, Yumeno Shiro, Kaneko Atsushi
Producer: Miyazaki Dai
Director of photography: Takeuchi Suguru, Hachimaki Tsuneari, Ashizawa Akiko, Yamamoto Hideo
Production designer: Kitamura Michiko
Music: Puppypet
Editor: Abe Naoko, Shinozaki Hiroshi, Saitou Ryota, Yousuke Yafune, Kunihiko Ukai, Kaneko Naoki.
Cast:
The Man/Detective Akechi/Masaki: Asano Tadanobu
Toru: Narimiya Hiroki
Hirai: Matsuda Ryuhei
Sunaga Tokiko: Okamoto Yukiko
Sunaga: Omori Nao
Kinoshita: Ogawa Tamaki
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 134 minutes...
In the opening segment, Mars Canal by first time filmmaker Takeuchi, a naked man (Asano Tadanobu, one of Japan's best working actors) staggers in a bleak, hard gray landscape before collapsing at the rim of a reflective crater. We learn nothing about him, only that he had a violent fight with someone at some point in time. Soundless until an undefined noise becomes overwhelming, Mars Canal sets the arty tone for the rest of the film.
Asano appears in both Mirror Hell (by veteran filmmaker Jissoji) and The Caterpillar (by Sato, notorious for Naked Blood) as regular Rampo character Detective Akechi. In the former, he's investigating a series of deaths apparently related to a painfully handsome mirror craftsman, Toru (Narimiya Hiroki). In the latter, he's a bystander who watches as a photographer (Matsuda Ryuhei) discovers the truth about the gruesome relationship between a bitter, oversexed woman (Okamoto Yukiko) and her war-wounded stump of a husband (Omori Nao).
The closing segment, Crawling Bugs from manga artist Kaneko, has Asano as a chauffeur called Masaki, who becomes obsessed with his charge, a famous actress (Ogawa Tamaki).
The assumption will be that given the material and the filmmakers involved, Rampo Noir will be a grotesque, stomach-churning example of Asian trash/extreme cinema. Nothing could be farther from reality. The film is actually a beautiful, funny, disturbing look at love in many of its forms and manifestations, at reality and unreality, perception and beauty. The way each of the characters expresses love is the most extreme thing about the film.
The art direction flawlessly runs bleak, garish and cold as required, and the recurring use of mirrors and reflective surfaces binds the four stories together; one of the best uses of that motif being in Toru's breakdown following his emergence from a mirror-lined sphere. The combination of his narcissism and his over-confidence in his own power is the best example of all Rampo's threads coming together in one tight tale. Manga artist Kaneko shows off his artistic roots through elaborate, color-saturated fantasies that Masaki carries out. More than one viewer is going to find it all very pretentious, but there will be just as many fans of the film to revel in the surreal, otherworldliness of it all.
RAMPO NOIR
Ganeon Entertainment, Micott & Basara, Kadokawa Herald Pictures, Toei TV
Credits:
Director: Takeuchi Suguru, Jissoji Akio, Sato Hisayasu, Kaneko Atsushi
Writer: Takeuchi Suguru, Jissoji Akio, Yumeno Shiro, Kaneko Atsushi
Producer: Miyazaki Dai
Director of photography: Takeuchi Suguru, Hachimaki Tsuneari, Ashizawa Akiko, Yamamoto Hideo
Production designer: Kitamura Michiko
Music: Puppypet
Editor: Abe Naoko, Shinozaki Hiroshi, Saitou Ryota, Yousuke Yafune, Kunihiko Ukai, Kaneko Naoki.
Cast:
The Man/Detective Akechi/Masaki: Asano Tadanobu
Toru: Narimiya Hiroki
Hirai: Matsuda Ryuhei
Sunaga Tokiko: Okamoto Yukiko
Sunaga: Omori Nao
Kinoshita: Ogawa Tamaki
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 134 minutes...
- 6/22/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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