Violence at Noon

Haku Chu No Torima (1966) Directed by Nagisaa Oshima

Is there another serial killer film done from the point of view if the family of the killer?

Synopsis: Shino (Saeda Kawaguchi) and Matsuko (Akiko Koyama); the victim and wife of a suspected serial rapist and murderer (Kei Sato) join together to figure out how to stop him. Their only help out is Genji a wealthy politician (Rokko Toura) and an inspector (Fumio Watanabe).

More complicate then that, but couldn't say more and give away the important details of this peculiar change of pace from home invasion slasher films. It's told from the point of view of family and those benefiting from the individual perpetrating the crimes.

Shino's family livelihood is connected to rice farming. Without Eisuke her family is penniless. Matsuko is his wife and without her criminal husband she is homeless.

Matsuko tries to stop her husband by giving into Eisuke's fetishes, but it's not the same for him with a willing participant. Genji the politician is in love with Shino and will help her family, but she fears rightly his connection to her will lead to his downfall. In addition, Shino sadly is wrapped in a sadistic master and servant relationship with Eisuke who rapes her frequently and out of fear and necessity she says nothing.

All the while Eisuke is the noon day killer, being chased by Inspector Haraguchi.

None of the serial killings are shown, yet referred to, it is again the story of those who know a killer and suffer in silence.

I can't recommend this film enough. It's premise is horror, and I feel for a female audience it may be a terrifying dilemma, however, all genders should walk away with the same dilemma. What would I do if someone I benefit from is a killer? What if a horror premise was permitted realism and a dramatic turn?

I tell people... beware of golden anchors.

This film is all about that. Relationships where we accept too much from one benefactor. It makes us powerless.

The negatives I read on here are all based on artist choice. And the comment love has no rewards is given by a character who we should never take advise.

I bought a rare copy of this for $1 at my local library, being a fan of foreign (especially Japanese) cinema, and never having heard of the director, Nagisa Oshima. I definitely cannot say that the film is bad, because like the reviewer above, I did not understand it. It isn't that I had difficulty following what was happening in the storyline, which was pretty straightforward, but I just had no idea what the intent of the filmmakers were, what the purpose of the story was. The storyline is so bizarre and sensationalistic - a serial rapist and his relationship with both his wife and one of his victims, all three of whom used to be part of some kind of commune for intellectuals (I didn't even know it was a commune until reading another reviewer's synopsis) - that I am sure there must be some underlying symbolism or message here the director was trying to convey. Maybe it had something to do with Japanese society of the time (1966), I'm not sure? Therefore, I must give my opinion of the outward details of the film. The black-and-white cinematography of the film was exquisite, and the constant cutting of shots from scene to scene was highly impressive. It is obvious a great deal of energy and resources were put into the production. This film is outwardly exceedingly beautiful, on a par with other such visual Japanese films as "Kwaidan" and "Kagemusha." The music score was arresting, as well. Other reviewers all seem to compare this to the work of French director Alain Resnais, but I have never seen any of his films. To me, the film seemed distantly related to the works of Stanley Kubrick in its meticulous attention to visual compositions (I saw the film in widescreen, and I can't even imagine watching it in full screen) and its delving into very dark, uncharted psychological territory. Another film to compare this to is Nicholas Roeg's "Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession" - another dark, non-linear, visually beautiful film whose themes were very difficult to penetrate. The other major drawback is the length - this film does seem to go on about a half hour too long.

I would love to have a conversation with the director on just what the storyline means, but unfortunately, I had to watch it without any frame of reference. That made it a frustrating intellectual experience, but an impressive aesthetic one.

Oshima's Violence at Noon is a meditation on the destructive capacity of love. It traces the course of a grotesque love triangle between a rapist and two women who both love him, leading to an ultimately tragic conclusion.

This is a deliberately deep, art house film, with much ponderous dialogue. The dialogue serves as much to express Oshima's ideas on love as to advance the plot, with lines such as "Love has no rewards." The film also features some great cinematography, with excellent use of black and white. A sequence in which a violent attack is represented by a series of photographs is a particular highlight.

However, the film suffers from a tendency to let ideas take precedence over characterization. We often have little idea why the characters do certain actions, a particular problem given that some of their activities are extreme. Ultimately, this is a thought-provoking film that at times descends into the head scratching.

I really don't know why Oshima's early films have taken so long to become available in the U.S. They are spectacular! I suppose because their thematic content is so specific to the Japan of the post-war "reconstruction" at the hands of the Americans. As radical, contemporary, and at times experimental as Oshima's films from this era were, his landscapes, to my eye, more closely resemble the tradition of Japanese landscape-painting than those of Kurosawa or Mizoguchi. In this film, the past is captured in just such painterly, deep-focus majesty, with dizzying zooms thrown in just to leave you disoriented. The present is soft, blurry, almost indiscernible at times. I'm interpreting the political content of this violent, lude, nasty story to deal with Japan's inability to live up to its WWII atrocities, or from a different perspective, the ease with which it forgave itself. I admit that I don't see how the last scenes fit into that interpretation, but that doesn't make those scenes any less haunting.

Possibly the most confusing movie I've ever sat through, it took me a long time to get anything out of it. I just couldn't grab onto even the slightest shred of a plot, and, without the ability to find a hook, it felt at first like watching a blank wall. But eventually, I started making inroads and, as the film progresses, its chopped-up plot begins to emerge. It is the story of a rapist and murderer and two women with whom he is intricately involved. Shino is one of his rape victims, and also, we find out, a woman he rescued from suicide in the past. Jinbo is the killer's wife, who knows his guilt (or at least suspects it) but loves him and wants to protect him. Nagisa Oshima actually went to film school in France, and, though part of the Japanese New Wave, no one will miss the French New Wave influences, especially Alain Resnais, whose films have similarly infuriated me in the past with their difficult narratives. Even if I never understood what the hell happened here, the film has several great aspects. The acting is quite good, that's clear. But, in particular, the music, by Hikaru Hayashi, and the cinematography, by Akira Takada, are extremely beautiful. I think I might like this one better if I give it yet another try.

ETA: zetes here in the distant year 2010, having just watched the film for the second time. It seems that younger zetes was being a tad dumb, though it could have been the fact that he watched it on a VHS with probably washed-out subtitles (remember those? Yeah, I don't miss them!). The film is actually kind of convoluted, perhaps purposely so. But after the first third of the film, it's fairly clear what's going on. It is quite good, and the visuals and direction are spectacular. This is now available on DVD in an Eclipse box set (it's generally considered to be the best film in that set, too, though I've only watched a couple of films from it so far).