Irezumi

Wonderful film based on a novel by Juinichiro Tanizaki, directed by one of the bad boys of 60's Japanese cinema, Yasuzo Masumura and starred by a brilliant and beautiful Ayako Wakao, who plays Otsuya, a beautiful young woman from a middle-class merchant family who is abducted into geisha work, and who catches one day the eye of Seikichi, a tattoo master who marks her back with a huge, monstrous spider. From that moment on, Otsuya will take her revenge with every man who shared her bed..

A very perverse story of revenge full of elegant erotism, not showing graphic nude or sex scenes but showing highly suggestive shots (which are more than enough) and made in a very poetical way, I've always been a big fan of how Japanese filmmakers were able to mix entertainment with art.

The film is also a reflect of how obsessive and toxic relationships always lead to a tragic ending and is up to the spectator to decide if Ayako Wakao's character is a victim of circumstances or responsible of it or maybe the spider on her back is the cause of her misconduct and bad manners....

A PIECE OF ART

A woman is kidnapped and drugged, then covered in a huge spider tattoo that may or may not have taken over her soul and turned her into a killer. She gets revenge on those that wronged her by becoming a geisha and causing their deaths.

A slow moving revenge movie centred around a geisha using her charms to manipulate men and killing them off. It's not really that much of a horror movie as the supernatural side isn't played up, even though it's hinted at. It's more of a samurai movie that happens to focus on the geisha and brief outbursts of violence that take the lives of others. It's interesting but not an amazing movie or anything.

The first thing that stood out to me is how beautifully this movie is shot and has some amazing freeze frames that should be framed on a wall. Having the lead woman have so much control not only when she receives the spider tattoo, but also in her own relationship before it was a surprising thing to see in a movie from the 60s. There is an interesting mystery of how much the spider tattoo is influencing her or if a large part of her actions are a understanding result of her being kidnapped and sold. This movie could have easily gone down the exploitation route, but it clearly had more to say and took itself way more seriously. I am very thankful for that.

This film begins with an incredibly beautiful young woman by the name of "Otsuya" (Ayako Wakao) trying to convince a young man named "Shinsuke" (Akio Hasegawa) to quit his job working for her father so that the two of them can elope together and eventually get married. Although Shinsuke has grave concerns about leaving a good job and a boss who has been quite generous with him, he is easily seduced by Otsuya's charms and goes along with her in spite of it all. Having also stolen some money from her father, Otsuya and Shinsuke stay at an inn run by a man named "Kenji" (Fujio Suga) who is a business associate of the family. What neither of them know, however, is that Kenji has a hidden motive for allowing her stay to at the inn which soon comes to fruition when she is kidnapped and sold to a brothel in another city. But what Kenji doesn't quite fathom is that Otsuya is much more devious and resilient than anybody could ever conceive and that she is now determined to have her revenge on everybody involved with her abduction. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an extremely good film which was not only artistic in one sense but also had the advantage of featuring an incredibly talented actress like Ayako Wakao who dominated every scene she was in with her beauty and charm. And although there is quite a bit of sexual eroticism inherent within the plot the director (Yasuzo Masumura) uses a subtle technique which both stimulates the imagination and enhances the imagery. That being said, I thought that this was an excellent film and I have rated it accordingly.

This one is too well shot, stylized and acted to NOT be noticed. And, in all honesty, the main protagonist has all my sympathies because she's got guts, talent and EXTREME beauty (and I can't stress enough how beautiful the main actress is) while all the men around her are whimps at best or lurid, disgusting profiteers at worst of which the world would be better ridden off. If you love like I do dominant, strong women, go with it with no problems. You'll end loving the main character.