Edogawa Ranpo ryôki-kan: Yaneura no sanposha

I had no idea what I was letting myself in for - I'd bought the DVD when I needed another to pair up on a bundle offer.

I had presumed that it was along the lines of some of the more recent, successful Japanese horrors that have used underplayed but still disturbing feels of paranoia and doom.

Excuse if I don't go into the narrative twists and turns; the scenario describes that fine. I DID find the screen very gloomy and with very low contrast and it looked like it was on predictable 'peeping tom' route to being a waste of time and money. It was only going to take just over 70 minutes, though, so....

First of all, the scenes being spied upon (I found) totally un-erotic, though not quite distasteful, but nearly so. Maybe partly because it looked so dark and claustrophobic, one peered even harder and concentrated harder. After about half an hour of feeling slightly ill at ease the story took over and with some lighter relief as the character list expanded and we could place better who they were and what they (supposedly) did.

Toward the end, the whole experience I found to be as compelling - and weird, as say Pan's Labrynth. The final scenes were as thought provoking and chilling as well as memorable as any that I've seen in Japanese cinema.

I wouldn't flag this one up as a 'must', but if you get the chance and if the mood suits and you start, go the distance. You'll be amply rewarded.

Saburo (Renji Ishibashi) spends his spare time creeping into the attic of the communal building where he lives and crawling across the beams to access his neighbours' roof space, where he spies upon them through handy peepholes in the ceiling.

Among those he watches is Minako, the bored wife of a successful businessman, who has taken a room in the complex for her adulterous trysts. When Minako notices Saburo peering down on her during sex, she finds the experience so exciting that she kills her partner, a Pierrot clown, in the throes of passion-an act that spurs Saburo on to commit his own murder.

Like Rampo Noir, the only other film based on a Rampo Edogawa novel that I have seen so far, Watcher in the Attic is a thoroughly tedious and pretentious art-house affair that, despite its salacious subject matter manages to bore more than it excites. With plenty of female nudity (primarily from star Junko Miyashita) and some profoundly weird moments of erotica (including a man who hides inside an armchair for kicks and a naked woman dressed as a stag), plus a relatively short runtime of 76 minutes, this should have breezed by; instead, the film is torturously slow, director Noboru Tanaka testing the viewer's patience to the extreme with his repetitive, soporific style of storytelling.

Decidedly odd, this 1923 set movie begins slowly with the man of the title peering from his enclosed upper space at those approaching from without and those dwelling below. At first this looks like being an unusual but fairly predictable 'pink' but when killing joins sex on the menu and the watcher joins the watched this turns a little more hard edged. Slightly confusing at the start, with a lot of black screen and changing faces but soon we are down to the main protagonists and there is little room for ambiguity. The dramatic ending gives explanation for the 1923 setting and concludes what in the end is an erotic and powerful exploration of human nature's darker side. Not without faults but well worth a watch.

I might not live in an attic, but with my first viewing of Watcher in the Attic, I was converted to the charms of actress Junko Miyashita. I have since watched Miyashita in other films, but her performance in Watcher in the Attic remains my favorite. Here she plays Minako Sayanomiya, a bored rich wife in 1923 Tokyo, who keeps a room in a boarding house so she can have some clown be her love slave. Literally, the guy is dressed up like a clown. The residents at this boarding house have their own kinks. One of them likes to go up to the attic and look down into the rooms. Minako sees the eye watching her from a hole in the ceiling and is turned on. This experience changes both the voyeur and the victim, leading to murder.

Watcher in the Attic straddles many genres. It is a psychological thriller, a period drama, and a (very) steamy piece of erotica. It is usually listed as a "pink film." The term fits, but it is different than bondage films like Flower and Snake. Influenced by the writings of Edogawa Rampo, this film goes places that most American films would not. The characters in this world have rough edges and go to extremes to satisfy their desires. At the film's heart is the character of Minako Sayanomiya, beautiful, elegant, dominant, and cruel. Junko Miyashita brings the character to life in a way that both arouses and frightens the viewer.

I first saw Watcher in the Attic on a dubbed off VHS tape transferred from a PAL source. This copy made the film look dark. However, the Mondo Macabro DVD reveals a stately shot film which looks like a prestigious drama . . . with a lot of nasty behavior. The DVD was a revelation to this viewer. It made a good film even better, and the beautiful Junko Miyashita shine even brighter. This is not a film for all viewers, but at less than eighty minutes, Watcher in the Attic does not outstay its welcome. Curious viewers, even those not as taken with Junko Miyashita, should give this one a try.