Landscapes of the beach introduces us a young girl who seems lost in the pouring rain, she keeps walking without a clue nor does have an idea about her destination. She enters into a Buddhist temple and collapses, later we see a monk and an elderly maid who takes care of the girl. She finds refuge in the secluded temple, away from the noise of the outside world, accompanies the maid for shopping and lives a zen life. I'm revisiting this just to hear the sound of the rain, the visual aesthetics and for the crazy black and white cinematography.
Coming back, things take a wild turn when the girl becomes involved in an affair. From here the doomed hungry spirit comes to haunt and the story of the monk's sexual obsession is told wholly on a psychological level and affirms his character arc downfall with visual representation. He chants prayer to drive away the young guy from the vicinity of the temple. Later he watches them making out, this doesn't go well as he loses himself to temptation, sniffs the panties of the girl and jerks off on the Buddha statue. The body is filth again, and he tries to outrun and to die with it. The film ends with the elderly maid closing the gates of temple fading in a ghostly effect. I was thinking of André Delvaux's The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short (1965), a tragic forgotten masterpiece and attempting to draw parallels with the priest character.
In closing, Yôichi Takabayashi keeps everything casual and predictable till the very end. It is a very honest film, but doesn't rank as his best. I have seen Double Suicide at Nishijin (1977), Kinkakuji (1976), Irezumi (1982) and Death at an Old Mansion (1975). I would mention that this film is made with minimal budget, devoid of dialogues, something really small, but done quite masterfully.
