La confession impudique

(1959) Odd Obsession/ Kagi (In Japanese with English subtitles) PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER

Adapted from the novel by Jun'ichirô Tanizaki co-written and directed by Kon Ichikawa that has elder patient, Kenji (Ganjirô Nakamura) attempting to entice Dr. Kimura (Tatsuya Nakadai) to visit him more often for the purpose of him being aroused. Kenji does this by attempting to tempt Dr. Kimura by exposing his wife,Ikuko (Machiko Kyô) to him despite him going out with their only daughter, Toshiko (Junko Kanô). The ending was baffling and that I did not care for it despite it being faithful to the source material.

The obsession is not the only odd thing about this film. Use of hormones and purposefully orchestrated adultery opportunities is order to stimulate sex drive. In other words, our protagonist is turned on by his wife's interest in another man and proceeds to stage increasingly elaborate situations to encourage her and the other man's interest in each other. This other man is conveniently dating their daughter. An old fashioned answer from before the time of Viagra to a centuries old problem, confirming the maxim that "we want what we can't have"? So far, all this is pretty faithful to the source material, the novel "The Key" by Tanizaki.

Alas, our director oddly makes the incomprehensible decision to add a character and extra plot twist. An old maid named Hanna whose presence in the household and therefore random scenes is clunky and out of place, her never fully explained bitterness with the family, a deus ex machina switching of cleaner and poison attributed to her being color blind, and you have this mess of an adaptation of a perfectly good novel.

Persistent eerie soundtrack, overly expensive and unsettling facial expressions from all four main characters, inexplicable character actions and decisions, randomly inserted voice over narration.

And to wrap it all up, a completely arbitrary ending that serves little purpose but to render the entire narrative even more implausible and to sacrifice any little emotional investment the audience had with the characters.

Why this odd, unworthy contribution to cinema garnered any awards is beyond me.

It's difficult to review this film because I'm left feeling unsatisfied, and contrary to other reviews, it's not because of the ending. Strangely enough, I actually liked the ending.

The storyline is simply and truly strange. I'm never read the source material, so I can't comment on the screenplay's authenticity as an adaptation. The mood of the film, to me, is a combination of perversity, dysfunction, and a weird sense of expressionism. It moves slowly and deliberately, yet it managed to hold my attention until the very end.

The cast does a fine job. Unfortunately, that alone is not enough to motivate me to watch it again. If you're a fan of the eclectic, especially if it's 20th century Japanese cinema, you might find this one worth watching at least once. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend it.

I've admired other Ichikawa films, particularly "Alone on the Pacific" and "Fires on the Plains." With the possible exception of Klimov's "Come and See" the latter is the most harrowing war film I've ever seen. However, I couldn't get on with "Odd Obsession,"and can't understand why it won awards. I saw it many years ago, and foolishly tried it again last night. I kept falling asleep: it's a legitimate form of criticism and no, I hadn't been drinking. The film starts with Tatsuya Nakadai (star of many Japanese classics), as Dr. Kimura, detailing how humans decline over the years. He points straight at the camera and says this decrepitude will come to us all, so you know this film is going to be different. The doctor is giving an old man injections to treat his impotence (no Viagra in those days), and the old boy invites him to his home, hoping that the doctor, who's already involved with his daughter, will dally with his young wife. The idea is that jealousy will revive his flagging libido. One problem is that while the male actors are interesting, the women are not. I don't know why, from a land with so many exquisite and enchanting actresses, Ichikawa chose two puddings, with particularly unfortunate eyebrows. I don't know the younger one, but Machiko Kyo (from "Rashomon" and "Teahouse of the August Moon") was normally attractive. The old man has high blood pressure, and the wife seems intent on finishing him off by over-exciting him, so maybe Ichikawa made her look ugly to mirror the ugliness inside the character. Another problem was Japanese inscrutability. Nobody seemed passionate about, or even very interested in, anyone else. It was hard to see why the doctor went along with their games. The son of a fisherman, he was young, handsome and ambitious, so why did he bother with two women with neither beauty or money? (the old man had reputation but no means.)

Ganjirô Nakamura is getting older and feels his sexual potency slipping away. He seeks the advice of doctor Tatsuya Nakadai, his daughter's boy friend. Rather than follow his medical advice, he pushes Nakadai towards his own wife since the jealousy makes him feel young and potent. This really odd little film sets up a love quadrangle and ends tragically, as expected, but with none of the consequences being quite what you'd expect. Not among Kon Ichikawa's best, but a real perverse oddity in his catalog.