4 Tales of Terror and Taboo: Rampo Noir (2005)

The allure of the bizarre, baroque, and bestial is universal. The mystery genre has and will exist for as long as people are around. Stories of killers, perverts, violence, sexuality, and other taboos are eternal. The ties between violence and sexuality, creation of life and destruction of life have endless possibilities from Dick Wolf’s TV empire to the work of Pedro Almodovar. In previous reviews, I’ve covered this topic but have yet to approach one of its masters, Rampo Edogawa.

The 4 Tales:

Mars’ Canal, directed by Takeuchi Suguru - A nude man wanders around a desolate wasteland then collapses by a natural pool. Several severe flashbacks to him killing a lover in a post-coital rage haunt him.

Mirror Hell, directed by Jissoji Akio (BUDDHIST TRILOGY and 1993’s A WATCHER IN THE ATTIC, another Rampo adaptation) - The famous Det. Akechi Kogoro investigates a series of odd murders centered on a ceremonial tea house and a mirror maker. Akechi has more in common with the mirror maker than he initially thought.

Caterpillar, directed by Sato Hisayasu - A devoted wife takes care of her disabled veteran husband. He’s mute and limbless. The marriage takes a dark turn.

Crawling Bugs, directed by Kaneko Atsushi - Fuyo, a young actress, gets kidnapped and imprisoned by her driver. He suffers from both mental illness but a severe skin rash.

Some romantic tongue biting

Rampo (this gets spelled equally Rampo or Ranpo)  Edogawa (1894-1965) dominated the mystery dominated in Japanese literature. He's often compared to Edgar Allen Poe (which inspired the pen name) and to a lesser extent Raymond Chandler and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (who he tried to translate to Japanese in college). His influence can be clearly seen to this day. His work has been adapted to film, TV, and manga for nearly 7 decades. Following in the footsteps of Doyle, Rampo even had an iconic detective character. Detective Akechi Kogoro debuted in 1925's ‘The Case of the Murder on D. Hill.' Oka Joji was one of the first actors to portray the iconic detective in 1950’s HYOCHU NO BIJA based on Rampo’s The Vampire.

      RAMPO NOIR, one of the most recent adaptations takes 4 stories. This is no ordinary anthology film. It can’t possibly be, these are Rampo stories after all. It lacks a proper wraparound, the runtimes vary wildly, and there are no clean cut endings. That said, breaking all the rules while fully embracing the erotic grotesque nonsense on display is the most Rampo thing to do. Terror and taboo are universal themes that litter every inch of every segment. Also the Tadanobu Asano provides the only real connective tissue throughout.

   

These are abstract and obtuse Arthouse with a capital A shorts. Time works differently, jumping between the past and the present. People act like they’re doomed to exist in a nightmarish soap opera. The sound design and atmosphere are closer to David Lynch than Teruo Ishii. Nothing is cut and dry, it's cold and brutal.

      Sex and violence are intertwined delicately and decadently from the start. The graphic sexuality gets increasingly grotesque. The first glimpse of erotic intimacy is rope, bondage, with a splash of candle wax followed by the woman’s face microwaving to into an unrecognizable scorched blob. A wife rides her limbless husband to climax before gouging his eyes, leaving one eye useless. The rest follow suit. The thin line between love and hate is blurred. Intimacy is not soft, it’s brutal and needs a sacrifice.

Reflecting pool in Mars' Canal

Hand mirror in Caterpillar

Rear-view mirror in Crawling Bugs

A Beach of mirrors in Mirror Hell

Mirrors are littered about everywhere. Some are normal mirrors you’d find in a normal place in a home and others are fetish rooms covered floor to ceiling in them. Reflections are a simple and cheap effect. The themes and purpose are endless. Each segment finds a distinctly theme to attach to looking at a reflection. Mars’ Canal’s reflecting pool forces the man to look back at his past. Mirror Hell’s mirrors (including the mirror sphere) are gateway to black magic and a new spiritual realm. Caterpillar’s hand mirror shows the couple exactly who they are. Crawling Bugs’ rear-view mirror shows a life that can’t be attained.

 

The sex, violence, and mirror all tie into the art. This isn’t art as the set design. It's art as in the pure drive to make art. There’s always a character in each obsessed with making the perfect art piece. In Caterpillar, the demented wife wants to turn her limbless and mute husband into her pet caterpillar so that he can be a become a butterfly. She even has the wings ready for him. That similar drive propels the driver in Crawling Bugs, to turn his crush’s corpse into a beautiful woman again. The Mirror Hell mirror maker turns to the ancient craft of making mirrors to see the gods in their true forms.

I’m sure this sounds ridiculous and all of it is. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a sense of wonder or any levity. The bits of humor is dry, bleak, and profoundly absurd. No one is a good person, rarely a truly likable character appears on screen. The offbeat journey of these flawed individuals is enticing all engrossing. It's impossible to predict the outcomes unless you're already familiar with the original stories. 

Det. Akechi with his wife.

      However, the oppressive tone can get old and repetitive at times. As much I like the whole, there are patches that feel too slow and indulgent. Mirror Hell has a great idea but the most uneven with huge peaks and valleys. At times these stories are too opaque and nearly wade into using the Rampo stamp as an excuse to make weird for weird's sake. Each one recovers and never goes there, thankfully.

There are references and visuals nods to other segments in each of them. The loudest one being, Tadanobu Asano is in each. He's the iconic Detective Akechi in 2, a mentally unstable driver, and a nude man regretting his past. Each performance sticks out and feels completely individual to that segment while keeping the that same cold distance.

Laid down with hair splayed out in Mars' Canal

Laid down with hair splayed out in Crawling Bugs

White skin in Mirror Hall

White skin in Crawling Bugs

Blue butterflies in Crawling Bugs

Blue butterfly in Caterpillar

Each one concludes in a particularly jarring way that leaves more questions than answers. The endings keep topping each other with how bleak and abrupt. The ultimate finale of the anthology is not only bleak but one of the single funniest endings I’ve ever seen. The transition to the credits song adds another amazing punchline. If you’ve seen GOZU, it’s in that ballpark.

Maybe one of the greatest endings ever? At  least, for anything covered here.

RAMPO NOIR is not for everyone. It’s a bizarre experience to get across with only words and pictures. It’s truly a cinematic experience in its own right. It's streaming and on DVD.