criterionforum.org

A television executive’s nine mistresses conspire with his wife to have him killed. When Miwako, one of the mistresses, tells him of the plot, he decides to fake his own death in front of them all. The women panic and deny that they were ever serious about the murder, while Miwako even takes her own life in remorse. But when they find out the man is still alive, they put their original plan back into action. Given complete creative freedom, Kon Ichikawa made this dark satire, one of the undiscovered gems of Japan’s cinematic Golden Age. Featuring a stunning cast of Daiei studio divas and striking monochrome photography by Setsuo Kobayashi (Blind Beast), this is a merciless dissection of social relations and gender roles in affluent post-war Japan.

BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES

4K restoration by Kadokawa Pictures
Original uncompressed mono audio
The Kon Ichikawa Story - a feature-length documentary directed by Shunji Iwai, featuring Ichikawa and his wife and screenwriter, Natto Wada (2006)
Trailer
New and improved English subtitle translation
Reversible sleeve featuring artwork based on original posters
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Yuka Kimbara
More to be confirmed
Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

absolutely thrilled about this. Ichikawa, despite all the ground he covered as a director, basically doesn't miss for me. never seen this one but over the moon it got a 4K restoration...this was originally on the first "failed licenses" list in 2023 so it's fantastic we did end up getting it!

This is a fun one!

Certainly didn't expect this to be the Ichikawa they were teasing as this is what they said last we heard:

Tom Mes recommended this brilliant Kon Ichikawa film and we did indeed license the film and announced "ICH" as a forthcoming clue. Sadly we had to drop it from our schedule as the materials proved too challenging to work with. Certainly Ichikawa deserves better and so too does his screenwriter wife Natto Wada who wrote this brilliant film. We hope the film and others of their work are restored soon enough as this is a creative partnership more people need to be aware of!

Definitely will be pre-ordering this, as I'm a fan of Ichikawa and keen to see more! Hope this does well and we see more Ichikawa titles from Kadokawa (Conflagration, Odd Obsession), and there's still a chance the 'whodunit' clue was for The Inugami Family...

I have been hoping for this to get a subbed release for decades! The black comedies from this periods are some of my KI favorites. And this one is such a hoot. I could never understand how it did not become at least a western cult classic.

Thank you Radiance and thank you for including the feature length Iwai doc!

I hate to say that I found this extremely dull. Every action was forewarned and predictable or else carelessly placed, and the nonlinearity applied to part of the narrative didn't add any excitement or character building to the picture. I couldn't locate the humor either, so clearly I'm missing something, but I have to wonder why movies like this exist at all if they aren't going to play with or against their genre constraints. This one just coasts along like a log in a river, banal when it's attempting to be unique. The last act especially drags for hardly any conceivable reason. I couldn't care less about the dramatic tone applied to the (initially-faux) comeuppance or ghost's role, etc.

Oof. Between your reaction and the mostly polite three star takes on Letterboxd, this went from a blind buy to try find and watch it online first.

Therewillbeblus, have you seen Odd Obsession/Kagi/The Key, and if so did you think it was funny?

Beloved Aunt wrote: Sun May 10, 2026 12:21 am Therewillbeblus, have you seen Odd Obsession/Kagi/The Key, and if so did you think it was funny?

Apparently so! I have no memory of the film, but my thoughts here indicate yes to both

Sorry to hear this one was a stinker. How was the filmmaking/cinematography?

I mean, it's Ichikawa so it's all competent. The choices just didn't work for me

My long-ago (19 years!!!) mini-comment plus a bunch of screen shots included towards the end of this blog post: https://rozmon.blogspot.com/2007/04/wat ... -2007.html