Quite a surprise that this
was made in 1964 Japan! Sonoko (Kyôko Kishida) is a married woman who takes
art classes. While sketching a nude model, she replaces the face with that of
Mitsuko (Ayako Wakao), the woman she considers her ideal of beauty. When Mitsuko
hears about it, she offers to pose nude so that the body of the sketch is hers
as well. Sonoko seems obsessed with Mitsuko, and they become lovers. Sonoko's
husband Kotaro (Eiji Funakoshi) knows about the affair and attempts to keep them
apart, so to get his sympathy, the two women fake their suicides by taking sleeping
powder. To Sonoko's horror, in a haze she listens to Mitsuko and Kotaro making
love in the bed next to her. Now Mitsuko keeps both husband and wife as
her lovers and makes them take sleeping powder every night to ensure that they
do not make love together. Mitsuko has total control over the situation, while
the jealousy between the spouses only grows. Who will win her affections, or will
she destroy them all first? This is an over the top drama with big 1960s
hair, interesting as camp these days. The film was recreated in a Nazi Germany
setting in 1985's The Berlin Affair.
(What looks like a swastika on the Manji dvd cover is a Buddhist cross.) |