Manji(Manji)

Tanizaki Junichiro’s novel of erotic obsessions finds its consummate visualisation under Masumura’s highly stylised framing. Portrayed in feverish intensity, this twisted story of romantic entanglements between four lovers is unfolded in self-reflection by an unfulfilled wife who, overwhelmed with the fleshly beauty of a scheming woman, descends into a web of crossmanipulations, tests of loyalty and suicide pacts. In a composition imbued with the elegance of a painting, the passionate intricacy of love and desires, playing almost like the pronged arms of the Buddhist Swastika, uncannily radiates with the destructive power of indulgence.                                                      

20/11 (Sat): Film talk with Thomas Shin