Tattoo(Irezumi)

With Shindo Kaneto’s screenplay and Miyagawa Kazuo’s cinematography, Masumura turns Tanizaki Junichiro’s debut novel into a visually arresting tale of vengeance and betrayal. Delivering another fantastic performance, Wakao plays a young woman who is sold to a geisha house and branded with a spider tattoo, evoking her supernatural thirst for feeding on men and urge for regaining control over her life. In ukiyo-e like imagery infused with darkness, lust and violence, the creation of this fantastically sadistic and resilient woman character is an entrancing blend of power reversal and sexual emancipation.