Eiji Funakoshi

Like the mystery of carnal attraction, Yasuzô Masumura’s infamous Edogawa Rampo adaptation defies all attempts at classification. Lending an arthouse flair to the fleshy thrills of pinku films, this handsomely grotesque tale of confinement trembles with the pleasure and the pain of erotic obsession.

Selling their souls in a cut-throat race for profit, the salarymen in Yasuzô Masumura’s dog-eat-dog vision of industrial Japan are as ruthless as lowly criminals. Laying bare the dirty tactics of corporate espionage, this visceral parable casts a shadow over the nation’s postwar economic miracle.