Tattoo

Masumura’s muse, Ayako Wakao, portrays yet again the ultimate femme fatale in Otsuya, a woman in love with a socially inferior man. As her parents would never agree to such a marriage, the two of them decide to elope; the devious innkeeper to whom they turn in desperation, however, sells her to a procurer as a geisha. Violently branded with a poisonous spider tattoo on her back by those who seized her, Otsuya evolves into a cunning woman, planning a lethal payback against the men who, either out of greed or cowardice, are responsible for her fate. Based on a short story by Junichirô Tanizaki, “Irezumi” levitates between the classic exploitation revenge story and a dark allegory of the desperate female emancipation, the Japanese folklore and b-movie themes, the metaphysical period horror film and the complex psychological portrait.

Orininal Title: Irezumi

Director: Yasuzo Masumura

Screenwriter: Kaneto Shindô

DoP: Kazuo Miyagawa

Music: Hikaru Hayashi

Editor: Kanji Suganuma

Principal Cast: Ayako Wakao, Akio Hasegawa, Gaku Yamamoto, Kei Satô

Country: Japan

Year: 1966

Running Time: 86’

Language: Japanese