Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Masahiro Motoki | ... | Kogoro Akechi | |
Naoto Takenaka | ... | Edogawa Rampo | |
![]() |
Michiko Hada | ... | Shizuko |
Teruyuki Kagawa | ... | Masashi Yokomizo | |
Mikijirô Hira | ... | Marquis Ogawara | |
Shirô Sano | ... | Officer | |
![]() |
Ittoku Kishibe | ... | Cafe owner |
![]() |
Nekohachi Edoya | ... | Antique shop owner |
![]() |
Jun'ichi Takagi | ... | Fujimori |
![]() |
Charlie Yutani | ... | Driver |
Kirin Kiki | ... | House wife / Head of maid | |
Julie Dreyfus | ... | Mademoiselle | |
Yoshio Harada | ... | Big Star | |
![]() |
Kinji Fukasaku | ... | Film Director |
![]() |
An Actor | ... | Movie Actor |
Edogawa Rampo is a writer whose latest work is censored by the government, deemed too disturbing and injurious to the public to be allowed to be published. However, after burning his drafts, his publisher shows him a newspaper with an account of events just like his forbidden story. As the film progresses, fantasy and reality intermingle in a tale that draws heavily on influences from Poe and Stoker's Dracula. The film's strongly Expressionistic direction skillfully combines a variety of media (animation, computer-generated imagery, grainy black-and-white fast film stock, color negatives) for artistic effect. Written by Tad Dibbern <DIBBERN_D@a1.mscf.upenn.edu>
This is a fitting tribute to Edogawa Rampo, one of the greatest horror/suspense writers of the 20th century. He so keenly admired Edgar Allan Poe that he effaced his own name and personality and adopted Poe's (say "Edogawa Rampo" a few times quickly and you'll see that it is a Japanese pronunciation of the name of the great American writer). Rampo wrote so few works that it is wonderful that a film like this should be made about him, or rather, about his persona -- it is the only way that most people will be able to appreciate his deeply complex personality. (To be perfectly honest, having long ago read Rampo's "The Human Chair," and had its utterly unspeakable terribleness burned into his consciousness, this writer was GREATLY suspicious of the seats in the theater where this film was shown -- THAT is the sort of impact Rampo and his work can have on the mind!)