(Akai satsui). A complex tale of a “simple” woman who, like Tome in The Insect Woman, has nothing in the world except an indomitable instinct for survival. Sadako was raised as a maid in the household of her husband, who continues to treat her as a serf. While the husband is away, Sadako is raped—an act that jars loose long-suppressed memories of childhood sexuality, but also precipitates an awareness in Sadako of her somnambulistic, bovine existence. A bizarre relationship develops between the rapist, who continues to stalk the frightened woman with both tender and violent professions of love, and Sadako, whose intentions to murder him lead to a remarkable denouement. Imamura’s “explosive” style introduces handheld camera, slow motion, and extreme close-ups where they are least expected, allowing him his distanced, atypical view of violence and sensuality—what critic Joan Mellen characterized as “Imamura’s belief in the basic irrationality of human existence.”

—Judy Bloch

• Written by Keiji Hasebe, Imamura, from a novel by Shinji Fujiwara. Photographed by Shinsaku (Masahisa) Himeda. With Masumi Harukawa, Shigeru Tsuyuguchi, Ko Nishimura, Yoshi Kato. (145 mins, In Japanese with English subtitles, B&W, ’Scope, 35mm, From The Japan Foundation, permission Janus/Criterion Collection)