"A horror action film based on the novel by Tachibana Soto'o, a combination of vampires and the Amakusa Shiro folklore. Twenty years ago, Miwako disappeared, but returns looking as youthful as she did before. Itoko, Miwako's daughter, discovers a nude picture of a woman resembling Miwako at an art exhibition. Itoko and her fiancé Tamio, a newspaper reporter, search for the truth, but a suspicious man makes off with Miwako. Itoko and Tamio pursue them to Shimabara. While in line with the "eroguro" (erotic and grotesque) that Shintoho hammered out back at the time, the film is skillfully directed to evoke horrifying imagery and to carry qualities of an action drama, resulting in this preposterous story to unfold sharply. Amachi Shigeru is the embodiment of the dandyish yet ferocious vampire, exhibiting his nihilism as the tragic nature of a man entrapped by fate. The climax leads Itoko, Tamio, and the cops to the vampire's mountain-entombed castle, which is quite a set to behold, complete with all mod cons (even an acid bath). The vampire's motley crew of henchmen includes a bald brute with a musket rifle, a whitehaired witch, and a scurrying dwarf. Nakagawa regular Amachi is amusing as the dandyish dracula. The crisp black and white cinematography and intentionally non-Japanese settings (the hotel, the castle, even the streets chosen) give the film a low-budget European feel." Jason Gray
Production: Shintoho
Screenplay: Nakazawa Shin, Nakatsu Katsuyoshi, nach dem Roman von Tachibana Soto'o
Cinematographer: Hirano Yoshimi
Art Direction: Kurosawa Haruyasu
Composer: Iuchi Hisashi
Cast: Amachi Shigeru, Wada Keinosuke, Nakamura Torahiko, Mihara Yoko, Ikeuchi Junko, Mizuhara Baku
Format/screen ratio: 35mm, 1:2.35, b/w
Running time: 78 minutes, 24 frames/sec.
Language: Japanese
Print Source: National Film Center, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Foto: ©Kokusai Hoei
