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The Watcher in the Attic
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - 88 Films Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (15th December 2024). |
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The Film
 Young Goda (Wolves, Pigs and Men's Renji Ishibashi) lives off of his late parents' money and the additional income he earns from running his family home as a boarding house, but the real perk of this side business is getting to spy on his tenants through peep holes in the attic floor. Socially-awkward and scorned by his tenants, Goda makes as the center of his whole world Minako (Street of Joy's Junko Miyashita), a wealthy housewife who keeps a room in his house for sexual liaisons while her husband Koichiro (Branded to Kill's Hiroshi Chô) is on business trips. Minako has a lover in clown Pierrot (Zigeunerweisen's Shiro Yumemura) and she rewards the complicity of her chauffeur Hiruta (Youth of the Beast's Toshihiko Oda) in her double life with a specially-made chair in which he can conceal himself and caress her. She is actually less-than-pleased when it turns out that Koichiro likes her less demure side. When she catches Goda spying on her however, she is spurred on to cross the line from sadomasochism into murder, strangling Pierot with her thighs. She is aroused to discover that Goda shares similar impulses, offering proof of it in carrying out a murder of his own. Both of them, however, discover that regular sex does not compare and they can only find pleasure in the suffering of others, after which their sexual encounters can literally make the Earth move. Based on a story by Edogawa Rampo – an author from the Taishō period (1912-1926) whose work coined the term "ero-guro-nansensu" (erotic grotesque nonsense) and was adapted into such films as Black Lizard, Blind Beast, Horrors of Malformed Men, and Gemini among others – The Watcher in the Attic from prolific Nikkatsu Roman Porno director Noboru Tanaka and continues his practice of the seedy underbelly of Japanese patriotism and protagonists who shut out the world and pursue their own personal darkness to its (self)destructive ends be it Sada Abe and her lover in the aforementioned In the Realm of the Senses-predating A Woman Called Sada Abe and his later true crime film Village of Doom. While Sada Abe and lover were merely self-destructive, Goda and Minako are capable of sexual intercourse but can only attain pleasure through killing others, and who knows how far they would have gone had it not been for the ultimate climax, a true tragedy that would seem like a deus ex machina if there were not a sense of self-obliteration hinted at in their relationship (one or the other may indeed have ultimately killed the other with or without the other's consent like the lovers of Blind Beast or some of the more "conventional" double suicides of Japanese literature and folklore). Their victims include hypocrites like Minako's respectable husband and Christian preacher Endo (Cruel Gun Story's Kôji Yashiro) who takes confession from the boarding house's maid (Kazuko Tajima) and then molests her along with those who obsessively and submissively indulge them, along with one liberal-seeming character who indulges one of their fetishes before denouncing them as a pair of perverts. The more sadomasochistically-oriented Nikkatsu films are filled with such characters, but director Tanaka finds a way to make the viewer complicit in their actions. While Nikkatsu's Roman Porno films were distinguished from independently-produced pinku eiga films by their budgets, these budgets were still comparatively low and the shooting schedules short; yet the film does indeed boast a sense of high production value in the décor and wardrobe – emphasizing the Taisho era's clash of Japanese traditionalism and Western modern influences – as well as the Nikkatsuscope photography of Masaru Mori (The Sins of Sister Lucia) that seems as fascinated by the eighties MTV-anticipating shafts of light and smoke as Goda who is seen viewing multiple times observing the sun on his skin and blowing smoke through his splayed fingers into the light. While the extras note that no adaptation of the story has been faithful, Noboru Tanaka has been able to effectively invest The Watcher in the Attic with his personal themes and obsessions. 
Video
Unreleased theatricallly outside of Japan apart from repertory screenings, The Watcher in the Attic first became legitimately available in English-friendly form in 1999 when Pagan Films put out a DVD featuring Nikkatsu's video master slightly squeezed and cropped to 2.10:1 with burnt-in English subtitles. An anamorphic 2.25:1 upgrade came stateside in 2008 from Mondo Macabro but that is long out-of-print. 88 Films' 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 2.46:1 widescreen Blu-ray superficially looks a bit soft but this seems to be more due to the Nikkatsuscope anamorphic lenses and the use of on-camera diffusion, smoke, and backlighting since fine patterns like Koichiro's pinstripe suit hold up in medium shots, and close-ups reveal foundation make-up on some of the actors who do not receive the glamour treatment as well as the details of some of the art nouveau décor. In terms of framing, the Blu-ray reveals slivers more information on the left and right sides of the screen along with the top while the bottom appears to be the same. 
Audio
The Japanese mono mix is presented in LPCM 2.0. The dialogue is post-dubbed and the sound design is generally sparse while the music is also used conservatively. Optional English subtitles are provided but do not translate a few songs (they do however provide background on the climactic earthquake that is hard to hear on the actual audio track). 
Extras
Extras start with an audio commentary by Japanese film experts Jasper Sharp Jasper Sharp & Amber T. who put the film's setting in context of the Taisho era along with Rampo's other works as well as comparing the film to the source which was a locked door murder mystery without the Minako character and including Rampo's recurring detective character. Sharp notes that none of the five adaptations of the story are faithful and all add erotic elements while Amber T. observes that due to the length of Rampo's stories adaptations usually were a mishmash of elements from other Rampo stories of which Japanese viewers would be aware (including the addition here of the "human chair" fro another story). They also discuss the filmography of Tanaka (including his previous Rampo adaptations) as well as the film's stars, particularly Miyashita who had been a pinku eiga star before coming to Nikkatsu and would become the star of most of the "Apartment Wife" series after the first few, and would remain working in Roman Porno longer than many other starlets. Sharp interviewed Tanaka and humorously notes the director's annoyance that Nagisa Oshima got credit for juxtaposing Japanese patriotism with the Sada Abe story even though he did it before. "Who’s Watching Who? Hisayasu Satô on Watcher in the Attic" (8:52) is a video essay by the filmmaker who recalled discovering the Roman Porno as a teenager, admiring both Tanaka and Akira Katô (Sexy Pudding: Almost Addictive). He also discusses the status of the third film in Nikkatsu's triple bills as an independently-produced pinku eiga and how his own early Nikkatsu entries were third features like Lolita Vibrator Toture. The disc also includes a still gallery (1:37) and the theatrical trailer (2:42). 
Packaging
The limited edition first pressing includes a DVD copy, OBI strip, and booklet with an essay by Earl Jackson (not provided for review). 
Overall
hile the extras note that no adaptation of the story has been faithful, Noboru Tanaka has been able to effectively invest The Watcher in the Attic with his personal themes and obsessions.
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