Rampo (film)
Encyclopedia
is a 1994 Japanese movie. It is based on the stories of Edogawa Rampo
.
We now then enter a live action world where Poe
-inspired mystery writer Edogawa Rampo (Naoto Takenaka
) has written a book about a woman who has killed her husband by locking him in a nagamochi. The book is banned by the government who claim the work to be too disturbing. He is asked to burn his manuscript. However, after burning his paper drafts, his publisher shows him a newspaper story with an account of events just like his forbidden story. After spying on the woman concerned, who is labeled as a murderer, he decides to visit her store. Shizuko (Michiko Hada
) offers him her own music box for free as he has showed interest in it. He later stalks her to a shrine where he admits following her and she asks him to go away. She later asks him to meet her at the shrine. She's sorry and has read his book and was impressed while he again excuses for his stalking behaviour. She is then picked up by a taxi and he avidly follows her with another taxi.
Here his younger literary alter ego Kogoro Akechi (Masahiro Motoki
) picks up the story.
Akechi finds out Shizuko has an affair with a duke in a Dracula
-like castle located at the sea on a cliff. He decides to pay this duke a secret visit by "experimenting" with parachute jumping. He lands in a pack of biting hunting dogs the duke directs at him. The duke sucks out his arm wound and then invites him home to treat the wound. They have dinner together and here he sees Shizuko serving him an aphrodisiac. Akeshi observes the duke while he's horse-riding, cross-dressing and smearing his facial make up all over her naked back and projecting a stag film on her body.
During an evening party he frightens the guests with a recital of a text of Poe - accompanied with images of war: the film gets stuck at the end of the text, burning the film depicting a the face of a corpse. The next day he follows with another piece of "entertainment" by committing suicide with his white horse, running of the cliff.
Edogawa Rampo returns to the story as he finds out about the castle and tries to enter the room where Akeshi is willingly - he needs no instructions from his writer - entering the nagamochi Shizuko has opened from him. As Rampo navigates through the castle the layers of fantasy and reality start to merge into one cosmic flashback occurring before and after he gets into the room where Shizuko commits suicide before Akeshi can get out of the nagamochi. Rampo holds Shizuko in his arms.
in 1995.
Edogawa Rampo
, better known by the pseudonym , was a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the development of Japanese mystery fiction. Many of his novels involve the detective hero Kogorō Akechi, who in later books was the leader of a group of boy detectives known as the .Rampo was an admirer...
.
Plot summary
In an animated introduction a man hides in a nagamochi to scare his wife but he is locked in and can hardly breathe. When his wife comes home he manages to make a noise and she saves him.We now then enter a live action world where Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
-inspired mystery writer Edogawa Rampo (Naoto Takenaka
Naoto Takenaka
is a Japanese actor, comedian, singer, and director from Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture affiliated with From First Production. He is married to idol singer and actress Midori Kinouchi.-Director:*Munō no Hito *119...
) has written a book about a woman who has killed her husband by locking him in a nagamochi. The book is banned by the government who claim the work to be too disturbing. He is asked to burn his manuscript. However, after burning his paper drafts, his publisher shows him a newspaper story with an account of events just like his forbidden story. After spying on the woman concerned, who is labeled as a murderer, he decides to visit her store. Shizuko (Michiko Hada
Michiko Hada
, born 24 September 1968 in Mitsukaido, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, is a Japanese actress.-External links:*...
) offers him her own music box for free as he has showed interest in it. He later stalks her to a shrine where he admits following her and she asks him to go away. She later asks him to meet her at the shrine. She's sorry and has read his book and was impressed while he again excuses for his stalking behaviour. She is then picked up by a taxi and he avidly follows her with another taxi.
Here his younger literary alter ego Kogoro Akechi (Masahiro Motoki
Masahiro Motoki
Masahiro Motoki is a Japanese actor. He portrayed protagonist Daigo Kobayashi in Departures, which won the 81st Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film...
) picks up the story.
Akechi finds out Shizuko has an affair with a duke in a Dracula
Dracula
Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
-like castle located at the sea on a cliff. He decides to pay this duke a secret visit by "experimenting" with parachute jumping. He lands in a pack of biting hunting dogs the duke directs at him. The duke sucks out his arm wound and then invites him home to treat the wound. They have dinner together and here he sees Shizuko serving him an aphrodisiac. Akeshi observes the duke while he's horse-riding, cross-dressing and smearing his facial make up all over her naked back and projecting a stag film on her body.
During an evening party he frightens the guests with a recital of a text of Poe - accompanied with images of war: the film gets stuck at the end of the text, burning the film depicting a the face of a corpse. The next day he follows with another piece of "entertainment" by committing suicide with his white horse, running of the cliff.
Edogawa Rampo returns to the story as he finds out about the castle and tries to enter the room where Akeshi is willingly - he needs no instructions from his writer - entering the nagamochi Shizuko has opened from him. As Rampo navigates through the castle the layers of fantasy and reality start to merge into one cosmic flashback occurring before and after he gets into the room where Shizuko commits suicide before Akeshi can get out of the nagamochi. Rampo holds Shizuko in his arms.
Video game adaptation
A video game based on the film was released for Sega SaturnSega Saturn
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe...
in 1995.
External links
- Rampo video game at GameFAQsGameFAQsGameFAQs is a website that hosts FAQs and walkthroughs for video games. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff "CJayC" Veasey and was bought by CNET Networks in May 2003. It is currently owned by CBS Interactive. The site has a database of video game information, cheat codes, reviews, game saves,...