The Pundit

Rampo Noir

By Paul D Agostino ⋅ August 7, 2006 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

A collection of four short disturbing films, Rampo Noir is right at home in the Brain Monkey Sushi film category. Each short film has its distinctive qualities, yet each also possesses some similarity to the others. The central themes are art and love, conveyed in extremely disturbing situations.

The opening film, Mars’s Canal is silent and packed with male nudity and artistic, flashy cuts. Mars’s Canal tells the tale of a man recounting a horrific sexual experience, in which he ends up killing his lover. Because the film lacks any sound whatsoever, it’s clear that the director was trying to lend some artistic credit to this piece, but I’m not fully convinced that it worked.

Mirror Hell, the second film, is an interesting take on the Myth of Narcissus. A man who loves seeing himself in mirrors so much, that he creates a mirror (using an ancient technique) to harness black magic and kill people.

Caterpillar features a limbless war veteran, his wife who beats him for pleasure and her brother who believes that the limbless war veteran is a work of art.

Crawling Bugs, the final film, stars a germophobe driver who falls in love with his actress passenger. In an act of love, he decides to kill her and keep her body at his apartment.

As a collection, Rampo Noir works on some levels but fails to deliver in many others. It sets out to visually assault its audience and does so from time to time, but on a number of occasions throughout the arduous journey I felt bored and uninterested in what was taking place onscreen.
If you are planning on watching Rampo Noir I would suggest that this collection of films is not for the weak of stomach or easily bored.