Blu-ray Review: Rampo Noir (Limited Edition)

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Movies based on the literary work of Edogawa Rampo (sometimes spelled Ranpo) have finally been arriving in America on Blu-ray over the last few years. This includes the twisted Horrors of Malformed Men and Blind Beast. Rampo (1894-1965) was a big fan of Edgar Allen Poe so his pen name had the same ring as Baltimore’s favorite writer. He also approached his fiction with Poe’s love of detective tales and horror. Rampo gave his horror a grotesque edge which is why certain Japanese filmmakers enjoyed adapting his tales. Rampo Noir joined together four directors to create an anthology of a quarter of Rampo’s tales in 2005. While normally a portmanteau film has a framing device, Rampo Noir blends the different short films together by having Tadanobu Asano play a different role in all of them. You might remember him from Ichi the Killer, Raiden in Mortal Kombat and Lord Kashigi Yabushige in the recent Shogun miniseries. This is the first time Rampo Noir has been released in North America.

There should be a warning that the first segment “Canals of Mars” is silent. It’s not just no dialogue from a naked man (Tadanobu Asano) but also no music or background noise for the first few minutes. Don’t panic and reboot your home theater. When the sound arrives, it’s electronic muck as we deal with the man remembering a bad relationship with an equally naked women in a decaying building. He roams a bleak landscape. This is more of a mood setting piece from director Suguru Takeuchi. Mirror Hell is a detective tale with a supernatural twist and proper audio. A woman who teaches tea ceremony etiquette has her face melted off by a mirror. Detective Kogoro Akechi (Asano) learns that she’s not the only lady in the area to die this horrible way. He investigates how the mirrors could be so lethal. This was directed by Akio Jissoji. Caterpillar has a couple reunite after the war except the husband has received major injuries. His wife is both compassionate to her injured husband and gets rather kinky. It’s very artsy, disturbing work from director Hisayasu Satô. Asano has a small role in the segment. The final entry is Crawling Bugs with Asano playing a limo driver who falls for an actress (Samurai Fiction‘s Tamaki Ogawa) in his backseat. This goes beyond the usual stalker plot. The limo driver has a weird phobia so he can’t merely abduct her. He has to do “things” to her to fulfill his psychotic dream of their happiness. Director Atsushi Kaneko comes up with a way to top the weirdness of Caterpillar.

The amazing part about Rampo Noir is how each segment builds on the grotesque atmosphere of the previous short. You don’t feel like the films are in competition with each other. Tadanobu Asano ties it together into one work hurtling to an eye-popping ending. You don’t want to watch one of segment like so many other anthology films. All four directors push each other’s work. They embrace the bizarre horror elements of the stories and how they can change up Asano to serve their story. Rampo Noir is a disturbing and darkly entertaining of Edogawa Rampo’s literary world.

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The Video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. The 1080p transfer brings out the creepy details in the various segments. The Audio is Japanese LPCM 2.0 stereo. Remember not to crank up the volume during the silent opening. The rest sounds fine as the disturbing visuals gets unnerving audio moments. The movie is subtitled in English.

Audio Commentary by Jasper Sharp and Alexander Zahlten is informative as they compare the original stories with the short films. They give a lot of background on the directors and cast members.

Cast and Crew Interviews include Another World (14:04) with Suguru Takeuchi, A Moving Transformation (25:07) with Hisayasu Sato, Butterfly Queen (13:49) with Atsushi Kaneko, Hall of Mirrors (25:19) with cinematographer Akio Jissoji on shooting Mirror Hell, The Butterfly Effect (15:47) with cinematographer Akiko Ashizawa about Caterpillar and Looking In The Mirror (13:58) with actress Yumi Yoshiyuki about her role in Mirror Hell.

Stage Greetings (15:06) features cast and three of the directors introducing the film at its Japanese premiere in 2005. They all have praise for Tadanobu Asano. They get into their experiences reading Edogawa Ranpo’s stories. The “Mars Canal” segment was shot in Iceland. One of the people on stage is wearing a cool t-shirt for The Cramps.

Cross the Lens (75:45) is a feature length documentary about the making of the film directed by Tatsuya Fukushima in 2006. While this was done for the film, the producers wanted it to be more than a normal electronic press kit. He starts the film in Iceland getting us to know all that was involved in making the anthology film with four different directors.

Image Galleries includes over 50 press photos from the production. Quite a few are rather artsy shots that seem perfect for a glossy magazine layout.

Illustrated collector’s booklet with essays by Eugene Thacker and Seth Jacobowitz.

Arrow Video presents Rampo Noir: Limited Edition. Directed by Akio Jissoji, Atsushi Kaneko, Hisayasu Satō & Suguru Takeuchi. Screenplay by Atsushi Kaneko, Akio Satsukawa, Suguru Takeuchi & Shirō Yumeno. Starring Tadanobu Asano, Mikako Ichikawa, Yumi Yoshiyuki, Ryuhei Matsuda, Hiroki Narimiya, Nao Ōmori & Yūko Daike. Running Time: 135 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: January 7, 2025.

Joe Corey is the writer and director of "Danger! Health Films" currently streaming on Night Flight and Amazon Prime. He's the author of "The Seven Secrets of Great Walmart People Greeters." This is the last how to get a job book you'll ever need. He was Associate Producer of the documentary "Moving Midway." He's worked as local crew on several reality shows including Candid Camera, American's Most Wanted, Extreme Makeover Home Edition and ESPN's Gaters. He's been featured on The Today Show and CBS's 48 Hours. Dom DeLuise once said, "Joe, you look like an axe murderer." He was in charge of research and programming at the Moving Image Archive.