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I
know very little about the Japanese "Pink" or "Eroducation"
films produced in the 1960s and '70s but each encounter I have
with an example of the genre has been rewarding. This is odd
to realize for me because, in general, I find softcore erotica
to be a time-wasting bore. Maybe it's the fascinating look inside
a foreign culture that allows these movies to hold my attention
or maybe it's the melodramatic story elements with their larger
than life emotions on display. I've found the complexity of
the characters in these movies to be one of their strongest
attributes and Madame O is a good
example of this. Plus, it's never boring!
The
film introduces us to the titular character in measured steps.
We meet Seiko (Michiko Aoyama), a doctor working out of a clinic
in Tokyo. Primarily a gynecologist, we watch her help a young
woman through a difficult birth and generally act as a fine,
caring physician to a variety of patients before we notice how
exhausted she is. At the end of a long day she has a "dizzy
spell" and the reaction of Seiko's nurse indicates that
she has these regularly. Sending the nurse home, she runs a
blood test on herself revealing that she has syphilis for which
she has been treating herself for years. Through a flashback
we see how 16-year old Seiko was attacked on a beach and gang
raped by three men. This incident infected her with the disease,
impregnated her and instilled within her a hatred of men so
deep she would spend the rest of her life exacting revenge.
We are then shown
that although her chronic illness is partially responsible for
her tired state, some days there is another reason for the good
doctor to be exhausted... Most nights she dolls up and goes
out on the town, posing as a prostitute! But this isn't a single
woman's way of living out sordid fantasies —
her purpose is sinister. After luring barflies and businessmen
into sexual encounters she waits until they're sleeping to use
a scalpel and cotton swab to infect them with her disease. Through
Seiko's voice-over it becomes clear she has been doing this
for years and her every word drips with the still-raw anger
at what was done to her. But the first thing I noticed was that
to carry out her harsh vengeance on men she certainly has a
lot of sex. This immediately made me wonder if she was at all
aware of her own needs on more than an unconscious level. Amazingly
the film answered that question in the next few minutes.
A new male doctor
joins the clinic and becomes very popular with the patients.
Seiko keeps her distance but is clearly relieved to have some
respite from her heavy workload. It helps that Dr. Takow (Akihilo
Kaminara) is handsome and very kind to his colleague and all
the women he deals with in his practice. As time passes Seiko's
attitude toward Takow becomes less formal, and she seems to
respect him as more than just a coworker.
At this point a telltale
sickness reveals that Seiko has become pregnant from one of
her nighttime adventures. Despairing, she waits until after
the clinic empties out one evening and sets about performing
an abortion on herself! She gets through only part of the procedure
before passing out. The next morning she's found by the early
arriving Takow. Shocked, he still very professionally and compassionately
finishes the operation and cares for Seiko. Terrified that word
of this will get out, she is at first unsure of what to do but
Takow calms her down. He tells her that her secret is safe.
After refusing to be paid, he confesses his tender feelings
for Seiko. Stunned by this revelation, her defenses drop and
the emotions she has kept walled away come flooding out. She
declares her own feelings and a romance begins between them.
Truly in love with a man for the first time in her life, Seiko
is very happy. It isn't until she comes clean about her terrible
past that she realizes how fortunate she has been. Even knowing
the terrible things she's done to countless men, Takow stands
by her and tells her it doesn't matter.
Then an old victim
of our female doctor spots and recognizes the woman that gave
him syphilis. He tries a bit of blackmail. Thinking that all
she's hiding is a night job as a hooker, he gets a big surprise
when Seiko lures him to her home and manages to kill him. As
she goes about disposing of the body by knife and acid in the
bathroom, her doctor boyfriend watches from the shadows, witnessing
the whole thing. Even this does not deter him in his affection
and the couple is married soon afterward.
Happiness and contentment
follow with Seiko doing her best to put the past behind her
and at first finding it easy to live a normal life. Her husband
gradually takes over more and more of the clinic's practice
and the place prospers. Seiko begins to spend more time at home
but appears to be unable to forget the murder. She starts drinking
much more than before, getting sloppy drunk most nights. Suspecting
that the effects of her drinking are much stronger than they
should be she tests her bar supplies and finds her favorite
liquor is spiked with a sleeping drug. What is going on? Who
is drugging her? And why?
This is a wonderfully
entertaining movie. Short, well paced and fascinating, Madame
O seems to have a
new surprise lurking around ever corner. What I thought was
going to be a straightforward story of horrible revenge ending
with moralistic justice becomes much more until by the end I
was stunned by the path the film had traveled. Combining revenge
thriller with psychological drama with softcore sex with romance
and a bit of gore, the movie moves smoothly from one to the
other with never the sound of grinding gears. I liked each section
of the film and by the final act felt completely satisfied.
This is a great piece of exploitation cinema and a fine example
of a genre that I wish had never died.
My one complaint about
the movie is that it is filmed in both color and black & white,
switching from one to the other seemingly at random throughout
the running time. I kept trying to find a reason for certain
scenes to be in color, or vise versa, to no avail. (The color
scenes don't all involve blood or traumatic events.) I suspect
there might be an artistic rationale for this choice, but on
first viewing it almost feels as if they just ran out of one
type of film stock and went on with whatever they could get.
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Synapse's
fine DVD release of Madame O is short
on extras but that shouldn't deter fans of Asian exploitation
from checking it out. The movie looks fantastic with a sharp 2.35:1
widescreen image marred only by a few thin vertical lines in the
opening couple of minutes. The disc is enhanced for 16X9 televisions,
of course, and the crisp soundtrack is in 2.0 Dolby Digital. The
version presented is the U.S. theatrical cut, dubbed into English.
I was rather surprised by this until I read the short liner notes
by Jasper Sharp included in the package. It turns out that there
are no existing prints of this film in its original Japanese form!
Apparently the Pink films were considered such a transient type
of entertainment that only a small percentage of them have survived.
Indeed, of the approximately 20 such films made by the director
of Madame O, none of them are in
existence in his home country. The only reason this one is available
is because U.S. distributor Audubon Films held onto a print of
the version they released. (And I thought the real losses in film
history were from before 1950!) The only on-disc extra is the
American theatrical trailer.
Originally
titled Continuation: Vice Doctor - Female Vice Edition,
this was a sequel to the now lost movie Vice
Doctor: Maternity And Gynecological Department Diary (1966)
by the same director. I can only imagine what that film would
have been like... I now hope for it to be discovered in some forgotten
vault one day. In the meantime I'm just glad Synapse continues
to release things like this and I hope they keep 'em coming!
8/23/08 |
