Odd Obsession

Film · Kazuo Miyagawa

Saturday, April 28, 4:30 PM

When injections can no longer rejuvenate an aging man’s declining virility, he discovers that jealousy offers a good substitute. Taking advantage of an attraction between his daughter’s handsome lover and his younger wife, he orchestrates an affair between them to reawaken his once-insatiable libido. Adapted from Junichiro Tanizaki’s famous novel, Kon Ichikawa’s farcical black comedy about aging and male sexual anxiety features Miyagawa’s uniquely subdued color cinematography, which emphasizes the contrast between black shadows and white light to illuminate the film’s complex treatment of the conflict between private passions and public decorum.

1959, 107 min., 35mm, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. Directed by Kon Ichikawa. With Machiko Kyo, Ganjiro Nakamura, Junko Kano, Tatsuya Nakadai.

Winner, 1960 Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize

“A beautifully stylized and highly original piece of filmmaking — perverse in the best sense of the word, and worked out with such finesse that each turn of the screw tightens the whole comic structure.”

—Pauline Kael

Part of Kazuo Miyagawa: Japan’s Greatest Cinematographer

Tickets: $13/$10 seniors & students/$9 Japan Society members

Box Office Policy

Co-presented with The Japan Foundation