Mystery, obsession, and dazzling special effects are waiting to astound you as Loew presents "The Mystery of Rampo" Saturday night, a film in which the line between reality and fantasy is crossed at every turn.
Critics have called "Rampo" "a visual achievement of unprecedented psychedelic daring and invention." "The Mystery of Rampo" marks the directorial debut of long-time Japanese producer Kazuyoshi Okuyama. The film was made in an attempt to bring the unique imagery of legendary Japanese mystery writer Hirai Taro to the screen. Taro, at the age of 29, changed his named to Edogawa Rampo out of reverence for his idol, Edgar Allan Poe (pronounced edogah-aran-poh in Japanese).
The film begins with an animated sequence in which a father is playing hide-and-go-seek with his children. During the game he gets locked in a chest which, after his wife finds him but mysteriously refuses to release him, becomes his coffin. Next we find out that such a crime was described vividly in [the character] Edogawa Rampo's most recent book which, due to government censoring, was never released. Rampo becomes obsessed with Shizuko (Michiko Hada), the main suspect in the crime, and it is here that we begin to lose the distinction between what is real and what is merely illusory.
The feeling one gets from this movie is that each little part works perfectly together. Akira Senju's symphonic score, played by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, wraps the film in a romantic package while the cinematography of Yasushi Sasakibara is breath-taking.
The cast that was assembled for this production varied greatly in experience but worked well together to create a sophisticated motion picture. For the role of the perverse Marquis, Okuyama cast Mikijiro Hira, an experienced Shakespearean and classical stage actor. When approached with the possibility that he might have to dress as a woman in the film, Okuyama says that "To my surprise, he happily answered that he had always wanted to try."
For the role of the beautiful and mysterious Shizuko, Okuyama went out on a limb and picked first-time actress and Japanese supermodel Michiko Hada. Hada rose to meet the challenge and emerged as Japan's newest star.
For the title role of Rampo, Okuyama picked an actor he had worked with on several films he had produced. Naota Takenaka showed Okuyama just how much of a method actor he could be. According to Okuyama, "He started growing bald like the actual Rampo!"
"I wanted to get as close to the actual writer as possible," says Okuyama, which explains why Rampo's eldest son, Ryutaro Hirai, acted as a consultant on the set. It also explains why many of the props in the film, from the matches that are seen in the opening credits to the Bulzraku doll, were once owned by Rampo himself.
This much, Okuyama certainly succeeds in doing. He also succeeded in directing Japan's biggest box-office smash of 1994. Ultimately, this movie acts as a tribute to the reality that Rampo's fantasy worlds take on in his great collection of over twenty full-length books, numerous short stories, children's books and essays. With a perfect blend of mystery and enchantment, Okuyama gives us "The Mystery of Rampo," a movie that is both thematically and aesthetically amazing.
"The Mystery of Rampo" will be screened at Loew auditorium at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at the Loew auditorium box office -- they are $5 for Dartmouth students and $6 for the general public.
