Intentions of Murder

Shohei Imamura's film is about a woman regarded by her husband's family as barely above a servant, without even a legal marriage. Sadako, played by Masumi Harukawa, is raped in her home, and the attacker comes back, stays, and attaches himself to her. She cannot get free of him either. What makes it uncomfortable is that Imamura refuses to turn this into a story of deliverance. Sadako considers suicide repeatedly and each time gets hungry, eats, and goes on living. The film's idea is in that persistence: she is never made heroic, she simply endures, and outlasts everyone around her. Imamura's framing carries her confinement; the camera looks from low angles, from between objects, from behind obstructions. It is counted among the harshest works of the Japanese New Wave. Who it is for: viewers interested in Imamura and in Japanese cinema's portraits of the underclass. Who it is not for: anyone unable to take the length and coldness of the assault scenes.