Synopsis
Based on the novel by Naoki Prize-nominated author Taro Takeshita, a thriller full of black humor. A jealous husband murders his adulterous wife, then embarks on a crusade to extort all the wealthy men whom she had affairs with.
1964 ‘散歩する霊柩車’ Directed by Hajime Sato
Based on the novel by Naoki Prize-nominated author Taro Takeshita, a thriller full of black humor. A jealous husband murders his adulterous wife, then embarks on a crusade to extort all the wealthy men whom she had affairs with.
Sanpo suru reikyusha, L'amore scotta a Yokohama
Twisty B-movie thriller from Hajime Sato (Goke, Golden Bat) that is 99% not about ghosts, but thanks to the spooky score feels like a William Castle joint shot with a surprising care for composition.
A twisty and sleazy tale of adultery, blackmails, double crosses, murders with greedy, mean, deceitful characters. Not so much a thriller but an extremely effective black comedy which works as a portrait of postwar Japanese society. Loved the playfulness , its pitch black sense of humour and that spooky score. Nishimura is great in the lead role, Harukawa is very good as his wife with Kaneko and Atsumi providing good support in the minor roles. The b/w photography is sharp and there are some solid stylistic flourishes. I think final section of the film is predictable but still overall this is lot of fun.
Oh my, golly gosh - this was so much FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not really a ghost story but a fabulous black as hell comedy/thriller about a married couple, who extort the (many) lovers of the wife, by faking her death and blackmailing the lovers.
Not being funny but I am so dizzy from all the twist and turns, the double crosses, the adultery, the swinging and cucking... the murderers!!!!
This is the three S's, sexy, sleazy and stupendous. To be honest I am surprised this isn't talked about more, as this treads very similar grounds to New Wave directors like Imamura and Kō Nakahira.
More of a suspense thriller than a ghost story. It had so many twists and turns it certainly kept me on my toes! Still, Shunsuke Kikuchi’s score did have a lot of theremin to give it a bit of a spooky atmosphere, and they threw in some possible ghosts at the end for good measure.
Directed by GOKE BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL and GOLDEN BAT’s Hajime Sato, so it’s not surprising that this is a totally solid B movie. The cast is really interesting — led by Ko Nishimura (SWORD OF DOOM) and Masumi Harukawa (Jonathan’s wife Kimie in TRUCK GUYS), and featuring Nobuo Kaneko (BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR AND HUMANITY) and TORA-SAN himself Kiyoshi Atsumi. Nishimura’s sunken features are perfect…
A pitch black grim little comedy thriller about a husband with a cheating wife. The movie thrives on its twists and turns, so I won’t give anything away other than to say it’s got a lot of attempted blackmail and a lot of attempted murder and it’s mostly only incidentally or circumstantially funny. Ironic might be the better term.
Decently filmed, not exceptionally well acted, but passable enough, and fairly cleverly written, the movie does a good job setting up its visual punchlines. The theramin heavy soundtrack definitely doesn’t add much, but isn’t nearly as annoying as it could be.
A 3/5 for personal enjoyment. Nothing wrong with it but I just got tired of a story populated entirely by unlikeable people.
Sato’s tale of love, infidelity, blackmail, and murder is surprisingly fun in a gallows humour sense. Its small but stellar cast works beautifully and the whole enterprise gives off strong Coen Brothers vibes. In fact, someone show this to Joel and Ethan so we can see an American remake ASAP.
What an excellent, fun film. Despite the title, nothing supernatural here aside from a couple of visions the protagonist has. Very stylized cinematography, fantastic cast, complicated plot with twist upon twist. My only disappointment is the ending, which seems to not match the tone of the rest of the film. Highly recommended.
A pleasingly mean-spirited little movie. Hajime Sato's direction is too inconsistent for it to function properly as a thriller - in a couple of key scenes he resorts to alternating between different hand-held POV shots, which is rarely a good sign - but the performances are still strong enough to carry the film as a spiteful black comedy. It's always a delight to see Nishimura sidling and scheming it up in a lead role, and Harukawa enjoys herself as the chiseling, unrepentantly faithless wife. Kiyoshi Atsumi discovers that it's tough being man, but tougher being a blackmailer.
Another fun little feature found on Rarefilmm.
There's this thing that happens sometimes in Japanese movies, where there's a woman who is with some guy, making out with him as a prelude to sex, most likely in an adulterous context. And she'll be laughing loudly while the guy kisses her neck or something, like what she's doing is the most fun thing anyone could ever imagine.
And I kind of love that, for all its silliness. It's the kind of thing that fits in the mostly silly world of this film, where a small man with small dreams continues to imagine some kind of future with a wife who has betrayed him and continues to betray him even after he…
The Glamorous Ghost is a film noir/black comedy from Hajime Sato, apparently, best know for the horror film Goke the Body Snatcher from Hell. This film stars character actor Ko Nishimura in a rare lead role. He is, Asami, the hapless taxi driver husband of the in demand Sugie (Masumi Harukawa) who certainly gets around. In the first act when Asami seemingly kills Sugie for her indiscretions, he hires a hearse driven by Mori (none other than Tora-san, Kiyoshi Atsumi, in an early role) to drum up extortion money from her lovers: a doctor and a company president with political aspirations. Then it is revealed that Sugie, is indeed alive and part of the scam. This reveal is in the…