Several cinematic variations on Junichiro Tanizaki's novel about jealousy, voyeurism, and sexual arousal began with this award-winning drama by director Kon Ichikawa. Kenji Kenmochi (Ganjiro Nakamura) is the older and increasingly impotent husband of young Ikuko (Machiko Kyo). He is desperate to regain his virility and when injections fail to do the trick, he discovers by spying on his daughter and her lover that jealousy will arouse him. Determined to succeed, he connives to bring his wife and his daughter's lover together -- so he can become jealous and sexually virile again. Unfortunately for Kenji, his plan has tragic consequences. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Review
In this deliciously perverse, pitch black comedy, Kenji Kenmochi, a middle-aged man coping with impotence, discovers that he can only become aroused by jealousy. The fact that his jealousy is spurred by flirtation between his much younger, startlingly beautiful wife (Machiko Kyo) and a young medical resident who happens to be participating in his treatment -- and is also engaged to his daughter -- only complicates matters. Mr. Kenmochi (played by Ganjiro Nakamura, whose meek, owl-like demeanor brings to mind Edward G. Robinson) spends much of the movie contriving ways to get the illicit couple together so he can spy on them and become aroused, which naturally increases his wife's desire for the young man, and in turn complicates his relationship to the daughter in some unexpected ways (she gets turned on by a nude photograph of her mother, for one thing). The film's stately widescreen compositions are juxtaposed against director Kon Ichikawa's at times very crude sense of humor (lovemaking is at one point symbolized not simply by a train entering a tunnel, but a whole montage of steam whistles, speeding locomotives, and coupling train cars). Odd Obsession was based on a Junichiro Tanizaki novel that has been adapted for the screen several times before; but, as was his custom, Ichikawa altered the ending to suit his unique tragicomic sensibility. Along with Fires on the Plain and The Harp of Burma, it went a long way towards establishing his reputation in the West as the peer of Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu as one of Japan's premier post-war directors. ~ Tom Vick, All Movie Guide
