Intentions of Murder
Director: Shohei Imamura
Year Released: 1964
Rating: 1.5
A librarian treats his homely wife incredibly poorly and cheats on her with one of his colleagues - to make matters worse, she gets disturbing visits from the sickly neighborhood rapist, who assaults her ... and tells her he loves her. The same basic complaints I had about Imamura's 1963 picture The Insect Woman apply here (unlikeable figures, distanced approach, etc.) - plus, for this one, there's no way there's enough substance in the story to allow for a two-and-a-half hour movie: it's unpleasant to see the same woman have her neck wrung and raped and treated like a slave for such an extended period of time. Ends, fittingly enough, with both the rapist and the librarian's mistress dying (the latter hit by a truck!): there's that pesky morality again....
