Friday | December 14, 2007 7:00 pm

Intentions of Murder
(Akai satsui)

Screening on Film

Directed by Shohei Imamura.
With Masumi Harukawa, Shigeru Tsuyuguchi, Ko Nishimura.
Japan, 1964, 35mm, color, 150 min.
Japanese with English subtitles.
Print source: Japan Foundation

Intentions of Murder features the very archetype of the indomitable and indefatigable Imamura heroine. At the film’s start, Sadako leads a bleak life as the unacknowledged wife of a tyrannical librarian. Only after she is raped by a burglar does she begin to realize the power of her sexuality. In a twist on the typical Japanese "pink film" plot, she runs away with the rapist, harboring the murderous intentions of the title.