The second film in Noboru Tanaka’s “Showa Era Trilogy,” the newly restored WATCHER IN THE ATTIC (1976) is an adaption of a short story by seminal Japanese novelist Edogawa Rampo. Starring Junko Miyashita (the second “Queen” of Nikkatsu’s Roman porno series) as Lady Minako, owner of a shabby boarding house in 1920s Tokyo, the film is a deviously grotesque and unapologetically voyeuristic tale of murder, deceit and forbidden love between the bizarre cast of characters living within it.
When one of the tenants, Goda (Renji Ishibashi), secretly witnesses Lady Minako perform a truly heinous act while spying on her through one of his attic peepholes, he is overcome with desire and begins plotting to kill a fellow tenant to demonstrate his love for her. Psychologically unbalanced, hauntingly atmospheric and ruthlessly erotic, WATCHER IN THE ATTIC, nominated for a Gold Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival, is a full-tilt descent into a carnal, gothic nightmare with an ending you won’t soon forget.
WATCHER IN THE ATTIC (1976)
Directed by: Noboru Tanaka
Written by: Akio Ido (Screenplay), Rampo Edogawa (Story)
Cast: Junko Miyashita, Renji Ishibashi, Hiroshi Cho, Kyoichi Mizuki
Aoi Nakajima
Cinematography by: Katsu Mori
Genre: World Cinema/Crime/Horror/Erotic/Asian
RT: 76 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Sound: Mono
Language: Japanese with English Subtitles
