NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Arrow Blu-ray (January 2025): Arrow have transferred the Japanese anthology Rampo Noir to Blu-ray with four segments based on works by Edogawa Ranpo and directed by Suguru Takeuchi, Akio Jissoji, Hisayasu Sato, and Atsushi Kaneko. There are distinctive visual stylings here and, as it is Arrow, the image quality is efficiently rendered. The 1080P is clean and flawless with the 2 1/4 hour film having a supportive bitrate and the unique visuals come across occasionally stunning, intense and mysterious. The HD presentation produces a mesmerizing viewing. The Blu-ray transferred visuals are frequently hypnotic.  

NOTE: We have added 50 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Arrow use linear PCM 2.0 channel tracks (24-bit) in the original Japanese language for all four films. Rampo Noir has aggressive moments but they come through fairly flat without significant depth. The scores are, respectively, by Saiko Ai, Kohei Aramaki, Japanese visual and sound artist Ryoji Ikeda and composer and multi-instrumentalist Otomo Yoshihide (Journey to the Shore), adding eerie edges to the occasionally bizarre visuals. The audio is clean and effective. Arrow offer optional English subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Arrow Blu-ray offers a new commentary by Japanese film experts Jasper Sharp (author of the Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema and Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema) and Alexander Zahlten (The End of Japanese Cinema: Industrial Genres, National Times, and Media Ecologies.) They cover so much and reveal incredible detail about the author, directors, cast etc. with appreciated depth. Fans will love their astute observations and marvel at their encyclopedia knowledge. There are a number of interviews included; Another World is a new 1/4 hour interview with Kobe-born Suguru Takeuchi, the director of “Mars’s Canal”. A Moving Transformation is a new 25-minute interview with the exploitation director, Hisayasu Sato, who worked prolifically in the genre of pinku eiga films and the director of “Caterpillar”. Butterfly Queen is a new 14-minute interview with Japanese manga artist Atsushi Kaneko from Sakata and the director of “Crawling Bugs”. Hall of Mirrors is a new interview with cinematographer Masao Nakabori about working with Akio Jissoji and “Mirror Hell”. The Butterfly Effect is a new 1/4 hour interview with Akiko Ashizawa, the cinematographer of “Caterpillar”and Looking in the Mirror is a new 14-minute interview with the actor Yumi Yoshiyuki about “Mirror Hell”. Also included are 15-minutes of archival stage greeting footage with the cast and directors from the Japanese premiere of Rampo Noir. Cross the Lens, a feature-length (1 1/4 hour) making-of documentary by Tatsuya Fukushima from 2006. Lastly is an extensive image gallery for each film and the package has a reversible sleeve (see below) featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Luke Insect and an illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Eugene Thacker (In the Dust of This Planet: Horror of Philosophy) and Seth Jacobowitz (translator for The Edogawa Rampo Reader).

Rampo Noir is unsettling... and curious. Tarō Hirai (1894 -1965), aka Edogawa Ranpo, admired Edgar Allan Poe (from which he configured his pen name,) Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle. He was immensely influential and developed crime, mystery and horror-related stories with "abnormal sexuality" that were often were labeled as "ero guro nansensu"- translated as "eroticism, grotesquerie, and the nonsensical". The short films in Rampo Noir were taken from some of Ranpo's stories with a wandering naked man, women victims with burnt faces and charred skulls, a supernatural mirror, a badly injured war-hero and his sadistically bent beautiful wife etc. The films curiously explore the darker edges of eeriness, sexuality, and bizarre, horror-esque art with unconventional layers of psychological deviance. The Arrow Blu-ray will appeal to fans of Yasuzô Masumura's Blind Beast, and the edgier brand of Japanese cinema like Irezumi, Inferno of Torture, Orgies of Edo, Giants and Toys, Shogun's Joy of Torture and Horrors of Malformed Men. Those who are keen know who they are. This is unquestionably calling for them. To each their own.

Gary Tooze