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

ADDITION: 88 Films Blu-ray (March 2025): 88 Films have transferred Noboru Tanaka's Watcher in the Attic to Blu-ray. It is on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate. Shot in color on 35mm by Masaru Mori (same DP as Assault! Jack the Ripper), it’s got a vivid, decadent look - Taishō-era decadence meets pinku grit. The palette leans into warm, muted tones - earthy browns, golds, and subtle greens - punctuated by bold splashes of red (lipstick, costumes) and shadowy blues. It’s got that mid-70s Nikkatsu polish - slightly grainy but sharp enough, and darker - a step above the studio’s cheaper outings. The 1080P exports the film in a pleasing, clean and consistent HD presentation.

NOTE: We have added 82 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, 88 Films use a linear PCM dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original Japanese language. Watcher in the Attic has few modestly aggressive moments - poisoning and a quite suffocation with a more intense earthquake climax. The sparse and eclectic score was by Jiro Sarashina - sometimes credited as Jiro Sarashina or Sarashina Jiro in Japanese sources. His full bio is thin. The contribution is a subtle, atmospheric gem that enhances the film’s unsettling vibe - identifying it is Edogawa Rampo and amplifying the ero-guro. There are traditional Japanese tones and minimalist ambiance, fitting the film’s 1923 Taishō-era Tokyo setting. The audio is clear and clean in the uncompressed transfer. 88 Films offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'B'-locked Blu-ray.

The 88 Films Blu-ray offers a commentary by Amber T. and Jasper Sharp (Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema, The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film.) Sharp brings deep historical heft - he’s curated pinku eiga releases including an earlier Watcher in the Attic commentary in 2009. Amber T. adds a livelier, modern-fan perspective, balancing Sharp’s academic vibe. They track Edogawa Rampo’s ero-guro tales, and Nikkatsu’s Roman Porno link, the "fetishistic" peephole shots and the unapologetic sex-and-death kink that gets framed as genre DNA. They are excellent together and this is worth the indulgence. The analysis makes for superior film viewings. Also included is Who’s Watching Who? that spends 9-minutes with Hisayasu Sato ("Caterpillar") on Watcher In The Attic. Lastly are a stills gallery and trailer.  

Noboru Tanaka's Watcher in the Attic is a twisted, voyeuristic tale set in 1923 Tokyo, based on a story by Edogawa Rampo, Japan’s master of ero-guro (erotic grotesque) - see our reviews of Rampo Noir, Horrors Of Malformed Men, Blind Beast, and Blind Woman's Curse. Junko Miyashita (celebrated career as the "Queen of Nikkatsu Roman Porno" launched by Apartment Wife: Affair in the Afternoon) stars as Lady Minako, a bored, wealthy widow running a run-down boarding house filled with oddballs - a priest with a confession fetish, a woman into bestiality, and a chauffeur hiding in a chair to feel Minako sit on him. Renji Ishibashi (Shohei Imamura's Profound Desire of the Gods and over 200 Japanese film and TV credits) plays Saburo Gōda, a tenant who crawls through the attic, spying on everyone through peepholes he's drilled. One day, he catches Minako strangling a clown lover mid-cunnilingus, knowing he’s watching. This flips a switch - Gōda’s smitten, convinced she’s his soulmate. He ups the ante, poisoning a priest through the ceiling, sparking a grotesque murder spree between them. The boarding house, run by Lady Minako is a crumbling relic of Taishō opulence - tatami mats, sliding doors, and ornate furniture - all filmed in tight, claustrophobic frames that trap you with the weirdos inside. While not rife with nudity - the perversion is on full tilt. I preferred Watcher in the Attic to the more graphic, envelope-pushing, Assault! Jack the Ripper. Edogawa Rampo fans will be interested in this 88 Films Blu-ray - it looks and sounds consistently strong, offers another expert commentary and a filmmaker video piece. This one is certainly worth a spin or two to the right crowd. I'm going to have to check out more films with the magnetic screen presence, physical expressiveness and emotional depth of Junko Miyashita. Perhaps A Woman Called Sada Abe if it ever reaches Blu-ray. She balances Nikkatsu’s sleaze with real craft and class. Fans dub her "pink film royalty" for a reason: she turned softcore into something... haunting.

Gary Tooze