The Spider Tattoo

Play trailer

The Spider Tattoo

1966

1h 26m

Drama

Play Trailer

Watchlist

Watchlist

Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

Tomatometer

4 Reviews

83%

Popcornmeter

50+ Ratings

A seductive woman is kidnapped and forced into prostitution. After getting a spider tattoo, she grows vengeful on the men who mistreat her.

Grant Watson

Fiction Machine

This is a film dominated by betrayal and moral compromise.

Rated: 8/10

Oct 25, 2023

Full Review

Pieter-Jan Van Haecke

Psychocinematography

With Irezumi, Masamura delivers a phenomenal narrative, a true post-war classic.

Nov 10, 2021

Full Review

Kathy Fennessy

Video Librarian Magazine

Cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa (Rashomon, Sansho the Bailiff) makes artful use of color, particularly the vibrant reds of Otsuya's increasingly elaborate kimonos.

Rated: 3.5/4

Aug 11, 2021

Full Review

Douglas Davidson

Elements of Madness

Long before Promising Young Woman (2020) or I Spit on Your Grave (1978), this female-centric revenge tale ... should serve as a warning to all men who perceive others as sexual objects they can possess: those you look down upon may just be your end.

Jun 29, 2021

Full Review

Read all reviews

Lily R

Great Japanese movie!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

11/02/25

Full Review

Madoka A

Fantastic movie. Love old Japanese films like this

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

11/02/25

Full Review

Laura S

Great movie. About a spider tattoo that haunt's people. Terrified me.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

11/02/25

Full Review

Abro A

Fantastic movie. Makes you feel like that spider tattoo is become apart of you as well. I really enjoyed this!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

11/02/25

Full Review

william d

I liked the movie's concept but disliked the execution. There are some weak plot points, the fight scenes appear phony and staged, and there is a lot of lame dialog. On the plus side, Ayako Wakao gives an impressive performance.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Based on Junichiro Tanizaki's story Shisei (The Tattooist), Yasuzô Masumura's (Black Test Car) tells the story of Otsuya and Shinsuke. She's the daughter of a rich merchant who is tempted by her father's employee to elope before they're caught by an inn keeper. Now sold into prostitution, she's given a tattoo by Seikichi, a master artist, of a human-faced spider. Her pale skin has created the perfect canvas for him, but now she's been marked as the property of another man. As she and Shinsuke seek to escape their lives, all manner of horror follows, with the face of the spider changing — and Otsuya herself — with each act and each man who comes her way must pay. Masumura and his muse Ayako Wakao, who plays Otsuya, made several films together, yet this film is the first of theirs I've seen. It's a woman getting revenge feature. Yet while the film makes you wonder at first if it's the tattoo or the woman doing all of the murder, by the end, the answer becomes clear.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Read More

Read Less

POST RATING

WRITE A REVIEW

EDIT REVIEW

Yasuzo Masumura

Director

Ayako Wakao

Otsuya

Akio Hasegawa

Shinsuke

Gaku Yamamoto

Tattoo artist Seikichi

Kei Satô

Hatamoto Serizawa

Reiko Fujiwara

Otaki

View more photos

Synopsis

A seductive woman is kidnapped and forced into prostitution. After getting a spider tattoo, she grows vengeful on the men who mistreat her.

Director: Yasuzo Masumura
Producer: Hiroaki Fujii
Screenwriter: Kaneto Shindô
Production Co: Daiei Motion Picture Company
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Japanese
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 25, 2018
Runtime: 1h 26m

Most Popular at Home Now