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Rampo

R 1994 1h 40m Mystery & Thriller List
Reviews 69% Audience Score 250+ Ratings Legendary Japanese writer Rampo Edogawa (Naoto Takenaka) finds the government censoring one of his stories. Should the story be published, they say, the public may suffer from great shock and injury. But then Rampo reads a news article that conforms to the details of his story, which involves a murder investigation surrounding a woman (Michiko Hada) whose husband is found dead in a trunk. Once Rampo contacts this woman, his imagination seeps into reality and quickly overtakes it. Read More Read Less

Critics Reviews

View All (4) Critics Reviews
Joey O'Bryan Austin Chronicle Rated: 4/5 Jan 1, 2000 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Puffed up with lots of pretense. Rated: C+ Oct 30, 2003 Full Review Jeanne Aufmuth Palo Alto Weekly Rated: 2/4 May 14, 2003 Full Review Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat Spirituality & Practice Explores the delights and dangers of creativity, fantasy, and desire. Aug 30, 2002 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (5) audience reviews
William L Essentially the bargain-bin version of Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, adapted for the life story of Japanese mystery author Edogawa Rampo; a celebration of an artistic spirit's creativity as told through a blending of reality and fantasy where one is not sure where one ends and the other begins. However, where the Paul Schrader film is a fascinating mix of a character's experience, ideology, and artistic vision, Rampo feels much more rough-edged and jagged, with the details of the author's life contrasting rather than complementing the more twisted elements of his literature that were censored for some time by the Japanese state. Interesting premise, but lacking in uniformity and not really cohesive. But I did learn that there was a famed Japanese mystery author who adopted a pen name intended to be a funny play on Edgar Allan Poe's name, so that's a plus. Go on, say 'Edogawa Rampo' three times fast. (2.5/5) Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 04/29/22 Full Review Audience Member Great movie Beautiful movie Favorite Rated 5 out of 5 stars 11/30/20 Full Review Audience Member Elegance and Decadence beneath a brilliant moon!! Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Audience Member Odd film from Japan about a famous mystery author who write a recent book that gets banned because of its eroticism. Of course, the book hasn't been published and yet a person is soon found dead based on what he wrote. That's really not the point of the film, in fact, it goes kind of all over the place. This had a lot of ups and downs, the beginning was excellent with a very cool animated sequence of his newest book. And about halfway through his new mystery idea is played out for about 30 minutes or so. But the last 15 minutes of the film are completely over the top and too trippy, it doesn't really work. THe music was excellent and I really loved a lot of the sequences in the second half of hte film, but overall it was just so so. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Audience Member (****): [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon14.gif[/img] A strange masterwork. I got truly involved and just loved mystery/film noir atmosphere that was created. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/01/08 Full Review Read all reviews
Rampo

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis Legendary Japanese writer Rampo Edogawa (Naoto Takenaka) finds the government censoring one of his stories. Should the story be published, they say, the public may suffer from great shock and injury. But then Rampo reads a news article that conforms to the details of his story, which involves a murder investigation surrounding a woman (Michiko Hada) whose husband is found dead in a trunk. Once Rampo contacts this woman, his imagination seeps into reality and quickly overtakes it.
Director
Kazuyoshi Okuyama
Producer
Yoshinobu Nishioka, Yoshihisa Nakagawa
Rating
R
Genre
Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
Japanese
Box Office (Gross USA)
$280.7K
Runtime
1h 40m