Odd Obsession (Kagi, The Key)

Another extraordinary collaboration of cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa (whose work we highlighted, with a personal appearance by Miyagawa, in March) and director Kon Ichikawa, Odd Obsession delves into the unusual sexual relationship of a middle-aged Kyoto couple as it intersects with that of their daughter and her fiancé. Donald Richie calls Odd Obsession "a new interpretation of the love-death theme, in which some of the most sordid of human actions are captured by means of the sheerest physical beauty. "Eroticism is omnipresent, though not in the scented variety.... Erotic obsession is presented with such near-claustrophobic intensity that one longs for outdoor scenes, anything to get away from that dark and keyholed and magnificently photographed house. Yet this quality accounts for the power...: the spectator is made a participant. Although all the principals know at least as much as the viewer... everything is hidden, secreted away. The film becomes remarkably suggestive, as one double meaning follows another...."

This page may by only partially complete.