A send-up of the murder thriller-and a wonderful, black-comic skewering of Japanese male chauvinism, the sanctity of the family, and television-this is a true rediscovery, not only here but in Japan where it was recently rereleased to great acclaim. The premise is a kind of Agatha Christie does I Love Lucy: A married man, a television producer, has nine mistresses, each of whom wants him to herself, but one by one tiring of his weakness and self-absorption. (Unlimited sexual license has emasculated the Japanese male, they argue. Certainly, a less deserving fellow has never lived, but this one has some of Japan's most glamorous stars in his stable, from Fujiko Yamamoto to Keiko Kishi!) A plot is hatched to murder the guy, with the aid of his put-upon wife-herself a bit of a trickster. "Ichikawa has great fun playing with genre," writes James Quandt. "Ten Dark Women seems ultra-contemporary in its concerns."