Another aesthetic triumph of obsession from the accomplished director of "Blind Beast" and "The Razor 2: The Snare" -- to name only two of his 60+ films.

It is a tale of love gone mad, a visually sumptuous melodrama told in flashback by Kyoko Kashida, who plays a bored, cashed-up wife (Sonoko) who falls hard for the beautiful, manipulative, engaged Mitsuko (Ayako Wakao). Her fanatical love and jealousy create massive fissures in her marriage, even triggering unpredictable, outrageous changes in her husband Eijiro (Yasuke Kawazu).

The soap opera-like machinations of what, for a time, is a quadrangle of love and possession, are fascinating to witness thanks to the solid, audacious screenplay from writer Kaneto Shindo, the director and writer of the classic "Onibaba".

Some visual passages of the film -- bodies shot through rippling fabric, shadows dancing on flesh, restrained, delicate love scenes of steamy eroticism, the use of an elegant score -- made me think that the film probably influenced the look and tone of Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai's "In The Mood For Love".

The love of "Manji" is a doomed, impossible ideal that can not exist in harmony with anything else. Director Masumura adheres strictly to this viewpoint until the final, tragic revelation.

Within his large body of work, the noted Japanese novelist Tanizaki Junichirou became renowned for the pure sensuality and eroticism. In "A Portrait of Shunkin the servant of a blind samisen player blinds himself when his mistress's face is marred. In "The Bridge of Dreams" a young man is told by his father to accept his new stepmother as his own and he goes as far as to nurse at her breasts and in "Mr. Bluemound a man goes as far as to create perfect reproductions of a man's wife, including such bodily excretions as mucus and feces. However, one of Tanizaki's most famous, or infamous, creations is that of Naomi, a novel about a modern girl with Eurasian features who wields control over the men in her life with her beauty. The story this film is based on is similar to Naomi, however, instead of seducing only the husband, the wife is seduced as well. Actually this is incorrect, because the wife is actually seduced before the husband.

The film opens with Kakiuchi Sonoko, Kishida Kyoko, visiting the home of a writer stating that she wishes that she was a better writer so she could write out her experiences for him in novel form. She then begins to tell him of her stormy affair with the statuesque Tokumitsu Mitsuko. Already infatuated with Mitsuko, rumors begin to spread around the Woman's school Sonoko attends that she is having an affair with Mitsuko. Finally getting a chance to talk to Mitsuko, the two women decide to become the best of friends instead of keeping their distance from each other. After Sonoko shows her a portrait she drew of her as the Goddess of Mercy, Mitsuko states that it does not look exactly like her. Sonoko then asks the beautiful woman if it would be okay for her to paint her in the nude. Mitsuko agrees and sometime later goes to Sonoko's home and disrobes herself and covers herself with a sheet. Infatuated with the idea of seeing Mitsuko's completely nude body, Sonoko rips off the sheet revealing Mitsuko's flesh and so begins there affair.

Things seem to be going well at first, despite Sonoko's husband becoming more and more suspicious of Sonoko's relationship with Mitsuko, but one night Mitsuko calls Sonoko and asks her to bring her some clothes. Not only clothes for herself, but some clothes for a man as well. It is that night that Sonoko learns that Mitsuko has a fiancé named Watanuki. Wanting to break off the relationship, Sonoko promises her husband that she will be completely true to him, but soon Mitsuko comes back into her life and the life of her husband as well.

The first of three filmic versions of Tanizaki's story, the second came out in 1983 and a latest having been released this year, the 1964 version of Manji succeeds on a few levels despite a rather shaky plot. The love making scenes are handled very well by showing plenty of flesh without showing the naughty bits and the bare skin his highlighted by juxtapositions of light and shadow. Also, Kishida Kyoko, who played the woman in Woman of the Dunes, does a truly astounding job of acting. While some of his other films might be better known, Masumura's Manji shows the work of a truly original filmmaker.

If I can make a Hollywood reference for Manji, I'd suggest it's a little bit like Closer, except that it's a lot more intense with its expressions of love and lust, and extremely manipulative characteristics built into its four lead characters, each faced with selfish desires and dilemmas, centred around things like blackmail, suicide pacts and adultery.

Housewife Sonoko Kakiuchi (Kyoko Kishida) narrates her tale to a stern looking man (A cop? A biographer? A shrink even?) who maintains his silence throughout that it seemed a little creepy. From nowhere in her account of her tale did this chap feature in it, so one can only wonder that he must be someone significant enough to warrant her to spill the beans to.

Being victims of art school gossip, Sonoko and Mitsuko (Ayako Wakao),the pretty daughter of a wealthy industrialist and a fellow student in Sonoko's school, decide to take one step forward in killing off malicious talk, and that is to play along to make it all seem real to quash delight in talking behind someone's back. A short trip to Nara later, and the duo seem to have clicked and hit it off like best pals with common interests.

Soon their friendship ventured into some crazed sexual obsession, especially when Mitsuko's model looks and figure drive Sonoko wild with envy and strange desire, paving the way for some lesbian moments. And as if their passion for each other isn't enough, soon they are joined by Kotaro (Riji Funakoshi),Sonoko's questioning husband, and Watanuki (Yusuke Kawazi) the clingy fiancé of Mitsuko. Various threesome relationships soon start to form, with credit going to magic powder that contributed to blending reality and fantasy, and Sonoko and Watanuki engaging in a blood pact of sorts in a strange ritual to possess their object of desire in Mitsuko to themselves.

For all the characters' cunningness, especially in master manipulator Mitsuko and the equally shady Watanuki, I was half expecting some of its plot elements to venture into a more conventional, and material blackmail and ruin with contracts so casually signed and sealed (in blood),but I guess director-in-focus for the festival Yasuzo Masumura had other ideas, opting for the psychological and the emotional turmoil that each of the characters face. There's this tremendous trust-mistrust emotional ping pong that the characters go through which will keep you constantly questioning and probing their intent and hidden agendas. To me the actual highlight is exactly these mind games the four characters play, the tussle to gain upper ground to fulfil their personal wants, brought to life excellently by the actors themselves that will keep you engaged all the way to the finale.

For those looking forward to its exploitative moments, this is not that film. Comparing it to its genre peers, Manji seemed a little tame, where sexual acts are mostly implied and nudity falling victim to strategic cover-ups. I suppose that the lip locks too didn't actually happen and had to rely on camera angles, and body doubles aptly used in the gazing of the naked flesh. But then, the largest sexual organ is firmly in top gear here, not as a stimulant but as a weapon in coming up with conniving schemes to gain the upper hand, which in itself is a horrific thought since we are all innately capable of falling prey to temptation enough to design plans that hurt.

The festival films thus far had steered clear of the more conventional thought of the themes presented, and clearly it's an eye opener as to how many more films could fit into the themes in an unorthodox way. One thing though, from last night's screening and today's, artists or artists wannabe have been shown as souls willing to engage in deviant acts in the name of their art, and more so too in satisfying their strange fetishes. I look forward to see what more is in store in the subsequent screenings!