The basic premise of the film is a wife who appears to have amputated her husband's arms and legs in order to save him from going to war. This film has an edge that the first two segments are sorely missing. Caterpillar is the third and, in many ways, most successful of the films at pushing the envelope. The segment is saved by some arresting photography and a wonderfully kinky sex scene between Azusa and Toru, which involves a lot of rope and candle wax. The film is not particularly riveting and some of the special effects are clumsy and not very convincing. Mirror Hell is a mystery about a mirror that has the nasty habit of burning off faces. For starters, it has sound and a narrative. The next segment, Mirror Hell, is an improvement. Even the French would be embarrassed by this exercise in pretension. I'm sure there was a deep philosophical reason behind this but I was basically too bored to bother considering what it might be. The film is silent and partly shown in slow motion. A naked man running towards a lake is inter-cut with a naked couple wrestling. The first of the four films sums up everything that is wrong with the project. Rampo Noir is not a great film but it is an interesting addition to the very small genre of 'arthouse horror'. Despite these shortcomings, the film does offer its fair share of pleasures - stunning visuals, black comedy and a large dose of Japanese weirdness. Rampo Noir is widely uneven, painfully pretentious and at least half an hour too long.

Rampo Noir is a collection of 4 short films based on stories by Edogawa Rampo, the so-called 'Japanese Edgar Allen Poe'.

D坂の殺人事件〈乱歩傑作選〉 by Edogawa Rampo