Odd Obsession (1959) User Reviews

An interesting take on the novel

[afontanilla · 7/10 · 6 May 2006]

The movie is about an elderly Japanese man who is sexually obsessed. He is getting shots from his doctor so that he can continue to have an active sex life with his beautiful wife. (In those days they did not have Viagra.) He wants to feel young and sexually excited. He has discovered that jealousy is one way to obtain this feeling. So he tries to get the young doctor interested in his wife by doing such things as getting them drunk together and having the doctor develop naked pictures of her. The doctor is already involved with the family's daughter, but she is not nearly as physically attractive as the mother.

This is a movie based on the novel "The Key" by Tanizaki Jun'ichiro. I have read the English translation and can say that the changes which have been made serve to help the adaptation work on the screen.

Overall it is an entertaining film. The ending differs from the book somewhat and I found it to be quite comical.

A real oddity

[rdoyle29 · 7/10 · 14 October 2017]

Ganjirô Nakamura is getting older and feels his sexual potency slipping away. He seeks the advice of doctor Tatsuya Nakadai, his daughter's boy friend. Rather than follow his medical advice, he pushes Nakadai towards his own wife since the jealousy makes him feel young and potent. This really odd little film sets up a love quadrangle and ends tragically, as expected, but with none of the consequences being quite what you'd expect. Not among Kon Ichikawa's best, but a real perverse oddity in his catalog.

strange!!!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 17 July 2005]

This is one of the weirder Japanese movies I've seen (though not nearly as weird as my favorite, HAPPINESS OF KATAKURIS) and not exactly a comedy. The lead is an older male who is having impotency problems. So, he receives injections (more about that later) and gets his sexual satisfaction drugging his wife and photographing her nude or putting her in intimate situations with a young doctor (they don't have sex, but the old guy enjoys feeling jealous of them--it makes him feel younger). Unfortunately, the old guy is REALLY sick and dies after watching his wife strip for him. Then, in an odd twist of fate, the wife, the doctor and the old man's odd daughter all accidentally ingest poison and die! Well, not all of it was accidental--the daughter put poison in her mom's tea because she was jealous of the relationship between the doctor and the mother. Too weird!

Although I guess I liked it (just because it dared to be so different) it is not a movie I would rush out to watch. Another problem is that the version from The International Collection has crappy dubbing. In the prologue to the movie, the doctor must talk for about 5 minutes and NONE of it was subtitled--what he said is completely beyond anyone who doesn't speak Japanese. Also, the material is VERY sexually charged (though there is no nudity in the film) but they talk so cryptically about the impotence I had a strong feeling either the people that did the subtitles left A LOT out or perhaps the movie was originally very cryptic. For example, we have no injections what sort of injections the old man gets or why it's BAD that he's been getting them so often. I was just baffled.

Well directed, visual.. but with lousy end

[jaakkochan · 20 June 2002]

Personally I was disappointed to this since I expected so much from it since I've read the book by Junichiro Tanizaki, which was very unique and great. The characters are seen too dark and sick way in this movie, and viewer can't really emphatize much with them. This alone, makes it fight against the very idea of the original masterpiece of Tanizaki. In addition, the characters are different than described in the book. Especially Kenji's wife Ikuko is much younger than in the book, which steers the movie already out from the right path. In addition, Kimura's character is seen too selfish. Also, the refer to key, which "kagi" means, is somewhat superficial and synthetic. The original book was written through the couple's diaries which offered much more depth to the characters, and allowed person to get inside their heads. The movie tries just shock people, which it really does. Another surprising thing is that the movie was rated K16 here in Finland. May I ask why?? The strong visual content instead makes this movie work, and was the reason why I bothered myself to rate this here in IMDB. It's really well made, and the visual cutting brings up emotions very efficiently. In today's movie, this wouldn't work, but when we think that this was made in '59 it's somewhat interesting. Also, actors do proper job. For all those who have read the book, you might be disappointed to this movie. Others, I can recommend with reservation.

Downright bizarre

[mollytinkers · 6/10 · 2 August 2023]

It's difficult to review this film because I'm left feeling unsatisfied, and contrary to other reviews, it's not because of the ending. Strangely enough, I actually liked the ending.

The storyline is simply and truly strange. I'm never read the source material, so I can't comment on the screenplay's authenticity as an adaptation. The mood of the film, to me, is a combination of perversity, dysfunction, and a weird sense of expressionism. It moves slowly and deliberately, yet it managed to hold my attention until the very end.

The cast does a fine job. Unfortunately, that alone is not enough to motivate me to watch it again. If you're a fan of the eclectic, especially if it's 20th century Japanese cinema, you might find this one worth watching at least once. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend it.

Not Ichikawa's best

[tony-70-667920 · 5/10 · 5 February 2017]

I've admired other Ichikawa films, particularly "Alone on the Pacific" and "Fires on the Plains." With the possible exception of Klimov's "Come and See" the latter is the most harrowing war film I've ever seen. However, I couldn't get on with "Odd Obsession,"and can't understand why it won awards. I saw it many years ago, and foolishly tried it again last night. I kept falling asleep: it's a legitimate form of criticism and no, I hadn't been drinking. The film starts with Tatsuya Nakadai (star of many Japanese classics), as Dr. Kimura, detailing how humans decline over the years. He points straight at the camera and says this decrepitude will come to us all, so you know this film is going to be different. The doctor is giving an old man injections to treat his impotence (no Viagra in those days), and the old boy invites him to his home, hoping that the doctor, who's already involved with his daughter, will dally with his young wife. The idea is that jealousy will revive his flagging libido. One problem is that while the male actors are interesting, the women are not. I don't know why, from a land with so many exquisite and enchanting actresses, Ichikawa chose two puddings, with particularly unfortunate eyebrows. I don't know the younger one, but Machiko Kyo (from "Rashomon" and "Teahouse of the August Moon") was normally attractive. The old man has high blood pressure, and the wife seems intent on finishing him off by over-exciting him, so maybe Ichikawa made her look ugly to mirror the ugliness inside the character. Another problem was Japanese inscrutability. Nobody seemed passionate about, or even very interested in, anyone else. It was hard to see why the doctor went along with their games. The son of a fisherman, he was young, handsome and ambitious, so why did he bother with two women with neither beauty or money? (the old man had reputation but no means.)

I did not care for the ending too much

[jordondave-28085 · 4/10 · 24 July 2023]

(1959) Odd Obsession/ Kagi (In Japanese with English subtitles) PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER

Adapted from the novel by Jun'ichirô Tanizaki co-written and directed by Kon Ichikawa that has elder patient, Kenji (Ganjirô Nakamura) attempting to entice Dr. Kimura (Tatsuya Nakadai) to visit him more often for the purpose of him being aroused. Kenji does this by attempting to tempt Dr. Kimura by exposing his wife,Ikuko (Machiko Kyô) to him despite him going out with their only daughter, Toshiko (Junko Kanô). The ending was baffling and that I did not care for it despite it being faithful to the source material.