Rampo Noir: Rivers of the Red Planet

The first six minutes of Rampo Noir (original title 乱歩地獄). This segment is based on Edogawa Rampo's surrealistic short story 火星の運河, "Rivers of the Red Planet" or "The Canals of Mars." The lack of sound is deliberate.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• art
• experimental
• japanese
• rampo
• jigoku
• tadanobu
• asano
• movie
• clip

[enkelien]

As for interpretation, evidence would indicate that Edogawa was a repressed homosexual himself. Here he explores the fantasy of being a woman, sexually desirable to men, but in the 'safe' context of "...and it was all a dream!" The movie takes it one step further; I interpreted the naked people as both aspects of himself at war, trying to crush out the feminine side that gives him so much grief. Look at their similarity, androgyny, and the lack of sexuality in the violence. (Just a theory.)

[enkelien]

Welllll, the naked people weren't in it originally. In the short story this is based on it's a dream sequence he's having, where the narrator wakes up in a strange forest and walks until he eventually comes to a pond. He looks at his reflection and realizes that he's a beautiful woman, which makes him wildly happy and he dances around and claws at himself until he bleeds. "Rivers of red" is the metaphor he puts to the blood as it runs down his body.

[osuushiza8]

@enkelien You have a deep train of thinking- I like your theories! When I had seen this, I took it that he was remembering that he and his love partner had fought to a point of death and he had awoken up and realized what he had done and was in grief, guilt, and shame. But that's what I thought- I never truly understood the concept of this first movie sequence...

[nmal777]

@enkelien

I think you're probably right. I've never been able to decipher what the story and the short film meant. Thanks!

[MadameDeces]

IS caterpillar here in y0utube? i'm l00king f0r it. I first saw RAmp0 n0ir in Crunchyr0ll... L0ve this

[blindwithanger]

This saying means what exactly?

[bacteriasleep]

music by ryoji ikeda

[watashiwanachodes]

i find myself frequently seeing things(movies,paintings,books)­that are given "interpretation" as the most correct form of showing apreciation(whether good or bad).And i allways remember what Valery said: that if art(or any kind of human expression)could be reduced to what could ever be said about it then, saying it the way they did (with music, in verses, or silent images) wasnt at all necessary.Then u should have put it the simplest way u could.But i think this movie is no waste of means.

[dapopper21]

Now i have a few questions about this...

1: Who are those naked people?

2: Why were they fighting in bed?

3: Is this on mars?

4: Why is it called "rivers of Mars"