Suffering of Ninko

Norihiro Niwatsukino’s debut feature is an erotic fable told with enormous visual panache, narrated by Qyoko Kudo in an amusingly deadpan oracular manner. Set during the Edo period, the film centers on Ninko (Masato Tsujioka), a handsome young monk at a remote Buddhist temple who is striving to fulfill the demands of his vocation. Unfortunately, he is irresistible to virtually everyone. That his fellow novices ogle him is bad enough, but his trips to the nearby village to beg for alms are even worse: the women fall over themselves to get near him, and riot when another monk is sent in his place. Bemoaning his fate, Ninko leaves the monastery, going into the wilderness to pray and undertake ascetic exercises, but he falls in with a cynical samurai. And the pair are enlisted by a village elder to do battle with a beautiful sorceress who has been systematically seducing the local men and sucking their life away. Niwatsukino invests this bizarre tale with great style: the live-action segments are elegantly staged (although the acting is sometimes amateurish), juxtaposed with elaborate animated sequences that mimic various Japanese art forms in depicting Ninko’s dreams and hallucinations, which feature much sexual content. Undoubtedly strange but also fascinating, Suffering of Ninko’s unique qualities make it a strong optional purchase for more adventurous collections. (F. Swietek)