![]() ![]() Still, despite my quibbles, Caterpillar is well worth seeing. This movie passed up a chance to become an erotic (and anti-war) classic in its well-intentioned attempt to have it both ways. To the shame of Japanese cinema, we have so few movies which depict Japanese brutalities committed during the war, compared with the slew of movies showing Japanese citizens as the victims of war-the atomic bombings, the fire-bombings of Tokyo, etc. Don’t get me wrong: the director’s intention was good. We had no need to be bludgeoned to death with scenes juxtaposing the soldier’s present helplessness with the helplessness of the Chinese women he raped and killed. What greater symbol of the brutality of war than a man reduced to a grotesque “caterpillar,” begging his wife with his eyes for the only pleasure left to him (besides eating and sleeping): sex, sex, and more sex. The anti-war message is inherent in the story itself. For me, the story is an SM classic, so I was looking forward to seeing some hot sex scenes, especially after the news broke last year that Terajima Shinobu, who plays the wife in the movie, had won the best actress award at the Berlin Film festival for her part.Īlas, the director decided to play up the anti-war aspect of the story, downplaying the SM. Rampo’s story focuses on the woman’s awakening sadism, and her savage joy in getting her revenge upon the now helpless man who once used to treat her cruelly. The film is based on a short story of the same name by Edogawa Rampo, about a woman whose husband comes back from the war without his arms and legs, and minus the ability to speak or hear. I was somewhat disappointed by the 2010 movie, Caterpillar, directed by Wakamatsu Koji.
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