Watching Murderous instincts in a slightly befuddled post-op state might actually have been all for the best. This is an experimental film with very little plot. I am not sure if I liked it or not. On the one hand: it is the type of movie that puts its female characters through misery and degradation, while the men in the movie are portrayed as pathetically jealous and cruel. On the other hand, cruelty, rather than being fetishized by the director, is situated in the struggles of social reality. This is not a film that glorifies family life, and it doesn't romanticize "traditional roles" either.
Shohei Imamura, by whom I have previously only seen The Eel, is not known for making light comedies. Murderous instincts is visually stunning. In some scenes, the camera twirls around the setting, while in other, it remains coldly static. I was impressed with how Imamura builds most frames around some "disturbance". The human face is very rarely the centre of the image. Imamura, like many other directors of that time, explores the changes of modern society. Here, as in many other films from that period, the train grows into a symbol of a society which is not what is has been.
I am aware that I can't do justice to this film right now. It's a film that requires several viewings. So much is going on. The use of narrative & the style of cinematography is thought-provoking, and there are some scenes that I'd like to watch again to let them sink in.
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