Last year, jaws were dropping in Minneapolis, New York, and Los Angeles during rare screenings of this Cinemascope camp mas terpiece from Japan. Based on a late-1920s novel by Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, it's jam-packed with blackmail, lesbianism, blood oaths, faked miscarriages, impotence, wanton desire, and suicide pacts. Manji is as shocking today as when it was first shown in Japan in the mid-1960s.

The film opens as Sonoko (Kyoko Kishida, Woman in the Dunes) confesses the details of the four-sided love affair that caused scandal throughout Japan. Having grown bored with her pampered life as the wife of an impotent lawyer, Sonoko enrolls in art school to pass the time. There she scandalizes the school with her lusty paintings of fellow art student Mitsuko.

An affair erupts between Sonoko and Mitsuko, fueling jealousy among their male lovers. Mitsuko's fiance Watanuki responds to the affair in a psychotic manner, while Sonoko's husband grows attracted to Mitsu ko as well. All of this attention brings out the worst in Mitsuko, causing her to test the dedication of all her admirers.

Don't miss this surprisingly explicit erot­ic potboiler!