Uploaded September 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
THE TRAP
japansociety.org/film/so-as-to-dream-eternal-mysteries-of-kaizo-hayashi
『罠』
Wana
International Premiere of 4K Restoration. The ominous final chapter of Hayashi’s trilogy opens in a promising light as Maiku has turned a new corner: business is booming, his sister’s been accepted into college, and he’s in love for once with the mute and angelic Yuriko (Yui Natsukawa, Still Walking). However, a brooding prologue suggests otherwise as Hayashi’s love story is countervailed by a new terror when a series of serial killings, all connected to a disquieting figure with a masked visage, begins to instill fear in Yokohama. Young women have been found dead, injected with poison and left as “sleeping beauties”—dressed up with tranquil countenances while accompanied by the faint redolence of woodland fragrance. Sharing DNA with some of Dario Argento’s most outré gialli and possessing a nihilistic edge influenced by the contemporaneous Aum Shinrikyo attacks, Hayashi’s harrowing finale spins a hallucinatory descent into darkness as Maiku finds himself assailed by a frightening opponent deep within the bowels of the city.
Dir. Kaizo Hayashi, 1996, 106 min., DCP, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Masatoshi Nagase, Yui Natsukawa, Kiyotaka Nanbara, Tetta Sugimoto.
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THE TRAP
japansociety.org/film/so-as-to-dream-eternal-mysteries-of-kaizo-hayashi
『罠』
Wana
International Premiere of 4K Restoration. The ominous final chapter of Hayashi’s trilogy opens in a promising light as Maiku has turned a new corner: business is booming, his sister’s been accepted into college, and he’s in love for once with the mute and angelic Yuriko (Yui Natsukawa, Still Walking). However, a brooding prologue suggests otherwise as Hayashi’s love story is countervailed by a new terror when a series of serial killings, all connected to a disquieting figure with a masked visage, begins to instill fear in Yokohama. Young women have been found dead, injected with poison and left as “sleeping beauties”—dressed up with tranquil countenances while accompanied by the faint redolence of woodland fragrance. Sharing DNA with some of Dario Argento’s most outré gialli and possessing a nihilistic edge influenced by the contemporaneous Aum Shinrikyo attacks, Hayashi’s harrowing finale spins a hallucinatory descent into darkness as Maiku finds himself assailed by a frightening opponent deep within the bowels of the city.
Dir. Kaizo Hayashi, 1996, 106 min., DCP, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Masatoshi Nagase, Yui Natsukawa, Kiyotaka Nanbara, Tetta Sugimoto.
------
Visit: japansociety.org/events-and-exhibitions
Like: facebook.com/japansociety
Follow: instagram.com/japansociety
Watch: youtube.com/user/JapanSocietyNYC
Join: japansociety.org/join-support/become-a-member
Learn: japansociety.org/language-center
