Ten Women in Black

Let’s face it, women are way more interesting cinematically than men. There’s an internal dialogue and range of emotions that makes for complex, layered storytelling . Meanwhile, guys are firing guns in slow-motion and daydreaming about ancient Rome. I might be exaggerating for effect…but not by much. Which is why when women finally get a chance to lay their cards on the table, as in 1961’s Ten Women in Black, you can count on them to bring up the subjects everyone else is avoiding.

Kaze Futaba is a serial philanderer with a wife and at least ten mistresses that he can recall. The women are all well aware of each other’s existence and their pecking order in his casual affairs. So they playfully agree to have him killed so none of them have to share. But when one of their number pulls a fast one, Kaze might wind up facing a fate worse than death.

Directed by Kon Ichikawa but written by his wife under her professional name, Natto Wada, Ten Women in Black is far too attuned to the female condition to have been the creation of anything but the fairer sex. Peeling back the inner lives of each of its suspects/victims through flashback, the film turns its high concept murder mystery set-up into a darkly comic portrait of female resentment. The push-pull of a professional career versus the traditional appeal of domestic bliss is at the heart of Wada’s story, but she never makes the choice quite that simple.

The dialogue can get theatrical and stagnant at times. But what makes the film work is that Wada’s script never reduces the women to a single pack of feminist resentment—or Kaze to a complete inconsiderate monster. Each has her own reasons for tolerating him, her own idea of what she deserves, and her own limit for humiliation. The plot provides a common purpose and 9 to 5-style fantasy outlet, but it also exposes the competition and little betrayals that were there all along. By the end, Ten Women in Black has become less about whether Kaze gets what’s coming to him…and more about whether any of these women can get what they actually want.

This 4K restoration makes its world premiere on Blu-ray from Radiance Films, special features include a feature-length documentary on Ichikawa and Wada plus a new interview with Japanese musician Yasuharu Konishi whose revival screening gave the film a second life. Trailers, new subtitles, liner notes and reversible artwork are also included.