Ninko
wants to know the sacred, not the profane. Unfortunately, he finds himself in
the Edo-era monastic Buddhist Carry On movie
Gerald Thomas never made. It is hard out there for a monk with inconveniently potent
animal magnetism, but he will take an ominous detour through Kwaidan territory
in Norihiro Niwatsukino’s terrifically inventive Suffering of Ninko (trailer here), which is
available for a limited time only on Festivalscope’s public-facing VOD platform.
Ninko’s
spirit is earnest and chaste, but his flesh is too darned tempting for women
(and also some men). Whenever he begs for alms, it creates bedlam on the
streets. That might sound great to some guys, but it is a nightmare for a
novice monk trying to hold up his end of the monastic duties. Eventually,
things get so chaotic, the abbot sends him away on a journey to level his
sexually charged karma.
To
cleanse himself, Ninko tries to avoid people, but he is still visited by erotically
charged dreams and visions. Disheartened and somewhat disoriented, the novice
starts to doubt his purpose. However, fate will bring him to a cursed village
terrorized by Yama-onno, a succubus-like goddess who seduces men, draining them
of their life force in the manner of a sexual vampire. A notorious ronin thinks
he has her number, but Ninko and his mojo would seem to match up better against
her.
Suffering is no mere bawdy
comedy, though it certainly never lacks for bare breasts. It is also rather
shockingly learned when it comes to Buddhist traditions. Visually, it is rich
and distinctive, augmenting the live action with animated segments stylistically
derived for woodblock prints and mandala paintings. Naturally, there are
hat-tips to classic Japanese ghost movies, but Niwatsukino clearly aims more
for caustic irony than horror, per se.