“King of Cult” Teruo Ishii (Horrors of Malformed Men, Shogun’s Joy of Torture) shares four stories of real-life crimes of passion involving women throughout Japan’s history, including the Hotel Nihonkaku Murders; Oden Takahash, the poison wife and last woman to be executed by beheading in Japan; serial killer Yoshio Kodaira and Sada Abe, whose story was also told in Nagisa Oshima’s In the Realm of the Senses.

This is one of seven movies that Ishii made in 1969 (Horrors of Malformed Men, Yakuza Law, Inferno of Torture, Rising Dragon’s Iron Flesh, Shameless: Abnormal and Abusive Love and Orgies of Edo are the others), yet he doesn’t feel tired. If anything, this is a fully formed and intense mission statement on the nature of female evil.

Forensics examiner Dr. Murase (Teruo Yoshida) is shocked that the next body he is to perform an autopsy on is his wife, Yukiko, who had sex with another man before taking her own life. As he ponders this, he reflects on four true crime stories.

Toyokaku Inn Case is based on a 1961 incident. Chiyu Saito (Mitsuko Aoi) and her husband Kosuke (Kenjirô Ishiyama) may own a hotel together, yet she sees him so infrequently that she assumes that he’s having an affair. She’s right, as it’s the very same woman, Kinue Munakata (Rika Fujie), whom she has been confiding in. She and Kosuke conspire to murder Chiyu, along with Kinue’s faithful lover, Shibuya (Takashi Fujiki). Now the owner of the hotel, she makes it successful, but not without many more killings.

You probably know the Sada Abe story, which happened in 1936, as she was found wandering the streets covered in blood, clutching the genitals of her dead lover. What you may not know is how horrible her life was to that point. Played by Yukie Kagawa, we see how her childhood and teen years led her to, well, cutting off a man’s dick. We also meet several other women who’ve done the same, as well as Dr. Murase — in a moment of meta madness — meeting the actual Sada Abe, who disappeared soon after this. She tells him that we only truly love one person in our lives and that her lover asked to be killed.

Taking a break from women, the third story is about serial killer Yoshio Kodaira (Asao Koike). Shot in black and white, this gets grimy, as we see him set up, assault, kill and maybe even assault after death several women. This is all so the doctor can ask if women make men crazy. Come on, 1969 exploitation Japanese violence movie, be more faithful to our 2025 values.

Takahashi Oden (Teruko Yumi) doesn’t want to marry the man she’s been picked to be the wife of, Naminosuke (Shin’ichirô Hayashi). In just ten minutes or so, he gets leprosy, keeps making love to her, she gets a criminal lover, they kill the husband, and then she’s sold into sexual slavery before being beheaded. Wow.

Obviously, this won’t be a movie for everyone, but if you want to see how far ahead Japan was, both in depicting true crime and lusty tales of sex, murder and violence, this is here for you.

Released for the very first time outside Japan by 88 Films, this has audio commentary by Jasper Sharp and Amber T., a new introduction by Mark Schilling, a stills gallery, a trailer and original and new artwork by Ilan Sheady. There’s also a limited edition numbered OBI strip and booklet. You can order it from MVD.