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A long time ago, Taro (Shintaro Katsu) has been a member of the ruling
class, but when fights between the North and the South emperor broke out,
he found himself between the lines, and since he needed to get away from
his wife Kaede (Hideko Takamine) too to be with his girlfriend Aizen
(Michiyo Aratama), he hid out in an abandoned temple in the middle of
nowhere. From time to time, he raids the neighbourhood to steal what he
needs to support himself and Aizen, and he has become a notorious bandit
in the process. Eventually, and out of nowhere, Kaede shows up at his
place, with the intention of winning Taro back, but Taro doesn't want to
have to do anything with her. It soon becomes clear that Taro is
completely under Aizen's spell though (even if or especially since he
strongly denies that) - and Aizen, who seems to be more than a little
bored in the middle of nowhere, gladly accepts Kaede's challenge to fight
for Taro. The thought of losing him to his ex doesn't cross her mind one
minute. So Kaede remains with Aizen and Taro at the temple and tries to
make life as miserable as possible for them - which doesn't help her in
reaching her goal one bit. Then one day a slightly naive priest (Kei Sato)
shows up who asks for abode for the night, and Kaede immediately tries to
make him her accomplice in her fight against Aizen. Aizen listens in on
them making their plans, which all sound foolproof, and doesn't interfere
- because she knows one thing that Kaede doesn't: She has been friends
with the priest when he was not a priest but a general in the army, close
friends ... Finally, after Kaede and the priest have had all the time in
the world to make their plans, Aizen and Taro enter the room. Taro the
bandit wants to steal the priest's gold buddha, but can't because the gold
buddha shoots some light beams (?). Aizen decides she must avenge her
husband and thus asks the priest to lead her back to the road of virtue,
but instead she of course seduces the priest - and doesn't even have a
hard time doing so. When Taro finds his wife celebrating her victory over
the priest's piety, he begins to realize he's with a madwoman, and when
she mocks the priest after he has killed himself, Taro kills her in a fit
of rage - only to regret it immediately. With Aizen gone, Kaede believes
herself having reached her goal - but the experience has changed Taro and
got him closer to buddha, not closer to her. By and large,
director Kenji Misumi has become for his chambara movies (~ samurai or
swordsplay movies), which he always handled with skill and style, so this
film, a character study set in a confined space, is more than a bit of a
change of pace - but Misumi handles it elegantly, applying a subtle
directorial effort to a great basic premise made into a great script by
arthouse fave Kaneto Shindo (only the lightbeam shooting Buddha was a bit
much I have to admit), and the whole thing is carried by an
uniformly great cast. Pretty much a must-see, actually!
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find The Devil's Temple at adultvideouniverse.com
