20 years ago, Shigekatso's (Torahiko Nakamura) wife Miwa has
disappeared without a trace. Now she returns out of nowhere, but she's in
some state of trance ... and she has not aged a day since her
disappearance. Shigekatso's daughter Itsuko (Junko Ikeuchi) and her
reporter boyfriend Tamio (Keinosuke Wada) discover a nude painting of Miwa
in an art gallery and make the acquaintance of its painter, eccentric
Takenaka (Shigero Amachi), who remains reluctant though about giving any
information about his model. A short timke later, the painting gets first
stolen, then delivered to Shigekatso's home. Somehow the painting finally
triggers Miwa's memory and she claims she has been a vampire's captive for
the last 20 years - the vampire being Takenaka of course. She managed to
escape him only recently, but the arrival of the painting shows he
perfectly knows where to find her. Takenaka meanwhile has dropped his
pretense to be an eccentric artist and killed several people due to his
need for blood. Eventually, he fetches Miwa and returns to his hideout in
the mountains. Tamio and Itsuko have meanwhile researched his background
and manage to track down his hideout ... where Takenaka takes Itsuko
captive, because Miwa and Itsuko's family is of some special blood.
However, Tasmio has brought the police with him, and they ultimately storm
the place. Then Takenaka is hit by moonlight, which eventually kills him,
while his whole place crumbles. Tamio and Itsuko make it outside, but for
Miwa it was already too late because Takenaka has turned her into a human
statue. A great if largely forgotten vampire movie, this film
combines gothic atmosphere with some very contemporary, even hip imagery,
but manages to remain atmospheric throughout, and manages to move along
its story very swiftly with hardly ever dropping a beat (which is why most
plotholes are elegantly ironed over), until everything culminates in a
finale that might be campy in places but that works 100%. Recommended!
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