Shinzo Katayama adapts Yoshiharu Tsuge

You don't necessarily have to be a fan of Japanese manga master Yoshiharu Tsuge to appreciate it Lust in the raina sprawling fantasy set during World War II adapted from an autobiographical collection first published in the early 1980s. But it definitely helps.

All over the place in terms of tone, content and genre, director Shinzo Katayama's ambitious period piece strives to replicate the surreal sexual atmosphere of Tsuge's war memories, which go from action to comedy to eroticism in one fell swoop . Not to everyone's taste, and perhaps better suited to local audiences, the film is more admirable for its ambitious direction than its grueling plot twists.

Katayama cut his teeth as an assistant director for Bong Joon-ho before making two feature films, including the acclaimed 2021 serial killer film, Missing. But while he conveys a similar energy and style to the Korean master, Katayama lacks Bong's ruthless precision and wicked sense of humor.

I arrive at more than two hours, Lust in the rain it overstays its welcome during the first 80 minutes in which nothing totally makes sense, before focusing on more substantial themes in a final hour that jumps between several alternate realities – to the point that we never quite know what's real or not.

Initially, Katayama throws us into a bizarre love triangle between an aspiring mangaka, Yoshio (Ryo Narita, Your name); an older novelist, Imori (Go Morita); and a local femme fatale, Fukuko (Eriko Nakamura, August in Tokyo), who may or may not have killed her own husband. The time setting is unclear, as is the setting itself: the three live in a remote village called North Town, separated by border guards from another place called South Town.

The shy Yoshio, who serves as a rather unreliable narrator, is beset by sexual fantasies which he turns into cartoons for his comics. These include a scene early on – and from which the film takes its title – in which he subtly forces a young woman to undress during a torrential downpour, then proceeds to rape her in the mud. (A rape, it should be added, that turns into passionate sex.)

In real life, Yoshio is infatuated with Fukuko, who moves into his cramped apartment with the equally shady Imori. The two make loud love while Yoshio lies in the next room, creating even more sexual tension between the trio. It looks like one of the men might end up killing the other. Or as if they all agreed to form a happy couple. It's hard to say.

From there on things get stranger, even if they fall slightly into place. Without spoiling too much (the best parts are in the second half), we realize that everything we've seen is actually about the Japanese occupation of northern China during World War II, including the massacres inflicted on the civilian population. Suddenly, Yoshio's fantasies take on an entirely different sheen: they seem less like the ravings of a lustful artist than those of a soldier traumatized by constant bloodshed.

It's too much and perhaps too late. Katayama never quite sustains our interest as it oscillates between coming-of-age desires, gory atrocities, and erotic surrealism. A great example of this is a sequence where Yoshio follows the mysterious girl from her dreams down several dark alleys, until he sees her get violently hit by a car. He finds his body lying lifeless in a rice paddy, so he prepares to defile it with his finger.

Again, this is an acquired taste, probably best suited to Tsuge lovers mangawatakushi (a form of literary autobiography specific to Japan), in which the author gives free rein to his memory, imagination and his omnipotent libido. Katayama works overtime to translate Tsuge's obsessions to the screen, employing a grand style for the war scenes and an elegant intimacy for all the sex, whether real or fantasized.

The would-be romance at the center of Lust in the rain is carried forward by Narita and Nakamura, who are convincing as two lost souls who never fully unite. The problem is that much of the film is on shaky ground and we never believe what we see. And if you don't believe it, then why should you care? In the concluding sections, Katayama's intimate epic unfolds as a twisted version The English Patientwhere love and war collide in crazy ways. Yet the stakes never seem high enough.