Koi ya koi nasuna koi (The Mad Fox). 1962. Japan. Directed by Tomu Uchida. Screenplay by Yoshikata Yoda. With Hashizo Okawa, Michiko Saga, Jun’ya Usami. In Japanese; English subtitles. 109 min.
Uchida’s strangest and most stylized film is a visual feast, adapted by Yoshikata Yoda from a traditional puppet play. Dispensing with naturalism, Uchida uses expressionist sets and color schemes to convey the shifting states of mind of a protagonist driven mad by grief after his lover is killed. Some scenes are shot against theatrical backdrops inspired by kabuki theater and traditional dance; others unfold on elaborately colored sets reminiscent of traditional screen paintings. *The Mad Fox*’s audacious artifice makes Masaki Kobayashi’s Kwaidan (1964) pale in comparison.