widescreen 3.wid.002002 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

A former maid, Sadako is treated with open contempt by her husband, a petty bureaucrat at the local library, and tolerated by her mother-in-law only because she has produced a male heir. Sadako’s sole opportunity for escape arrives in the dubious form of a housebreaker who forces himself on her and soon becomes another unwanted male dependent. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire.

Filming in widescreen black-and-white, Imamura violates every rule of classical composition: his frames are crowded and off kilter, offering only partial views of the action where classical directors like Ozu or Mizoguchi would insist on balance and lucidity. Although Imamura would tame his anarchic style as he aged — his last feature film, the 2001 “Warm Water Under a Red Bridge,” is an amused, mellow treatment of his persistent theme of sexual energy — his work here is ferocious, implacable, bitter and brilliant. (Criterion Collection, $79.95, not rated).