''Ten Dark Women'' (, literally "ten black women") is a 1961 Japanese film directed by

Kon Ichikawa was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His work displays a vast range in genre and style, from the anti-war films '' The Burmese Harp'' (1956) and '' Fires on the Plain'' (1959), to the documentary ''Tokyo Olympiad'' (1965), which won t ...

Plot

A married television executive has many mistresses. Nine of the mistresses and his wife band together and plan to kill him. His wife tells him they are planning to kill him and they fake his death at a meeting of all ten women using a pistol loaded with blanks and a tomato. The other women tell her that they were not really serious about killing him and run away. One of the women, Miwako, commits

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

, and her ghost comes back to view the proceedings. Then they find out that he is not really dead, and they decide to kill him again. His wife divorces him and one of the other women takes him on.

Cast

Eiji Funakoshi was a Japanese actor. He received the Kinema Junpo Award for Best Actor and the Mainichi Film Concours for Best Actor for his performance in '' Fires on the Plain''. Biography Born Eijirō Funakoshi on 17 March 1923, in Tokyo, Eiji Funakoshi si ...

as Matsukichi *

Keiko Kishi is a Japanese actress, writer, and UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador. Life and career She made her acting debut in 1951. In the 1950s, David Lean had proposed her for the main role in ''The Wind Cannot Read'', which is about a Japanese language instru ...

Tamao Nakamura (born July 12, 1939 in Kyoto, Japan) is a Japanese actress. Her father is kabuki actor Nakamura Ganjirō II. She was scouted by director Teruo Ogiyama and made her film debut with ''Kageko to Yukie'' when she was a junior high school student. A ...

Fujiko Yamamoto (born 11 December 1931) is a Japanese film and stage actress. She appeared in over 100 films between 1953 and 1963. She won the first Grand Prix of Miss Nippon in 1950. Career Yamamoto was born on 11 December 1931, in Nishi-ku, Osaka, to a cot ...

Juzo Itami , born , was a Japanese actor, screenwriter and film director. He directed eleven films (one short and ten features), all of which he wrote himself. Early life Itami was born Yoshihiro Ikeuchi in Kyoto. The name Itami was passed on from his fath ...

Hajime Hana was a Japanese actor. He was the leader of the comic jazz band The Crazy Cats, which featured such talent as Hitoshi Ueki and Kei Tani, and which starred in a series of film comedies (such as the "Irresponsible" (Musekinin) series at Toho) and ...

Jun Hamamura was a Japanese actor. He appeared in more than 130 films between 1938 and 1995. Selected filmography * ''Wolf'' (1955) * '' The Burmese Harp'' (1956) * '' The Hole'' (1957) * ''The Temptress and the Monk'' (1958) * ''Enjō'' (1958) * ''Odd Obs ...

Staff

Reception

Donald Richie describes it as "an extraordinarily black comedy ... the hilarious hell of a man whose wife, mistresses and girlfriends conspire to murder him".

Cast

References

External links

* Japanese crime comedy-drama films 1961 films Films with screenplays by Natto Wada Films directed by Kon Ichikawa 1960s Japanese-language films Films scored by Yasushi Akutagawa 1960s Japanese films {{1960s-Japan-film-stub