In adapting Jun’ichō Tanizaki’s 1961 novel “Diary of a Mad Old Man,” director Wayne Wang confronts a source material rich in perverse themes. The story follows a post-stroke retiree who derives sexual gratification from his daughter-in-law. While the original text is not particularly explicit by contemporary standards, Wang’s first feature since 2019 opts for a different visual language, opening with the protagonist, Utsugi, portrayed by Lily Franky, furiously masturbating under a desk before ruefully ceasing.
Although Wang and first-time screenwriter Kelvin Wyles make thoughtful textual adjustments to redirect Tanizaki’s narrative for modern audiences, the final film ends up being counterintuitively dull. The movie begins with an eighty-minute stretch dominated by classical Japanese dress, delaying any introduction of modern clothing until the eight-minute mark. As the setting shifts to present-day Tokyo, specifically the upscale Ginza district, the updates range from small details—such as Utsugi and Satsuko sharing a vape—to a broader sentimentalization of the characters.
Tanizaki’s novel derives its power from the narrator’s unapologetic self-knowledge, including lines like, “even though I am sentimental and given to tears — as virtuous as that may sound — my true nature is perverse and cold-hearted in the extreme.” In contrast, this film’s Utsugi is softened significantly. A new scene where he describes paper scraps brought by a crow as “precious proof of love” feels irreconcilable with the egoist of the source material, who is pitiable only due to his age and debilitated state.
Wang demonstrates a keen eye for production value, making the nearly all-interior settings—a house, a garden, and a daylight-cut-off bar—feel fully realized. At 62, Franky is younger than his character but convincingly portrays left-side paralysis without resorting to physical caricature. Meanwhile, Fan Bingbing’s Satsuko is transformed from the novel’s fashionably dressed, gleefully exploitative figure into a more rounded character with a traumatic backstory conveyed through pensive monologue, though this change does not necessarily make her more compelling.
The film introduces new narratives that implicitly suggest Utsugi suffers from late-stage dementia rather than merely being an end-of-life patient acting on long-suppressed desires. This shifts the focus from a study of late-in-life misplaced desire by a morbid personality to a conversation about elder dementia, aligning it with recent films such as Yoshida Daihachi’s “Teki Cometh,” Sarah Friedland’s “Familiar Touch,” and Lance Hammer’s “Queen at Sea.”
Securing Fan Bingbing for the role is considered a coup, adding subtextual layers to the Japanese-Chinese relationship dynamics and exploring exploitation themes tied to Satsuko’s impoverished background. However, these additions are described as turgid rather than transformative. Ultimately, Tanizaki’s cold-blooded black comedy of malignant characters is replaced by what critics call “Ozu-lite” contemplations of death and extended scenes of crying.
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