Kazuyoshi Kumakiri's THE VOLATILE WOMAN (KIHATSUSEI NO ONNA), starring Mitsuko Ishii, Shunsuke Sawad

The official website for Kazuyoshi Kumakiri's The Volatile Woman (Kihatsusei no onna) still is online. The movie opened at the Shibuya Ciné la sept in Tokyo on December 25th of last year. It's scheduled to have its international (i.e., outside-of-Japan) première at the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) on October 3rd.

The Volatile Woman stars Mitsuko Ishii, Shunsuke Sawada, Mai Hoshiko, and Hiroshi Ômori.

Kumakiri's previous directing credits include The Ravaged House: Zoroku's Disease (Tadareta ie: 'Zôroku no kibyô' yori) - one of the movies in the Hideshi Hino's Theater of Horror (Hino Hideshi no za horâ: kaiki gekijô) hexalogy - Antenna (Antena), Hole in the Sky (Sora no ana), and Kichiku: Banquet of the Beasts (Kichiku daienkai).

Here's a synopsis for The Volatile Woman from the page for the movie on the VIFF website: "Widowed young, Masuda Etsuko runs a small-town garage/gas-station on her own. Nervous bank robber Sawada (he keeps throwing up when stressed) enters her life pretending to be a customer, and takes the meagre contents of her till at knifepoint. But his getaway is thwarted by the appearance of a cop on the forecourt, so he hides in her backroom and ties her up overnight. This turns out to be the start of a bizarre 'odd couple' relationship, in which they alternate between attacking and wounding each other and dressing each other's wounds. As advertised in the title, Etsuko's emotional volatility (rooted in her possessiveness, which the script links with a passion for butterfly collecting) has a major bearing on the unexpected outcome."

The Volatile Woman official website
VIFF: The Volatile Woman