Miyako is a frustrated insurance saleswoman stuck in a major dry spell. She tries every trick in the book, including aggressive flirting, which gets her plenty of gropers but no buyers. One day while venturing down a narrow stairwell, she injures her ankle and happens upon Mitsuru who works for some mysterious foreign company. Decked out in high goth style -- complete with long inky black hair and mascaraed eyes -- Mitsuru cuts quite an odd figure, yet his seductive though menacing ways make him difficult for Miyako to resist. Escorting her to his office to treat her ankle, Miyako notices that his all-female staff seem more glassy-eyed and soul-deadened than the average office workers. In fact, they seem almost like zombies. Later, weird things start happening. Mitsuko finds vomit on her doorstep, she seems to be tailed by a shadowy woman in a red dress, and most strikingly, she finds herself utterly powerless against Mitsuru's advances. Soon she is offered a job at Mitsuru's office among the undead and the damned. Does Miyako's potential new place of employment at least offer stock options in exchange for her soul?
【幕后制作】拍摄动机起于一九五四年轰动一时的近江绢系公司的女工罢工事件。不过电影则改以大学女生抗争学校不合理的束缚为主线。京都的正伦女子大学是一所思想保守,培育学生成为贤妻良母的大学,对于学生的私生活予以严历的管束,与男学生交往者一律以退学为惩。其中泷冈富子是位外向奔放的女孩因与男生交往而受到退学的处分,村野明子是学校经费捐赠人之女,却站在与家庭相反的立埸,在学校发表左翼的激动言论,煽动学生响应反封建运动,由于明子的做法过于激进终遭失败,最后由于出石芳江之死终于引了学生群起抗议的高潮, 藉此争论。导演木下惠介也表达了左翼学生往往陷入人性弱点无法自拔的观点。本片曾可说是十几年后全球性学生运动的预言作品。而由某些角度看一九六O年前后,大岛渚导演的新左翼激进作品中也可见本片的影响。本片除了描述对封建教育的憎恶,反映社会问题外,抒情场面也优美突出。