"Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive," wrote Sir Walter Scott -- words of wisdom for married cheaters, who rarely turn out to be as clever in their sexual games as they first imagined. Too often passion overcomes prudence as hard-to-explain credit card bills and "business trips" accumulate, until even the dullest partner gets the message.
But as Junji Sakamoto's "Tamamoe (Awakening)" illustrates, some weavers of webs are skillful indeed, leading double lives until the very end.
The film's cheating husband, played by an angelic-looking Akira Terao, rouses no suspicion in his wife, played by a frazzled-looking Jun Fubuki, and two grown children. He is often out of the house, busy with work or his hobby -- making and tasting soba noodles with a small circle of connoisseurs -- but in the Japanese context, in which an absent husband is traditionally praised as a good husband, this is hardly unusual.