Deluxe. Recently releases in Japan to great acclaim, this glistening noir send-up has a great title and terrific premise: ten women who have been the mistresses of one man conspire to get rid of him. Tired of his weakness and self-absorption, the "ten dark women" take pleasure in letting him know of their plans. Ichikawa has great fun playing with genre - the exaggerated noir stylistics of the opening - and taking swipes at television, the "new" Japanese male, and the sanctity of tradition. Hardly known in the West, TEN DARK WOMEN seems ultra-contemporary in its concerns as Donald Richie has pointed out in a recent appreciation of the film; it promises to be one of the finds of the Ichikawa ouvre.