# Wayne Wang's mad old man turns dull

> A perverse Tanizaki novel about lust, age and decay somehow becomes a slog in Wayne Wang's return to features.
- Title: Wayne Wang's mad old man turns dull · Variety | Shortify
- Summary: A perverse Tanizaki novel about lust, age and decay somehow becomes a slog in Wayne Wang's return to features. Shock alone doesn't carry a film. Wang updates…
- Keywords: film review, wayne wang, tanizaki, japanese literature, adaptation, entertainment, culture, Wayne, Wang's, mad, old, man
- Source: Variety — https://variety.com/2026/film/reviews/diary-of-a-mad-old-man-review-1236860647
- Author: Vadim Rizov
- Published: 2026-09-13T18:57:04+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: film review, wayne wang, tanizaki, japanese literature, adaptation, entertainment, culture
## A premise built to shock
Tanizaki's 1961 novel follows a retiree recovering from a stroke who finds sexual pleasure in his own daughter-in-law. The perversity is the engine.

> a post-stroke retiree derives sexual pleasure from his daughter-in-law
## Tame by 2026 standards
What scandalized readers in 1961 barely registers now. The novel itself is more suggestive than explicit, which leaves an adapter with a problem.

> by the standards of contemporary mores, the 1961 novel isn't particularly explicit
## Wang answers with an opening shot
His fix is to go blunt from frame one: retired Utsugi, played by Lily Franky, masturbating furiously under his desk, then ruefully giving up.
## Deliberate tweaks to the text
Wang isn't adapting on autopilot. He redirects Tanizaki for new aims and makes considered changes throughout the script.

> Consciously redirecting Tanizaki for new aims, the film makes thoughtful textual tweaks throughout
## The result falls flat
All that thought produces a film that is counterintuitively dull. Sex and death, the two subjects that should never bore, do.

> the final product is counterintuitively dull
## A tepid return after six years
This is Wang's first feature since 2019, and Fan Bingbing's presence doesn't lift it. The update lands as a missed chance rather than a comeback.
## Key takeaway

Shock alone doesn't carry a film. Wang updates Tanizaki's transgression and still ends up with something inert.