本片根据日本著名推理小说家江户川乱歩的同名小说改编。这是该小说第三次被搬上银幕，而这次则作为江户川乱步诞生100周年的纪念，由实相寺昭雄执导，在东京国际幻想电影节上隆重推出。在江户川乱步的诸多侦探小说作品中往往不乏对色情场面的描写，昭和初期的世风以及当时人们内心潜在的欲望被出色地揭示出来。从这个角度来说，这部成人级电影忠实地表现出了原作的精神。

In 1923, in a cheap Tokyo rooming house, a languid young man named Goda was feeling bored with his life. One day while playing dress up with a woman’s wig and lipstick, he accidentally loosens a ceiling board in his closet. Climbing up, he discovers a dimly lit passageway under the roof leading to the resident’s other rooms. Soon he is scampering about like a ninja, making knotholes and moving ceiling boards for a better view. What he sees are the intimate acts - sadistic, criminal or vaguely mad - that reveal infinitely more about his fellow roomers than the various fronts they present to the world.