★ 7 / 10
It's okay, although I thought many of the
william d
It's okay, although I thought many of the characters were stereotypical of what you would expect in this kind of drama.
It's okay, although I thought many of the characters were stereotypical of what you would expect in this kind of drama.
★ 6 / 10
Shows the drama of poverty when taken down
spencer p
Shows the drama of poverty when taken down the wrongest road, in a well-acted though discomforting period piece.
Shows the drama of poverty when taken down the wrongest road, in a well-acted though discomforting period piece.
★ 7 / 10
In his final film, Mizoguchi returns to the
nick s
In his final film, Mizoguchi returns to the problems of oppressed sex workers in Japan which has always been one of the central topics of his creative work.…
In his final film, Mizoguchi returns to the problems of oppressed sex workers in Japan which has always been one of the central topics of his creative work. Moreover, once again the feature is shot entirely in one of the brothels in Tokyo. With that done, Mizoguchi repeats himself in some sense as for instance Woman in The Rumour (1954) with Yoshiko Kuga and Kinuyo Tanaka.
After the World War, there were a lot of brothels in Japan due to increased poverty. Initially, many women used to work for the foreigners (we see here one of them Miki â" portrayed by Machiko Kyo), but later just settled with such work for any customers they could find. Mizoguchi shows not an average poor brothel, but the place where women look after themselves very well, buy expensive stuff and wear fancy kimonos. Nevertheless, all of them are just poor women who cannot find other ways to make living. Some of them have to support kids or families, and they are trapped in this situation. Their debts increase as years go by, and moreover, they get used to such life in the brothel. There is a way to quit, though some of them try to do so.
We glance at the stories of 5 courtesans living there. One of them works there just to earn money for studies and clothes of her son, the other helps her husband who dumped her, Miku just lives there to maintain the quality of life she enjoys, and one girl Yasumi (played by Ayako Wakao) seems to be strong and motivated enough to find her way out of brothel. The girls meet their clients and later dream about a future life with kids or new husbands. We see many scenes of their lives which are both touching and miserable. Surprisingly, they are far from standing shoulder-to-shoulder with each other. There is a room for jealousy, competition, intrigues, and insults. Yasumi goes further landing money to other courtesans acting as a loan shark in an attempt to make enough money to escape. She doesnâ(TM)t spend and she takes advantage of men falling in love with her. One of them pays off all her debts, while another one gives her a place for opening the shop.
As plot advances, we see that there is almost no way out of this life for these women, and they slowly lose hopes. They are getting rejected by their sons, husbands, lovers, though they only do this work to help the same people who are the closest to them. Women start fading away, and later there will be no chance for them to get another job once prostitution gets banned in Japan. The women in brother talk about Yasumi calling her shark, and in the end, she becomes only one who escapes the brothel. She opens the new shop, but she had to pay a price for that cheating on many people and losing dignity. No one really respects her. Though, at least she has a new life to live now.
The film is quite bleak as we see these courtesans oppressed and hopeless. Yet it is socially important as many women have always been forced to make living this way. The approach of Mizoguchi showing women so unhappy in quite rich brothels would be emulated by many directors in the XX century. The most famous example of a similar movie would be a colourful and exquisite Shanghai Flowers by Hou Hsiao-Hsien where Taiwanese director amplified this topic Mizoguchi has always been concerned about.
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7.8/10
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The best Mizoguchi movie! Thank you!