Director: Mizoguchi Kenji
Script: Yoshikata Yoda adapted from Eijirô Hisaita's novel Joseimatsuri
Cinematographer: Kôhei Sugiyama
Editing: Tazuko Sakane
Sound: Taro Takahashi
Art Director: Kiyoharu Matsuno, S. Yamaguchi
Cast: Kinuyo Tanaka, Sanae Takasugi, Sumida Tomie, Mitsuo Nagat, Hirotoshi Murata, Heinpei Tomimoto
Production: Shôchiku-Kyôtô
Distribution:
Carlotta Films
9 Passage de la Boule Blanche
75012 Paris
France
Tel: 0033 1.42.24.10.86
Fax: 0033 1.42.24.16.78
Mail: [email protected]
www.carlottafilms.com
Year: 1948
35 mm, B & W, 75 min,
OV Japanese with French Subtitles
In 1948, three years after the defeat, the streets of Osaka are still in ruins. Fusakp Owada is informed of her husband's death. Her child dies of tuberculosis. She becomes the secretary of Kuriyama, her husband's friend from the war who is now the manager of a company. She becomes his mistress. One day by chance, she meets Natsuko, her younger sister she had lost trace of who is now a cabaret singer. She offers her to stay with her. Some time later, she finds Natsuko in bed with Kuriyama. She runs away. Natsuko searches for her sister. Caught in a raid, Fusako is taken for a prostitute and sent to a hospital where she is discovered to be pregnant and have syphilis. There, she finds Fusako, now a leader of a women brimming with hatred for men.
Mizogushi denounces the violence imposed on women who are the victims of this society: war has taken away their husbands, poverty and illness their children. He dares to tackle the taboo theme of prostitu tion, displaying neither judgment nor bias.