In his earlier years, Suzuki was clearly a sharp, slick filmmaker with something of the crude gusto of the early Germans, and this film is apparently a typical example of this period. Ostensibly a study of the conditions of Japanese prostitutes at the end of the war under the American occupation, it is not strictly "realist" but is rather a phantasmagoria of light and color, action, movement and emotion. It is played out against a mixture of real locations and a fantastic studio world of dark tenements and treacherous alleys, all besmirched with a kind of expressionistic grime which gives it the look of a Japanese Threepenny Opera. This nightmarish world, full of anguish and betrayals, is magnificently shot in 'Scope and a primary color scheme which deliberately piles one "shrieking" color on another, alternating with the dark claustrophobia of the basement scenes. To complete the Roger Corman parallel, the narrative moves at a cracking pace, aided by an urgent, mobile camera which pushes its way through the teeming street crowds or cranes upstairs to follow the characters on various levels. Toward the end, a degree of cruelty and excess intrudes (often the besetting sin of directors involved in 'exploitation' material), but the overall tone and drive of the film clearly reveals a director with a dynamic sense of cinema; even when he goes giddily over the top, the exuberance is undeniable. John Gillett, Edinburgh Film Festival '88