"Some histories are told linearly, chronicling important events and dates or the deeds of great men, others by examining changes in social relations. As his title indicates, Shohei Imamura's is a history of post-war Japan as told by a woman on the periphery of history as it is traditionally conceived-by gender, by occupation, by location. Etsuko Akaza's story nonetheless can be said to parallel with that of modern Japan. Born into a family outcast by profession, after the war she married a policeman, primarily for the assistance he could giver her family's black-market business. Later, she left him and moved to Yokosuka to work as a barmaid. Her personal prostitution echoes what for some was the nation's prostitution under the American Occupation. As Joan Mellen observes in The Waves at Genji's Door, Akaza, like Japan, is 'both a victim and a willing participant in (her) own victimization.' Imamura's cinema verité-like interviews of Akaza are mixed with newsreel footage of General MacArthur's arrival in Japan, the Korean and Vietnam wars, and demonstrations in the '70s. Personal and official, subjective and objective representations of events are thus juxtaposed. As the film progresses, the differences between Imamura's and Akaza's interpretations emerge; like Godard, Imamura underscores the difference that point of view makes in the construction of a history." Kathy Geritz