Story of a Prostitute
Alternate title(s): Joy Girls
Foreign Title: Shunpuden, a.k.a. Joy Girls
Date: January 01, 1965 to February 01, 1966
Dates Note: 1965
Country of Origin:
Japan
Place of Origin: Japan
Languages:
Japanese
Color: B&W
Silent: No
Based On: A story by Taijiro Tamura
Additional Info:
Curator Notes
Film Series/Exhibition Title:
The Films of Seijun SuzukiDescription:
Yumiko Nogawa, one of Suzuki’s favorite actresses, gives perhaps her most ferocious performance in this scathing portrayal of Japanese militarism during the lead-up to World War II. Sent with six other comfort women to service a garrison of some one thousand men in Manchuria during the Sino-Japanese War, Nogawa’s Harumi is brutalized by a vicious lieutenant who wants her as his personal property. “This is the movie that proves Suzuki should be lifted out of the limiting category of the ‘Japanese Outlaw Masters,’ and placed at the grown-ups’ table, alongside Kurosawa, Okamoto, and Kobayashi” (David Chute, Criterion Current).
Film Series/Exhibition Title:
Seijun SuzukiDescription:
A tale of the "madlove" between a prostitute and an enlisted soldier during theSino-Japanese War, Suzuki's harrowing film may be his most graphicallyanti-militaristic, a portrait of the violence-particularly towardwomen-that extends from the military mentality. Harumi (Yumiko Nogawa)volunteers to go to a Manchurian border village as a "comfortwoman" for a Japanese garrison-one of seven prostitutes serving athousand soldiers and officers. Harumi and Mikami (Tamio Kawachi), anenlisted soldier, fall in love; he deserts his post to be with her andboth pay dearly for it. When the garrison falls into Chinese hands, theChinese prove to be more humane captors than the Japanese. However,offered a choice between two nationalistic ideologies, Harumi and Mikamichoose the course dictated by mad love in an insane world. "Suzukicharacteristically shrinks from nothing in [writer Taijiro] Tamura'srelentlessly hardboiled account...not least because he clearly sharesTamura's view that the sex drive is a crucial part of the human will tolive." (Tony Rayns) Warning: Please be awarethat Story of a Prostitute, like Gate of Flesh, portrays elements ofcruelty and violence.
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