Excellent, a Must See

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This film was produced in the same year that the Japanese Diet was considering a law which would make prostitution illegal. The irony to that was that the government had not only condoned prostitution a few years earlier but actually encouraged it upon the Japanese surrender after World War II. The intent at the time was to keep American and other foreign troops cordoned into certain areas and away from Japanese women in the general population. In any case, conditions in Japan were rapidly changing and prostitution was now being frowned upon by a certain segment of Japanese society. Essentially, this movie begins at this time and follows the lives of several prostitutes for which the director (Kenji Mizoguchi) admirably manages to show us their point of view. Much of it is quite sad and depressing as a few of these women had certainly seen better days. Yet in spite of everything these women continued to persevere the best way they knew how and their courage was quite remarkable. Also of interest were the two younger females by the names of "Yasumi" (Ayako Wakao) and "Mickey" (Machiko Kyo) who had totally different outlooks on life but at the same time didn't seemed to quite understand the problems faced by the older women. In any case, this is a unique film that ends up being quite deep and profound and viewers interested in such a movie will certainly be pleased. Above average.

This is the first film I have seen from Kenji Mizoguchi (1898-1956), a director who is considered with Ozu and Kurosawa as the best Japanese film directors ever (I love Ozu; I like some Kurosawa but think he is somewhat overrated).This was Mizoguchi's last film: he is known mostly from his historical epics, but the theme here is somewhat topical, even taken from the newspapers of the day: the lives of prostitutes working on a brothel in Tokyo's red light district in light of a law being discussed in the Japanese parliament for the criminalization of prostitution (that particular law would come into force in 1958).Mizoguchi shows us the harsh life of the prostitutes, without turning them into saints, as we saw them doing less than exemplary things, for example cheating on their clients. There is the new arrogant girl, Mickey (Machiko Kyo), another prostitute with a grown son who is ashamed of his mother but visits her to her embarrassment; another one has to care for a sick husband.If the movie has a position in the issue is that prostitution should be legal. Prostitution is deeply rooted in Japanese culture, it is implied in the movie, and this law is being put forward only due to the pressures from Americans. The owner and the Madame of the brothel are hard-nosed but take reasonable care of the prostitutes. In this sense, the film sometimes seems a "message movie", even didactic in its position. Myself, I don't have a position on whether prostitution should be legal or not, but it would be interesting if Mizoguchi let at least one of the characters defend the other side of the issue.The film has an odd musical score (especially for a movie from the 1950s), which is a sort of Theremin -based experimental score. I can't say it helps the movie. Despite the misgivings I have mentioned, I did like the film, and found it interesting and engaging.

Kenji Mizoguchi was a remarkable movie director with a favorite theme: the condition/status of women in the Japanese society (ancient or modern). This particular movie was made during discussions in the Japanese Diet in 1956 about the Prostitution Act. It eminently illustrates the working conditions of geishas in a pleasure quarter. Its general background was the dire economic situation in Japan ('Soon we will be happy to have been stayed alive').Behind the facade of a house of pleasure, one discovers only problems of poverty, hunger, unemployment, illness in a family, and especially debts, first of all family debts, but foremost, debts to the 'masters', the brothel owners. The majority of the geishas are literally (financially) blocked in their pleasure house. There are also the cynics (a role played remarkably by Machiko Kyo), who want to avenge their fate suffered under 'their' former men (a father or others). The new prostitution law, which included debt cancellation for the geishas, didn't pass the first vote in the Parliament, but was adopted the following year, thanks mainly to the impact of the movie!The image of 'men' in this movie is absolutely disgraceful. They are stupid, vicious, liars, thieves, cowards, two-faced bastards, with at the top the pimps and their big mouths, who see themselves as the saviors of the world, offering girls the opportunity to sell their bodies in order to permit them not to die from hunger or to save their families.With a final shot that takes you by the throat, Kenji Mizoguchi made an unforgettable masterpiece, with as its ultimate goal 'human dignity'.

Fabulous film making, a really enjoyable and moving film, oh so beautifully shot. Every wondrous frame is a sight to behold and Mr Mizoguchi certainly knew how to exploit the 4:3 academy ratio and as it says in my booklet, don't dare watch it stretched on a widescreen TV. Set in Tokyo's red-light district of the time and against the background of political attempts to have prostitution made illegal, as well as everything else it is a tantilising glimpse of the mid fifties streets. Poverty and hypocrisy, along with the real need to literally pull those punters in. Always ravishing to watch there are additionally some stand out scenes and the controversial ending works splendidly for me with the electronic music preventing it becoming 'sentimental' or 'overplayed' as suggested by Keiko I McDonald in her 1984 biography of the director.