Women of the Night (1948)

A mistress of a drug dealer in post-war Japan is shocked when she discovers that he is having an affair with her sister.

Director:

Kenji Mizoguchi

Writers:

Eijirô Hisaita (novel), Yoshikata Yoda (story)

Stars:

Kinuyo Tanaka, Sanae Takasugi, Tomie Tsunoda

1 win.

Cast

Credited cast:
Kinuyo Tanaka	...	Fusako Owada
Sanae Takasugi	...	Natsuko Kimijima
Tomie Tsunoda	...	Kumiko Owada
Mitsuo Nagata	...	Kenzô Kuriyama
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Hiroshi Aoyama
Fusako Maki
Kikue Môri
Sadako Sawamura
Ken Tanaka
Minpei Tomimoto
Kumeko Urabe	...	brothel-keeper

Storyline

In the post-war Japan, Fusako Owada lives in the home of her mother-in-law with her baby that is ill while waits for the return of her husband from the war. When she learns that her husband has died and her baby also dies, she moves to another city with her neighbor Kumiko Owada to work as secretary executive for the opium dealer Kenzô Kuriyama. One day, she stumbles upon her missed sister Natsuko Kimijima that has returned from the Korea on the street and she learns that Natsuko works as a dancer in a night-club. Natsuko moves to Fusako and Kumiko's apartment and soon she has a love affair with Fusako's boss. However Fusako is secretly Kuriyama's mistress and upset, she vanishes. One day, a client of Natsuko in the night-club tells to her that he saw Fusako in the Red Light District. Natsuko that is pregnant decides to seek her sister out in the prostitution area. Will she find Fusako?

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Plot Keywords:

based on novel | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

28 February 1979 (USA)

Also Known As:

Mulheres da Noite

Filming Locations:

Osaka, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shochiku

Technical Specs

Runtime:

75 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director (1975)

User Reviews

Forceful and powerful

Startling, forceful tale of women descending into a life of prostitution in post-war Osaka. Kinuyo Tanaka, who would play the lost mother of the protagonists in Sansho the Bailiff, stars as a woman who lost both her husband and son to illness long after the war has ended. When her younger sister, Sanae Takasugi, steals the man she's having an affair with, she joins the streetwalkers. Mizoguchi was heavily influenced by Italian Neorealism here, and most of it was filmed in the ruined streets of Osaka. It's blunt as Hell, and arguably exploitative. Mizoguchi disowned it later in his career. The two best sequences in the film, one where a group of prostitutes denudes a young rape victim, and the final one where Tanaka comes to the rescue of the same girl when another group of prostitutes is attacking her, are the seeds that would spawn Seijun Suzuki's Gate of Flesh. That's definitely a compliment, in my book. That final sequence in particular, despite more than a little heavy-handedness (it takes place in a burnt-out church), is one of the most emotionally draining in the director's career.