Lily Carmen (Hideko Takamine ), the exotic dancer first introduced to film audiences in the comedy 'Carmen Comes Home' (1951), is back in Tokyo, living with her friend, fellow dancer, and now single mom, Akemi (Toshiko Kobayashi). Despite her claim not to need men, Carmen falls in love with superficial artist Hajime (Masao Wakahara) who is both 'above her station' and engaged to Chidori (Chikage Awashima), the promiscuous daughter of Kumako Satake, an ambitious right-wing politician (a hilariously obnoxious Eiko Miyoshi). With love comes a self-reappraisal of her scandalous profession, leading to a departure from the stage and in to increasingly ridiculous jobs to support herself, Akemi, and the baby. The whole production is very strange, with vertiginous swings in camera angle and a variety of strange transitions (reminding me of the early days of Powerpoint). The film parodies pretentiousness and 'westernism' (notably Hajime's art), social hierarchies, Japanese politics (notably Kumako's self-serving and shrill electioneering) and relationships (compared to Hajime and Chidori, Carmen the stripper seems almost chaste, as perhaps hinted at in some translations of the film's title). The oddest character is Hajime's family's maid (Chieko Higashiyama), who appears to have lost kin to the atomic bomb and now constantly refers to the weapon as if it is responsible for everything that happens to her. The maid (Kumako calls her ''the atomic bomb woman") may have been a parody of the special status accorded 'hibakusha' (atomic bomb survivors) after the war, for which there was some resentment (presumably by people who had suffered equally from the extensive conventional and incendiary bombing) - whatever the reason, hearing 'atomic bomb' as a 'punchline' in a 1952 Japanese film is a bit startling. Hideko Takamine is lovely and captivating as Carmen (as she was in 'Carmen Comes Home') and the rest of the cast are great. The humour is quite dark at times, especially the scenes in which Carmen is trying to convince Akemi to abandon the baby (one reason to do seems to be the child's nose). The ending is a bit abrupt and there is a suggestion that a third 'Carmen' film was to follow that perhaps would have brought the story to a smoother end. Too bad this was not to be, although they are quite different, I enjoyed both of the Carmen films and a third would have been welcome.
