Shunpu den

Reviews of a Seijun Suzuki film tend to be dominated by discourse on the director's much-vaunted iconoclastic stylistics and Nikkatsu failure of vision in their treatment of him. While Suzuki's arrhythmic editing, bold use of effects, slow-motion, and emotive performances differentiate the film from the generic fare of the time, there is as much miss as hit regarding enhancement of narrative in Suzuki's helming.

Story of a Prostitute is about Harumi, a working girl cruelly dumped by her lover who takes vengeance by throwing herself into the grueling world of the so-called 'comfort women' servicing the Imperial Army in China. There she meets Mikami, an unreformed nationalist, and their ill-fated love plays out against a backdrop of WWII endgame.

Harumi is certainly a force, and her power, drive extremes of agony and ecstasy give her a powerful on-screen presence. She wails, uncontrollably, in close-up, a slow-motion shot no less, and the raw anguish is viscerally present. The fact that the situation she and Mikami find themselves in is hopeless drains the film of dramatic tension. The compensation is keenly observed characters who comment on their situation without finger-wagging. The absurdity of Japan's war effort is best captured by Ono, a deserter who takes up with the Chinese and preaches the 'dishonorable' credo that it is better to live. Officers spout that it is more dignified to die in battle for the Emperor, the irony being these are words spoken while sprawled drunk on the floor of a brothel. A Chinese prostitute whines that she is paid less than her Japanese counterparts. Soldiers drink, fornicate and hope they can make it to the next day. The landscape is almost lunar, begging the question of what, exactly, they are fighting for possession of.

The futility of war is an expertly painted background, but overshadowed by the melodramas of lives lived. Without Suzuki's unconventional approach this film would be quickly forgotten, but the camera movement, stark sets revealed in deep focus, and humanity and absurdity of the minor characters keeps this film fresh. Harumi is the embodiment of the will to live, if not exactly to live well. Having said that, the histrionics begin to grate after a while, and a stronger plot would raise this film to greater heights.

Neither a B-film nor a masterpiece, but simply another watchable outing from a unique filmmaker.

Although it's not quite as satisfying as Suzuki's gangster films, I was drawn in by the power struggle for the loyalty of Mikami. Harumi (the prostitute) loves him and wants him to abandon his duty to imperial japan to run away with her. Narita (Mikami's commander) treats Mikami like a dog but knows he will never shirk his duties to the military. Eventually Mikami's foolish loyalty to the army results in disaster for himself, Harumi and even his battalion. Like "Gate of Flesh", this is also based on a novel by Tajiro Tamura.

This film centers on Harumi (the great Yumiko Nogawa), who is a "comfort woman" who goes to the Manchurian Front in China during the war to service the men fighting there. From the beginning you know she has nothing left to lose. As you would expect, this movie has scenes which are pretty brutal, including violence and rape. However, Mr. Suzuki makes this film's pacing so superb, you can look beyond this and just keep watching to see what will happen next. Harumi's reactions and expressions in this film are amazing, Ms. Nogawa gives a performance of a lifetime. You understand her struggle, but more so you understand her heart. She falls in love and you know its no lie. You want her to have some measure of happiness in what is depicted here as a very cruel world. Not everyone can watch this of course, its violent and its a war picture. But this film had me spellbound to the last frame, and that is a ringing endorsement.

Sunpu Den is a remake of AKATSUKI NO DASSO wrote by Kurosawa in 1950, then Seijun Suzuki approaches it more deeply than a dramatic romance that was his forerunner, whereby didn't show the sexual relationship at army's bro.thel, so Sunpu Den is too much daring for its period of time, by this the movie was hard beaten by the critics at release time, regarded as a cheap sexploitation, also Suzuki imposes a slight nihilism narrative to counteract the ruthlessness of the war, the plot is underpinned in the legendary Japanese inexorable honor code where no soldier shouln't go back alive if caught in enemy hands, such act is punished by death.

As Seijun Suzuki was a former soldier exposes some oddities carried out at wartime, it somewhat became more realistic from a vision whom stayed there and witnessed such real facts, as those soldiers refusing kill Mikami (Tamio Kawaji) in a desert area in a phony battle to conceal his guilty for being prisoner of war and some funny moments at Chinese's village when the squad returning from the front fight themselves by the best girls, actually as anti-war offering Suzuki imposes an overview less gloomy on the drama.

Oddly enough as B-production of Nikkatsu studio it overcame the bad reputation on sixties thru the times, today Sunpu Den earned several defenders and became a mandatory peace nowadays, many aspects assert such thing as the unusual cinematograph made by Suzuki's old acquaintance and partnership Kazue Nakatsuka, a must to see.

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First watch: 2024 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8.5.

Most likely the closest Suzuki ever got to making a prestige film. It probably wasn't viewed as such at the time, as it was a remake of a movie called Escape at Dawn that was generally considered a classic at the time (it was scripted by Akira Kurosawa and directed by Senkichi Taniguchi in 1950). Story of a Prostitute seemed like a much more lurid version of the older film. Both were anti-war pictures, but Escape at Dawn was romantic and tragic. Story of a Prostitute is harsh and cynical. Its scenes are often comic, which clashes with the standard view of war. In an interview on the new Criterion disc, Suzuki, a veteran himself, says that he found a lot of black humor and absurdity in his wartime experience. All three of WWII-themed films I've seen from him, which cover the pre-war (Fighting Elegy), the actual war (Story of a Prostitute), and post-war (Gate of Flesh) periods all incorporate some level of absurd, black comedy. The three films actually make a good trilogy (the rest I've seen are all yakuza or crime films). Story of a Prostitute is a very powerful anti-war film, though it is lurid and not nearly as powerful as something like, say, Kobayashi's The Human Condition. Yumiko Nogawa, who also starred in Gate of Flesh, gives a fantastic performance. But it is, as usual, Suzuki's supreme visual skills – in black and white in this instance – that make the film a stunning and memorable experience. His artistic imagination in cinematographic matters is nearly unsurpassed in the entire realm of cinema.