Le donne della notte

Women of the Night is absorbing as a story of post-war malaise among women, of a lack of hope in their futures. It continues Kenji Mizogichi's body of work dedicated to showing women in a society that is perpetually against them, to greater or lesser degrees (usually greater, depending on time and place). While his final film, Street of Shame, is probably his best and most entertaining, this film does have some memorable moments. It tells of two women, one of whom finds out near the start of the film that her husband has died, and after this becomes a "fallen woman" by being a drug dealer's woman on the side. Another drifts into prostitution, or rather almost becomes it, and the two of them get swept up into a women's prison-cum-hospital. One of them, eventually, escapes (this is the most visually striking single shot in the film, by the way, tracking as she struggles across the wire fence).

It's slow moving, even for 73 minutes, though to be fair the American cut feels like it's been cut up, so a recommendation may be half-hearted by default (sometimes it's hard to tell, other times, it looks like an editor cut right into a scene just when it's about to get really good). The performances by Tanaka and Takasuhi, and the actress playing Kumiko, a friend of their characters, are all strong to the degree they're asked, and the climax of the film carries some real power even in the midst of the melodrama and the whole "maybe we have screwed up our lives and should go home" conclusion forced on an audience. But Mizoguchi's aim is, for the most part, met: give the audience a view of this underworld of women without solid footing, and ask why this really is the way it is when these women could be doing other things or working as opposed to just being married or like this. And at the same time make them all human, and not (too) stereotyped. It's ultimately hopeful, but some cynicism in the process goes a long way.

This film was produced not long after World War II when Japan was militarily defeated and its economy in total ruins. As a result a large number of people were left without money and employment was sometimes difficult to obtain. That being said, this film depicts three women who have to struggle in that regard. The first woman, "Fusaka Owada" (Kinuyo Tanaka) has just lost her young son to tuberculosis just after being informed that her husband has passed away while serving in the military. Luckily, she manages to get a job as an executive secretary working for a man she greatly admires. The second woman named "Natsuko Kimishima" (Sanae Takasugi) is her sister who has recently moved in with her and works as a dancer at a nightclub. The third woman, "Kumiko Owada" (Tomie Tsunoda) is also very close to both Fusaka and Natsuko but decides to run away from where she is living in search of something new and exciting. For her efforts she falls in with the wrong crowd and is subsequently raped and forced to become a prostitute. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I found this movie to be a bit too dark and brutally harsh for my tastes. No doubt others will disagree and that is fine. However, the relentless savagery depicted by the director (Kenji Mizoguchi) was overdone in my view and because of that I have rated it accordingly. Average.

In the post-war Japan, Fusako Owada (Kinuyo Tanaka) 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 (Tomie Tsunoda) to work as secretary executive for the opium dealer Kenzô Kuriyama (Mitsuo Nagata). One day, she stumbles upon her missed sister Natsuko Kimijima (Sanae Takasugi) 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?

The bitter and melodramatic "Yoru no onnatachi", a.k.a. "Women of the Night", is a film directed by the great Japanese director Kenji Mizoguchi that shows the cruel side of the post-war Japan specially for the women. The lead characters Fusako Owada is forced to change from a mother and housewife to a cheap prostitute that wants to contaminate men with syphilis to revenge her condition. Her sister Natsuko Kimijima may stay in the shelter for women or not after the stillbirth. In the end, there is a sort of redemption when Fusako tries to rescue from the street her neighbor and friend Kumiko Owada. However the country seems to be hopeless at that moment, at least for widows and lonely women in the depressing view of Mizoguchi. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Mulheres da Noite" ("Women of the Night")

Kenji Mizoguchi is arguably the greatest Japanese film-maker ever and it is truly a pity, therefore, that this is only the fifth film of his I have watched; luckily, the host of the Italian TV programme which showed WOMEN OF THE NIGHT promised that they will be screening a few more of his films in the near future. In any case, even if I found precious little reading material on the film, that same host dubbed it a "masterpiece" and a French review I found on the Internet said that it was "absolutely unmissable"! Having now watched it, I can verify that it was no idle praise.

Mizoguchi is well-known for being a feminist director and his extensive filmography is full of studies of downtrodden Japanase women of both contemporary and past eras. This happens to be the first bona-fide "women's picture" of his I have watched and even if it may be a notch less appealing than his very best films, UGETSU (1953) and SANSHO THE BAILIFF (1954), it is nevertheless an exceptionally well-made and moving film with a typically strong central performance from Mizoguchi regular Kinuyo Tanaka. Besides, Mizoguchi's remarkably unsentimental outlook ensures that facile answers to the questions raised are kept well at bay but without rendering the film unnecessarily depressing or bleak.

The plot deals with three post-WWII women (from the middle-aged Tanaka to a teenage acquaintance of hers) who all gradually and unwillingly turn to prostitution to make ends meet. The "women of the night" are depicted as being either cynical and bitter (like Tanaka who, despite being infected with disease, still keeps on prostituting herself so as to carry out her revenge on all manhood after being betrayed by her employer/lover), nymphomaniacs (who usually take out their own frustrations on the newer 'recruits') or, worse still, disease-ridden yet pregnant (like Tanaka's younger sister). The kindly doctors who shelter the loose women when in labor are ultimately powerless to prevent them from going back to plying their dangerous trade once they have delivered their usually stillborn children. The devastating final sequence (superbly executed through Mizoguchi's peerless mise-en-scene) portrays just such an occurrence in which Tanaka literally tries to beat some sense into her sister when she joins her on the streets once more, at which point the rest of the prostitutes either vent their anger on the two for scaring off potential customers with all the commotion or take the sisters' side for seeking a way out of their profession.

Mizoguchi is never subtle in his films. His films would work better in black and white even if color was the norm in Japan. In this film the great Kinuyo Tanaka, who has starred in other Mizoguchi films, is Fusako, a war widow who also buried a son who has to become a prostitute to live. Her sister Naksuko, played by Sanae Takasuga and their sister in law Kumiko (Tomie Tsunoda) also become ones also. Osaka is depicted as being full of prostitutes, and that could have very well been accurate at the time. Mizoguchi, fascinated in many of his films with the downtrodden, does his usual superior job but the film really is essential due to the acting of Kinuyo Tanaka and Sanae Takasuga. They bring a realistic, grim situation to live. Of course, this film is not a happy one, but if you can take that, this is another near masterpiece of Kenji Mizoguchi.