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After Sean Baker’s sex work dramedy Anora won top honors at the Oscars last week, a Japanese landmark feature from Roman Porno master director Noboru Tanaka exploring the profession has been restored and is getting a U.S. release. The Oldest Profession (aka Confidential Report: Sex Market or Secret Chronicle: She Beast Market), restored in 4K from the original 35mm master negative Nikkatsu Corporation at Cineric in New York and Lisbon, is an uncompromising depiction of the realities of sex work in 1970s Japan. Ahead of theatrical screenings at NYC’s Metrograph on March 28 and 30 and Film Movement’s digital release on April 4, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the new trailer.

Here’s the synopsis: “19-year-old Tome is a sex worker who draws in customers around the red-light district of Osaka. She lives with her mentally disabled younger brother, Saneo, and her mother, Yone, who is also still...

Probably the source of one of the most characteristic images of Roman Porno (the one featured) here, “The Oldest Profession (aka Confidential Report: Sex Market or Secret Chronicle: She Beast Market), is among the most distinctive titles of the category, was restored in 2021 by Nikkatsu, screened in Venice in 2022 and is now finding its way in Camera Japan.

The Oldest Profession is screening at Camera Japan

It’s the height of summer in Kamagasaki, home to Tsutenkaku Tower, which overlooks Osaka. 19-year-old Tome quarrels with the proprietress of a small restaurant that has been arranging her sex services, striking out on her own. Life for a lonely prostitute, however, is not easy, and even more for Tome, who has to live with her mother, also a sex worker who is jealous of her, and her mentally handicapped younger brother, Saneo, who is looking towards her to satisfy his sexual needs,...