Les femmes de la nuit

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.

Three disparate women end up selling themselves to survive in a bleak post-war Osaka. Like a number of Mizoguchi's films, 'Women of the Night' is a harsh commentary about the conditions and behaviours that many women were forced to endure in pre- and post-war Japanese society. The film is not particularly nuanced, and the director delivers his message with a heavy and unsubtle hand as the women's lives rapidly go from bad to worse to horrible (one of the women, desperate for money, tentatively approaches a sleezy procuress and the next time we encounter her, she's a tough, diseased, street-walking junkie). Despite the occasional weaknesses in pacing and character development, there are some devastating scenes, notably when a young run-away, intrigued by the 'glamorous lifestyle' of a dance-hall hostess, discovers just how mean the mean-streets of Osaka can be. The ending of the film is weaker than the build-up - the final scenes of the prostitutes fighting on a set that appears to be the ruined shell of a church with intact stain-glass windows (featuring the Virgin no less) are artificial, overly melodramatic, and a bit trite. Mizoguchi 'wears his heart on his sleeve' in his films about the travails of Japanese women but he has done so better in other films, such as 'Sisters of the Gion' (1936), 'The Life of Oharu' (1952) or 'Street of Shame' (1956). Watched with English subtitles.

Women of the Night (1948)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Set in post WWII Japan, director Kenji Mizoguchi's film deals with a pair of sisters (Kinuyo Tanaka, Sanae Takasugi) who find themselves going into prostitution due to the rather dire living conditions. WOMEN OF THE NIGHT is certainly a hard-hitting little gem that manages to hold no punches in regards to its subject matter. Several countries released films dealing with the aftermath of WWII but what's so fascinating about this film is the fact that it deals with subjects that most other places wouldn't touch. This includes prostitution obviously but there's also abortion, drug use, sexual transmitted diseases and other subjects that were a big no-no during this era. This off-topic subjects certainly help keep the film very fresh for today's viewers. Another fascinating thing were some of the streets where it's obvious they haven't been fixed up since WWII. I'm guessing these streets with debris all over them weren't just made up for the film and instead they are actually locations and these images really make you understand the desperate situation of the people living there. We get three different women and their stories of how they were forced to go into the business and each of them are quite touching on their own. I will say that the ending was a bit over-the-top and didn't reach the punch it was going for but it certainly didn't ruin the movie. The two lead performances are certainly wonderful and they're just so raw that you feel as if you're watching real people struggling. There are some rather bleak and ugly images to be found here and especially during a sequence where we see the downside of this lifestyle as most of the women are suffering from various mental problems. WOMEN OF THE NIGHT runs a very quick 74-minutes and it's certainly quite memorable.

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")