Women of the Night (1948)
1h 14m | PG-13
In early post-war Osaka, three women, war widow Fusako, her sister Natsuko, an expatriate from Korea, and Kumiko, Fusako's sister-in-law, descend into prostitution, all for their individual reasons.
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Studio: Shochiku
Genre: Drama
Video: 720p
Cast
Kinuyo Tanaka
as Fusako Owada
Sanae Takasugi
as Natsuko Kimijima
Kumeko Urabe
as Brothel Keeper
Tomie Tsunoda
as Kumiko Owada
Mitsuo Nagata
as Kenzô Kuriyama
Hiroshi Aoyama
as
Reviews
Sadly, this is an overly convoluted tale that could have done rather more had William Rowland kept his cast focused. As it is, it's a fairly preposterous tale of some die-hard Nazis who may have a secret cosmic ray in the Oriental theatre of War. Determined to keep it from their Japanese allies who have just been victim to the Nagasaki A-bomb, much of the action takes place in a bordello, of sorts, where women have been drafted in from Shanghai University to "entertain" the Japanese officers and who are now bent on vengeance - or at least most of them are. Is there a traitor amongst them? Meantime, one of the German officers might be a spy too? There are far too many sub-plots, the writing is rambling and the performances are nothing much to write home about.