What It’s About:
Yoshie (Kuwano) is a young, still-naive Tokyo bar hostess whose life gets transformed one night when she serves drinks to handsome Yakuza soldier Eiji (Hira). The attraction is immediate, and soon Eiji turns his new girlfriend to a more lucrative line of work- prostitution. Yokie complies out of love and a lack of options. Later she strikes up a friendship with Fuiji (Sonoi), a loyal client and respectable type who could offer her a different life. Yet her ties to Eiji are hard to break. Will Yoshie escape?
Why We Love It:
Shot in saturated color on the neon streets of Tokyo, the shiny surfaces can’t fully obscure the baseness of the action, as a man sells his girlfriend into prostitution to please his bosses. Still, we don’t totally hate gangster Eishi; he actually loves Yoshie, and is trapped himself. These tricky, conflicting emotions are what keep this dark, sleek and gorgeous romantic thriller chugging along. A brutal (though tastefully handled) scene where Yoshie is victimized for Eishi crossing his bosses is unnerving, and must have shocked 1964 audiences. Watching this hypnotic precursor to Wong-Kar-Wai’s “In the Mood For Love”, I wondered how I was seeing this for the first time. Don’t miss this rediscovered classic.