Hisano is soon re-christened Wakashio and, after failing to escape, she settles into her new life, being schooled in the art of love by head geisha Kokonoe (a wonderful, cat-like Sayoko Ninomiya) and provided with friendship in the form of ex-peasant girl Yoshisato (Mariko Fuji, whose lively performance lands with the satisfying slap of a good Mike Leigh part.)
The original title for this picture translates as Yoshiwara in Flames. And a sense of imminent destruction runs deep: the mob savagery shown by the schoolboys in the opening finds its apogee in the local Salvation Army band permanently marching around in western uniform, swapping the lyrics to The Battle Hymn of the Republic with deadening Japanese claptrap. They are like the Hitler Youth in Cabaret, only here frogmarching the existing culture out the door, rather than trying to shut it in. “Here’s that brass band again. That song really creeps me out”, shudders Ochika when we first hear it. And it is creepy, passing to the lips of passers by, carrying its foreign values through Yoshiwara like the common cold in conquistador Mexico.
“Fujio Morita’s cinematography is exquisite…”
But the actual score here is great. Masaru Satô frames daily business and wild nights well, in a similar fashion to Joe Hisaishi’s Miyazaki score, so much so, one wonders if this tale of captivity might have played some part in that masterpiece’s lineage? To compare further, Scorsese recently mounted this culture clash brilliantly in Silence, and this is a fine, ahem, companion.
Fujio Morita’s cinematography is exquisite, making the very most of the stunning setting, and the costumes by Mamoru Mori and hair and makeup by Rumi Fukumoto and Hatsuo Nagatomo are simply ravishing. But it is perhaps the script by Kazuo Kasahara and Gosha’s handling of it that most impresses. The detail of life here is struck out with constant wit and energy, with veteran director Gosha teasing us with interesting and lurid esoterica like the manufacture of lube, then moving on to some very deep and painful inquiries into the wreckage prostitution causes.
This release was remastered from the 35mm negative with new subtitles and is now widely available in 4K on streaming and as part of Vinegar Syndrome’s new box set Courtesans & Criminals, where it is paired with another Gosha remaster, Onimasa. This is a rich, wild ride into the past.
"…This is a rich, wild ride into the past."
