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Maruhi: Joro Ichiba
Secret Chronicle: Prostitution Market
The Virgin Courtesan
Japan 1972
produced by Akira Miura for Nikkatsu
directed by Chusei Sone
starring Yuko Katagiri, Hiroshi Gojo, Nobutaka Masutomi, Shingko Jo, Chigusa Takayama, Aiko Kano, Akemi Yamaguchi, Hijiri Abe (as Sei Abe), Akira Takahashi, Tatsuya Hamaguchi, Masuo Kinukasa, Ei Konatsu, Kyoichi Mizuki, Shigeko Ando, Kazumi Mori, Akito Yoshida, Saburo Shoji, Yoshiaki Taniguchi, Tadayuki Kitakami, Kenji Shimamura, Makiko Fukamachi, Kensuke Tamai
screenplay by Tanaka Yozo, based on the novel Furyu Shukuba Joro Nikki by Ichiro Araki
review by Mike Haberfelner
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The early 19th century, when prostitution was flourishing in Japan, and
whorehouses were dependant on whore brokers, who went to small town to buy
them girls in auctions. One such whorebroker is Kochi, who comes from a
long line of whorebrokers and takes pride in his expertise. In a small
town, he finds Oshin (Yuko Katagiri), an innocent yet very pretty but weak
in the brain girl who Kochi thinks has the perfect (for sex) vagina - and
he gets her at next to nothing, and makes a good margin even when he sells
her for cheap to madam Kikuji (Hiriro Abe). Well, problem is that Oshin
has no idea at all what being a prostitute entails, and she probably
wouldn't even be adverse to it ... but nobody explains to her, so she
makes it through customer after customer remaining a virgin: She chases
off a brush-seller taking him too literally, sees to it that a sumo
wrestler breaks through the floor, and three blind men almost kill one
another. Finally, the madam figures it might be good to let Oshin practise
with another whore before being let loose on men again - and Oshin really
enjoys sex, but wears her colleague out to breaking point. It is decided
that Monta (Hiroshi Gojo), one of the seducers of the region, should
deflower her. But somehow, Oshin feels freaked out by his scar across his
face, and ultimately her bull takes care of him. This is too much for
madam, so whe locks Oshin in without food for five days, then forces her
to have sex with Monta for food - but when he offers her his penis - well,
she mistakes it for food, and ... ouch! Kochi returns to the whorehouse
and is forced to take Oshin back for the full price paid, but to save his
honour as a whorebroker, he insists of having sex with her before the eyes
of the madam first - and it doesn't only work out greatly, it's also
fabulous and touching and ... Kochi dies in ecstasy. Oshin is thrown out
of the whorehouse, together with Kochi's body. And in her desperation, and
seeing Kochi still has a hard-on, she has sex with the corpse in an effort
to bring it back to life. Now no matter how this synopsis comes
across, not only in the light of today's sensibilities and political
correctness, Secret Chronicle: Prostitution Market is not a movie
to be taken all seriously, it's a very farcial approach to what could have
been a tragic story, and also a film that doesn't shy away from broad
humour. But what sets it apart from most sex comedies (from both the East
and the West) of its time is that it is never really flat in its approach
or goes for a cheap joke for the joke's sake, instead gives its subject a
stylish treatment (which also includes a sung narration) and makes its
hyper-naive lead character also a very likeable one as well as giving all
the other characters at least a hint of depth. Not a masterpiece, mind
you, but still very likeable.
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