 |
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
|
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
 |
|
Japanese-controlled Manchuria, World War II: After Harumi (Yumiko
Nogawa) is left by her boyfriend, she decides to become a hooker on the
frontlines of the war, as she thinks having sex with all those soldiers
will make her forget her past experiences. On the first day at work, she
falls out with the all-powerful adjutant (Isao Tamagawa), but since the
adjutant isn't used to someone talking back to him, he comes to like the
spirit of the girl, and he becomes her regular. And because he's that
powerful, he can even order her around and tell her when to be available
exclusively to him. Harumi hates the adjutant, and she doesn't mind about
showing her feelings, either, but on a physical level she feels drawn to
him, which makes her hate herself, too ... so she wants to have her
revenge on the adjutant by seducing his orderly Mikami (Tamio Kawaji), who
seems to be a man with no will of his own who follows his master around no
matter what and takes all of his insults without even a trace of emotion. After
Harumi has succeeded in seducing Mikami, he is overcome by guilt and
self-doubt - but it soon becomes clear that he is in love with her, and
against all odds, Harumi has fallen in love with him as well, and thus the
two of them continue their relationship, at first without the adjutant
knowing about it of course. When he finds out though, he has Mikami
arrested for the slightest midemeanor. He is only released when the enemy
attacks, primarily because he's his battalion's best gunner - but then
he's wounded on the battlefield, and while his comrades save his
machinegun, they leave him to die. Only Harumi, desperate to save him,
makes her way to his trench - more out of desperation though than with any
real plan at all of how to save him. Ultimately, the two fall into the
hands of the Chinese, who patch Mikami up and offer him a life in peace,
if he collaborates with them. The one alternative is to let him go, but
then he will be court-martialed and shot by his own army for cowardice.
Harumi wants to accept the Chinese offer, but Mikami is way too much a
Japanese soldier to collaborate with the enemy. Thus when the Chinese
retreat, they leave the two lovers behind, and when he's returned to his
own battalion, Mikami is really treated like a traitor and prepared to be
court-martialed - but the adjutant decides to let him keep face, and he
wants to have him shot by his comrades somewhere in the nearby mountains
and have it regarded as a honourable death. Thing is, Mikami's comrades
just can't shoot him, so they return him to their camp - just when the
enemy attacks. During the attack, Mikami and Harumi are reunited, and
they even find a way out to freedom - but mikami is way too much a soldier
and patriot to become a deserter, so he kills himself with a hand grenade,
and Harumi, who doesn't live without him anymore, throws herself onto him
to die with him. In the hands of any other director, this film
would probably have become an unbearable piece of kitsch - but Seijun
Suzuki just isn't any other director, so he has filled up his film with
ironic details, has thrown out everything that suggests realism to find
the right visuals to tell his story, uses highly stylized pictures to
bring his point across, including heavy-handed symbolism used in an ironic
way - and this way, his cheesy story all of a sudden seems remarkably
fresh and original. All that said, Story of a Prostitute is
certainly not Suzuki's best movie, but it shows a master at work
|
amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
find Story of a Prostitute at adultvideouniverse.com
