Street of Joy (1974)

Recommended

Japan

Feature Film

Original Title: 赤線玉の井 ぬけられます

Director: Kumashiro Tatsumi

Writers: Kumashiro Tatsumi, Shimizu Ikko

Cinematographer: Himeda Shinsaku

Cast: Miyashita Junko, Seri Meika, Oka Naomi, Nakajima Aoi, Kani'e Keizō, Furukawa Yoshinori

Very loosely based on Mizoguchi’s Street of Shame (1956), Kumashiro’s visually arresting Roman Porno – set in a Tokyo brothel in 1955, just before the closure of all such establishments, following the day-to-day lives of four disparate prostitutes, illuminating the realities of their situations – proves to be an episodic, painfully convincing, oft funny, and surprisingly moving film. Iain.Stott