1960 ‘妖刀物語 花の吉原百人斬り’ Directed by Tomu Uchida
A successful textile industrialist from the provinces, who is beloved by his employees for his kindness, cannot find a wife because of a disfiguring birthmark on his face. Even the courtesans in Yoshiwara refuse to entertain him, until an indentured peasant prostitute, Tamarazu, takes the unsavoury assignment and treats him with brash tenderness.
Chiezō Kataoka Yoshie Mizutani Isao Kimura Minoru Chiaki Shinobu Chihara Kogiku Hanayagi Hiroshi Mizuno Tsukie Matsuura Eijirō Kataoka Kyoko Aoyama Fumiko Okamura Kensaku Hara Sadako Sawamura Harue Tone Masao Mishima Toyo Takahashi Yachiyo Kirishima Harumi Matsukaze Shinnosuke Ogata Hiroshi Kato Kusuo Abe Ryuji Kita Gorô Naniwa Kyōnosuke Murai Mineko Maruhira Kinnosuke Takamatsu Kisho Nomura Chieko Taki Kunijirō Yanagi Show All…
Killing in Yoshiwara, Tales of Strange Swords, Yoshiwara: The Pleasure Quarter, Meurtre à Yoshiwara, Yôtô monogatari: hana no Yoshiwara hyakunin-giri, Ёто-моногатари: История заколдованного меча – Убийца сотен в Ёсивара, 요도 이야기: 꽃의 요시와라 100인 베기, История проклятого клинка: Убийство красавицы в Ёсиваре, 요시와라의 요녀이야기, 妖刀物语 花之吉原百人斩
Russian Federation
Japan
Japan
Russian Federation
A really sublime looking period "romantic" drama from Uchida. The deep colors here are really great, and this looks so lush.
A kind and just man is treated unfairly due to his scarring birthmark on his face. He was abandon as a child and he is shunned from any romantic attention, even thou he is a prosperous business owner, due to his mark. He falls for a Geisha, who he believes is being kind out of love, not for the money he spends on her. She strings him along needing more money, to finance a show/debut/parade for her and then she will be his wife. After his business fails and he is on the verge of ruin does he understand…
A work of pure melancholy and tragedy, as well as a scathing social indictment. So very cruel and so moving. A simple story beautifully told and wonderfully directed by one of Japan's most overlooked directors, Uchida's compositions are measured and the camera movements elegant. The ending is marvelous and it provides the most brilliant form of catharsis. Great great film.
A good story well told results in a pretty great film that needs more exposure in the West. Kenji Mizoguchi's go-to guy Yoshitaka Yoda provides the script for this evocative and detailed melodrama with immaculate set and costume design and expertly nuanced performances (especially the lead, Uchida regular Chiezo Katakowa). It's a story of a decent man (burdened by a birthmark on his face) looking for love in all the wrong places, specifically Edo's pleasure quarter where parasitic pimps and whores feast on good intentions and naiveté. Our earnest unwitting hero is manipulated by scheming brothel owners into becoming the patron to a wholly uncultivated indentured prostitute (Yoshie Mizutani) who has as the result of her employer's desperation and greed…
Also known in the West as Killing In Yoshiwara, Tomu Uchida's quite stunning historical fresco - taken from a play by Chikamatsu - concerns a lonely merchant (Chiezō Kataoka) who compensates for his facial disfigurement by financing a former convict (Yoshie Mizutani) who wants to train to become a geisha, thereby ensuring his financial ruin. This is a dark melodrama of extraordinary power which ends with a sudden cathartic explosion of rage which is the equal of anything Masayaki Kobayashi achieved with similar scenes of mayhem in both Harakiri and Samurai Rebellion. On the evidence of this and his epic crime drama A Fugitive From The Past, Uchida's storytelling ability and directorial skill places him on the same pedestal as Japanese Masters like Kenji Mizoguchi and Akira Kurosawa. High praise..
Online Access: ok.ru/video/2498281802350
Social prisons. Two people trapped with nothing left but destroying each other because those are the roles their limited visions allow them to play. A high theatrical tale of degradation told with beauty and cruelty by the always skilled Tomu Uchida. The way the staging transitions through a series of visual traps is great.
"Plus d'argent, plus d'amour". Un homme généreux se fait manipuler par une geisha dont il est fou amoureux.
Also know as Hero of the Red Light District or Killing in Yoshiwara, Tomu Uchida's film come close to an adaptation of the same source as Renoir's La Chienne and Lang's Scarlet Street.
I don't understand this Americanized title of Killing in Yoshiwara at all, since the film has no heroes...but never mind. This is a sad movie about a kind man with such a horrible birthmark (or "stain") that no woman will marry him. As a result, he's the perfect sucker for a crew of hucksters from the town of geishas, Yoshiwara. It's almost painful to watch, the way this poor man is treated. His generosity to his workers earns him their great devotion, but he's ultimately done in by the one woman who accepts his disfigurement. It's sensitively acted by the lead, Chiezo Kataoka. The long ending is incredible -- one of the best I've seen in any movie. This film…
I've never wanted to help a main character so much and beat the crap out of his enemies.
Je n’ai jamais autant voulu aider un personnage principal et casser la gueule de ses ennemis.
The tale seems like something we have seen and read million times but Uchida doesn't let his viewers take easy routes out. The complex, culturally colored milieu of Yoshiwara red light district is captured without illusions but with enough spark that it's not hard to realize why it would tease male imagination, especially that of highly successful businessman Sano whose parents left him as a child, who carries rough birthmark on his face and therefore spreads more terror than admiration among women. In these parts only way to defy one's fate is to trust on one's cunningness. Otsuru's fall and rise are depicted with enough background for the viewer to make assumption that we are supposed to understand the oppressive…
GATE OF FLESH meets GATE OF HELL meets GATE OF YOUTH meets HEAVEN'S GATE! Depressingly Gate-Tastic fun for the whole family!
