Viewed on DVD. Subtitles = three (3) stars. Director Seijun Suzuki's Jidai-Geki genre anti-war film set during the second Sino-Japanese War (in mid Twentieth Century) is a ludicrous photo play attempting to illustrate the ludicrous nature of war. The plot is about a professional sex worker (who is not a "comfort woman") in Northern China pursuing (literally--all over the screen including in the middle of military maneuvers and in the midst of battles!) a Japanese mid-ranking soldier (who is a reluctant lover at best). This is a prostitute who works out of a Japanese brothel (which seems to be worker owned and operated) consisting of about a dozen women. They are supposed to be the only sex workers in the region with each servicing, perhaps, up to a hundred military clients per 24 hours! The Chinese fighters are depicted as the "good guys" and the Japanese mostly as brutes (the exceptions being those who desert and those who will not execute the prostitute's lover who had returned (he was actually dragged by the hooker through war zones) to base camp as an injured combatant instead of following military protocol and killing himself in the field when wounded). After about 90 minutes of this repetitious nonsense, the protagonists engage in the "traditional" lover's joint suicide (which does not come soon enough for bored viewers who are still awake!). The Director does not appear to be in control of his actors and actress--they seem to have been given Carte Blanche! Whatever the reason, acting is across-the-board terrible or nonexistent--it's amateur-night all round. Leading actress Yumiko Nogawa delivers a 1.5 dimensional character with back-and-forth "acting" that ranges from phony sobbing to screaming. Cinematography (wide screen, black and white) is okay, but some scenes are on the dark side (which subtracts rather than adds to the drama when the viewer really needs to see what is going on---starting with the opening credits). Interior scene continuity is sometimes missing. The back lot exterior set looks patently phony. Special effects (mostly explosions and a bit of rear-screen projection thereof) are good. Subtitling is incomplete. Some signs are not translated. Almost all singing (of which there is quite a lot and often integral to the story line) is not subtitled. As usual, Criterion's DVD menu makes it difficult to easily determine if subtitles are turned on or off---seems to be a company tradition! Aggressive avoidance recommended. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.
Review of Story of a Prostitute
