Hero of the Red-Light District

1960 Japanese film

Chiezō Kataoka
Yaeko Mizutani
Isao Kimura
Minoru Chiaki
Shinobu Chihara

CinematographySadaji YoshidaEdited byShintarō MiyamotoMusic byToshio Nakamura

Production
company

Toei Company

Distributed byToei Company

Release date

4 September 1960 (1960-09-04) (Japan)^[1]^[2]

Running time

109 minutesCountryJapanLanguageJapanese

Hero of the Red-Light District (妖刀物語花の吉原百人斬り, Yoto monogatari: Hana no Yoshiwara hyakunin giri), also titled Yoshiwara: The Pleasure Quarter or Killing in Yoshiwara, is a 1960 Japanese jidaigeki and drama film by Tomu Uchida.^[1]^[2]

Plot

Jirozaemon, a successful textile merchant from the provinces, cannot find a wife because of his disfiguring birthmark. Even the courtesans in Yoshiwara refuse to entertain him. When he meets enslaved street prostitute Tamatsuru, who treats him with kindness, he falls in love with her, intent to free and marry her, which leads to his downfall.

Cast

Chiezō Kataoka as Jirozaemon
Yaeko Mizutani as Tamatsuru (credited as Yoshie Mizutani)
Isao Kimura as Einojo
Minoru Chiaki as Josuke
Shinobu Chihara as Yaegaki

Legacy

In his Story of Cinema, David Shipman declared Uchida "the equal of Mizoguchi and Kinugasa" for this film, while film historian Alexander Jacoby rated it as "ultimately one of his [Uchiwara's] most conventional" works and "academic".^[3]

Hero of the Red-Light District was screened in the Museum of Modern Art as part of a retrospective on Tomu Uchida in 2016.^[4]

References

^ ^a ^b "妖刀物語花の吉原百人斬り". Kinenote (in Japanese). Retrieved 12 July 2023.
^ ^a ^b "妖刀物語花の吉原百人斬り". Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese). Retrieved 12 July 2023.
^ Jacoby, Alexander (July 2005). "Uchida, Tomu". Senses of Cinema. No. 36. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
^ "Yoto monogatari: Hana no Yoshiwara hyakunin giri (Killing in Yoshiwara). 1960. Directed by Tomu Uchida". Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 12 July 2023.