Vewed on DVD. Restoration = one (1) star. Director Kenji Mizoguchi's highly repetitive story of life among the street-walking prostitutes in postwar Osaka. Apparently the Director did not feel viewers would get his message (that these women occupy the bottom strata of society) the first time. So he keeps re-sending it throughout the film. This movie is too long, and padding appears to have been inserted so as to stretch the duration of the photo play beyond an hour. The Director postulates that there is a street-walker's "code of conduct" that is enforced by the hookers themselves to prevent prostitutes from going straight. (Of course, this makes for business nonsense, since fewer hookers could demand higher prices. Or is the Director simply regurgitating the ancient saw that "misery loves company"?) Acting is amateurish (you probably have seen better in high school plays), obviously staged (as a result of poor direction and editing), and frequently simply silly. Street scenes shot outside the studio are of historical value, since they show what Osaka looked like 2-3 years after the occupation. The film opens with an elevated roof-top pan across central Osaka which is by far the most interesting part of the movie! This DVD is little more than a wrapper for badly deteriorated original source material, and is among the worse I have encountered for a legitimate commercial release. "Restoration" seems to have been limited to removing reel change-over marks! Video is murky through out, and audio sounds like there is cement mixer always running in the background. Wear marks are ever present, especially during the opening credits. Audio does not kick in until the opening credits are well under way. Subtitles are okay (and help the viewer to deal with the Kansai-Ben dialog). The film "score" is a joke. Music accompanying the opening credits sounds like what you might expect from a 1930's shoe-string serial. There are two simultaneous musical performances used for the closing credits, one piled on top of the other! Cinematography (narrow screen, shades of gray) and lighting are undistinguished. Studio exterior sets depicting bombed out slums look pretty phony. Aggressively avoid this turkey! WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.
Review of Women of the Night
