Apartment Wife: Affair in the Afternoon
団地妻 昼下りの情事
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
The first Nikkatsu Roman Porno: a neglected housewife, photographed by her neighbour going into a love hotel with an old friend, is blackmailed into a call-girl ring.
Ritsuko Kasai is a housewife in a new apartment block on the edge of Tokyo. Her husband, Ryohei, is working for a promotion and is too tired for her. Her neighbour, Yoko, whose husband is abroad on business, leaves her a vibrator, and a door-to-door salesman, Hatanaka, sells her condoms. Then Ichiro Kirimura, an old school friend of the couple who has always been sweet on her, calls. They meet, they drink, and she goes with him to a love hotel.
Yoko has photographed them going in. She offers Ritsuko work as a call girl, and when Ritsuko refuses, shows her the photographs: do it, or Ryohei hears about Kirimura. The ring is run by Hatanaka, and everything has been a trap to draw her in. Ritsuko has no choice, but once she starts she finds she enjoys the work, and she begins to spend on clothes and a diamond ring.
Warned by his superior that his promotion is slipping away, Ryohei stakes everything on a deal with a foreign buyer, Mike. A subordinate tells him the man's weakness is women, so Ryohei asks Kirimura to arrange a call girl. The woman sent is Ritsuko. When Ryohei goes to pay, he finds out. He hits her, sees his career finished, and walks out. Her ordinary life gone, Ritsuko turns on Yoko; they grapple, and Yoko hits her head and dies. Ritsuko goes to Kirimura, who loves her, and he says they should go somewhere far away. On the road they cannot keep their hands off each other, and the car goes over a cliff and bursts into flames.
Starring
Kazuko Shirakawaas Ritsuko Kasai
A housewife in a suburban apartment block, neglected by an overworked husband, who is blackmailed into a call-girl ring.
Ritsuko Kasai’s story
Ritsuko spends her days alone on the estate; her husband, Ryohei, is chasing promotion and too tired for her. When Kirimura, an old friend who has always been sweet on her, calls, she drinks with him and goes to a love hotel. Her neighbour Yoko has photographed them, and uses the pictures to force her into a call-girl ring run by the salesman Hatanaka; it has all been a trap. She comes to enjoy the work and spends on clothes and a diamond ring. The woman Ryohei orders for a foreign buyer turns out to be her. Found out, she tells him she has been suffocating in a concrete box, and he walks out. She turns on Yoko, who dies in the struggle, and goes to Kirimura. They die when the car goes over a cliff and bursts into flames.
Tatsuya Hamaguchias Ryohei Kasai
Ritsuko's husband, a salaryman chasing promotion, who orders a call girl for a client and finds his wife sent.
Ryohei Kasai’s story
Ryohei is working for promotion to section chief and is too tired for his wife at night. He notices that Ritsuko's clothes are growing flashier and that something has changed between them in bed, and he grows suspicious. His promotion hangs on a deal with a foreign buyer, Mike, and it is going badly. Told that Mike's weakness is women, he asks his old friend Kirimura to arrange a call girl. When he goes to the hotel room with a colleague to settle up, the woman who has just been with Mike is his wife, and the two stand there without a word. He hits her; his marriage and his promotion are both finished, and he walks out. From that day he does not come home.
Maki Nanjoas Yoko Higashiyama
The neighbour next door, her husband abroad, who brokers housewives into prostitution and blackmails Ritsuko.
Junpo Sekidoas Ichiro Kirimura
An old friend of the couple and a playboy linked to the ring, who has loved Ritsuko since their school days.
Soichiro Maenoas Hatanaka
A door-to-door seller of sex goods who secretly runs the call-girl ring.
Why it matters
Apartment Wife: Affair in the Afternoon launched Nikkatsu's Roman Porno line in November 1971, after the studio had stopped making ordinary films. It cost 7.5 million yen, an unusually low budget, and played to standing-room audiences. It also gave Japanese a phrase: after it, danchizuma, the wife in the housing estate, became an erotic type and a title used again and again. The fantasy sits in a real place: the new concrete estates where a salaryman's wife waited out the day alone, with a husband too tired for her and a salary too small for the things she wanted. Ritsuko says as much when she is found out: she has been suffocating in a concrete box. The story gives her pleasure and money and then kills her for them. The question it leaves is whether a wife's boredom and desire can be told without punishment as the ending.