Street of Shame
赤線地帯
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Mizoguchi's last film: the women of a Yoshiwara brothel as the anti-prostitution law approaches.
While the Diet debates a bill to outlaw prostitution, the women of Dreamland, a licensed house in Tokyo's Yoshiwara run by Mr and Mrs Taya, go on working, each for her own reasons.
Yasumi is young and calculating. She saves by telling clients what they want to hear and lends money to the other women at interest; one of her regulars, Aoki, embezzles to pay her debts, believing she will marry him. Hanae works to keep a sick husband and their baby. Yumeko, a widow, is putting money aside for her only son and dreams of living with him one day. Yorie longs to be an ordinary wife. Into this comes Mickey, a loud, extravagant young woman from Kobe with American manners.
Their hopes give way one after another. Yorie leaves to marry and finds her husband wanted her only as a pair of hands to work for nothing; she comes back. Hanae's husband, in despair about the future, tries to kill himself. Mickey's father arrives from Kobe with news that her mother has died and asks her to come home; she reminds him of how he treated her mother and throws him out. Yumeko's son tells her he is ashamed of her and disowns her, and she loses her mind. Aoki, finding he has been deceived, attacks Yasumi and nearly kills her.
The radio announces that the bill has failed, and the women, with nowhere else to go, go back to work. Only Yasumi gets out: she buys the futon-rental business of a former client who went bankrupt and becomes its proprietor. In her place the house's young maid, Shizuko, is dressed and made up for her first night. As the others openly tug at passing men's sleeves, she stands in the doorway and, hesitantly, calls to a man.
Starring
Machiko Kyoas Mickey
A brash young woman from Kobe with American manners, who spends freely and throws out the father who comes to fetch her.
Mickey’s story
Mickey comes to Dreamland from Kobe loud, flashy and outspoken, and at once stands out among the women. She spends without a care. Then her father arrives from Kobe with news that her mother has died, and asks her to give up the work and come home, for the family's sake and its good name. Mickey weeps, then turns on him: while her mother was alive he made her cry with his women, and now he talks about appearances. She throws him out. When the radio announces that the bill has failed, she is still at Dreamland with the others; only Yasumi gets out.
Ayako Wakaoas Yasumi
A calculating young prostitute who saves by deceiving clients and lending to her colleagues, and ends up running a business.
Yasumi’s story
Yasumi came to Dreamland to raise bail for her father, jailed for corruption, and has become the house's best earner. She tells each client what he wants to hear and lends money to the other women at interest. One regular, Aoki, a married businessman, embezzles from his firm to pay her debts, believing she will marry him; another, who rents out futons, pours money into her until he has to flee his creditors. When Aoki finds out he has been deceived, he attacks her and nearly kills her. She recovers, and after the bill fails she buys the futon business her fleeing client left behind. She becomes its proprietor, the only one of the women to get out of Yoshiwara.
Michiyo Kogureas Hanae
A married prostitute supporting a sick, despairing husband and a baby on what she earns.
Hanae’s story
Hanae comes in to Dreamland from home each day, and what she earns keeps her sick husband and their baby. On cold nights he comes to meet her with the child, and there is little good news to share on the way home. She joins the others in sending Yorie off to be married. Then her husband, in despair about the future, tries to take his own life, and Hanae goes on working. In the end the landlord turns the family out. When the radio announces that the bill has failed, she is still selling herself at Dreamland, with nowhere else to go.
Aiko Mimasuas Yumeko
An ageing widow working to support her only son, who dreams of living with him one day.
Yumeko’s story
Yumeko, an ageing widow, sends what she earns to her only son and dreams of the day they will live together. When he comes looking for her at Dreamland, she is too ashamed to see him, and he sees her calling in customers. She goes to the country to find him and learns he has gone to work in Tokyo; she is glad he can stand on his own. When at last he agrees to meet her, she tells the others he is sure to ask her to live with him. Instead he calls her work filthy and tells her never to contact him again. Back at Dreamland she sinks into silence, loses her mind and is taken away to hospital.
Hiroko Machidaas Yorie
A prostitute who longs to be an ordinary housewife, and marries, only to come back.
Yasuko Kawakamias Shizuko
The house's young maid, who in the last scene is dressed and made up to work her first night.
Why it matters
Street of Shame was Kenji Mizoguchi's last film. It opened in March 1956, while Japan's parliament was arguing over prostitution; the Anti-Prostitution Law was promulgated that May, and Mizoguchi died in August. It has no single heroine. Its women, each with a reason — a sick husband, a son, a debt, a dream of an ordinary marriage — are shown as workers in an industry with owners, loans and interest, rather than as fallen women or victims, and the film was a commercial success. The issues are sex work and the law, and the ways family, marriage and money push women into the trade and keep them there, while those who want them out of it — a son, a husband, a parliament — offer nothing in its place. The last shot, of the young maid calling in her first client, asks what a reform is worth if it leaves the doorway open.