Gate of Flesh
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Gate of Flesh is a 1964 Japanese film based on a novel by Taijiro Tamura and directed by Seijun Suzuki.
Plot
In an impoverished and burnt out Tokyo ghetto of post-World War II Japan, a band of prostitutes defend their territory, squatting in a bombed-out building. Somehow they eke out a living together. Forming a sort of family in an environment where everyone (American soldiers and Japanese yakuza) is a potential antagonist, the girls cajole each other, and ruthlessly punish any of their group who violate the cardinal rule—no having sex for free. A new girl, Maya (Yumiko Nogawa), joins their group and learns the trade. An ex-soldier, Shintaro Ibuki (Joe Shishido), is shot nearby and holes up with the girls. Each of them starts to crave Ibuki, placing strains on the group. Maya feels it worse, seeing him as replacement for her brother (who died in Borneo). She takes him after a night of drunken revelry, and both are ostracized. Agreeing to run away together, he is shot in a double-cross, and she is left as she was at the beginning of the film—alone and hopeless.
Cast
- Joe Shishido as Shintaro Ibuki
- Yumiko Nogawa as Borneo Maya
- Koji Wada as Abe
- Tomiko Ishii as Roku
- Kayo Matsuo as Mino
- Misako Tominaga as Machiko
- Keisuke Noro as Ishii
- Chico Roland as Catholic Priest
- Isao Tamagawa as Horidome
- Satoko Kasai as Komasa Sen
