The Making of a Prostitute (Imamura, 1973): ICA Cinema, 6.30pm
This 16mm presentation is part of the Shōhei Imamura season at the ICA. Full details here.Chicago Reader review:
Kikuyo Zendo, the subject of Shohei Imamura’s funny, shocking, and
seemingly effortless 1975 documentary, was one of thousands of
impoverished Japanese women forced into prostitution and shuttled across
southeast Asia in the early 20th century. The director clearly regards
her story as a vehicle for numerous perennial themes: the resilience of
women, sex as a function of capitalism, and the radical idea that the
oppressed economic underclass are the most reliable commentators on
Japanese history. Sort of a nonfiction follow-up to Imamura’s narrative
films The Insect Woman (1963) and Intentions of Murder (1964), this also looks forward to his 1987 period piece Zegen
in its cynical portrait of Japanese imperialism, and Imamura’s warm
onscreen rapport with Zendo (whom he dotes on as if she were his own
mother) anticipates the humanism of his late masterpieces The Eel (1997) and Dr. Akagi (1998).
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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