Suzaki paradaisu: aka shingo / Suzaki Paradise: Red Light District

Yuzo Kawashima: 洲崎パラダイス 赤信号 / Suzaki paradaisu: aka shingo / Suzaki Paradise: Red Light District (JP 1956).

 

Yuzo Kawashima: 洲崎パラダイス 赤信号 / Suzaki paradaisu: aka shingo / Suzaki Paradise: Red Light District (JP 1956). Tatsuya Mihashi (Yoshiji, marito di Tsutae) and Michiyo Aratama (Tsutae) under the gate of the bridge to Suzaki Paradise.

洲崎パラダイス 赤信号 / Suzaki paradaisu: akashingô / Suzaki Paradise Red Light.
JP 1956. Director: Yuzo Kawashima. 81 min
    Sog.: from an original story by Yoshiko Shibaki. Scen.: Toshiro Ide, Nobuyoshi Terada. F.: Kurataro Takamura. M.: Tadashi Nakamura. Scgf.: Kimihiko Nakamura, Mus.: Riichiro Manabe. Ass. regia: Shohei Imamura.
    Int.: Michiyo Aratama (Tsutae), Tatsuya Mihashi (Yoshiji, marito di Tsutae), Yukiko Todoroki (Otoku), Seizaburo Kawazu (Ochiai), Izumi Ashikawa (Tamako), Shinsuke Maki (Nobuo), Kenjiro Uemura (Denshichi), Shoichi Ozawa (Sankichi), Kyozo Fuyuki (Sobo).
    Prod.: Nikkatsu. DCP. D.: 81’. Bn.
    Songs: "Akai hi yo sayonara" (lyr. Takao Saeki, comp. Masanobu Tokuchi), sung by Natsue Yuri. "Suzaki Elegy" (lyr. Akinori Matsuo, comp. Takurô Kitano), sung by Teruo Hirai.
    Unreleased in Finland.
    Bologna: Il Cinema Ritrovato 2020: Yuzo Kawashima: The Missing Link
    DCP from Nikkatsu .
    Japanese version with English subtitles by Stuart J. Walter on DCP.
    E-subtitles in Italian by Sub-Ti Londra.
    Introduce Alexander Jacoby
    Viewed at Cinema Jolly, 29 Aug 2020

Alexander Jacoby and Johan Nordström (Il Cinema Ritrovato 2020): "Kawashima’s personal favourite among his own films recounts the story of a poor couple who find work in the bars and restaurants of Tokyo’s red light district. Lead actress Michiyo Aratama would go on to appear in films by Ozu, Ichikawa, and Kobayashi and Kihachi Okamoto. Tatsuya Mihashi, a regular in Kawashima’s Nikkatsu films, was in the early stages of an extensive film career; he would appear in Kurosawa’s The Bad Sleep Well (1960), and in Japanese- American co-productions None But the Brave (1965) and Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970). Shohei Imamura, who served as assistant on the film, praised its “extremely convincing, chilly atmosphere”, and the way in which this story of marginalised characters captured “the intimate atmosphere” of Yoshiko Shibaki’s source novella. Scholar Tomoyuki Sasaki refers to the film as “a counter-narrative to the success story of postwar economic recovery and growth that the Japanese state sought to promote”. In it, Kawashima “addresses the issues of the economic stagnation within the metropolis, uneven development, and the liminal space of muen, or ‘no ties’, which offers a brief refuge from an increasingly disciplined everyday life”. Its characters are simultaneously freewheeling and crafty survivors, and losers bound to repetitive and self-destructive behaviour. Through their experiences, Kawashima captures the anomie of postwar Tokyo. The “Kinema Junpo” reviewer praised the acting of Michiyo Aratama as Tsutae and Yukiko Todoroki as Otoku, but felt frustrated by the film’s tone, with its helpless main characters and their story, and hopeless ending. Nevertheless, he did praise Kawashima’s direction, stating that “it is a film I am glad to have seen, and depiction of the life of the young man and woman who only live for lust is done skillfully with a dry touch”. Kawashima himself stated that “Although Bakumatsu taiyoden has become known as my signature work, this is the kind of film I prefer. Although it was shot over an extremely short period of time. I more or less totally changed the script”. Shooting the film in the less salubrious corners of Tokyo proved perilous, as the director recounted: “When we first went to the shooting location, there was both an old and a new yakuza group with influence, and we had only cleared it with the old group. I, as the director, was called out as they surrounded me with drawn swords. At times like these, the police never do anything. Things like this actually happen in reality”." Alexander Jacoby and Johan Nordström (Il Cinema Ritrovato 2020)

Nikkatsu summary: "A couple stand indecisively on a bridge in Asakusa. Tsutae and Yoshiji have lost confidence and passion for their future as they get on the bus for Tsukishima and get off at Suzaki. Across the bridge they see the sign for Suzaki Paradise, a red-light district where Tsutae once worked as a prostitute. Tsutae spots an ad for a waitress at a bar near the bridge and she rushes in to get the job. The kind hearted madam, Tokuko, helps them out by hiring Tsutae and finding work for Yoshiji delivering noodles. But the wanton Tsutae is soon attracted to Ochiai, a rich, generous man who owns an electrical shop specializing in radios." (Nikkatsu summary)

AA: A red light district emerges as an allegory of the post-war reconstruction period. Lots of trucks pass the bridge to Suzaki Paradise for urban development, and men still cross the bridge for recreation, although an anti-prostitution law is about to come into force.

The allegorical approach brings to mind G. W. Pabst's Joyless Street and Helmut Käutner's Black Gravel. For a fleeting moment the sign over the bridge evokes to me the Nazi slogans "Arbeit macht frei" and "Jedem das Seine".

I'm also thinking about the Finnish post-WWII films of Teuvo Tulio, Roland af Hällström and particularly Maunu Kurkvaara, in which prostitution means more than sensational box-office material.

It's a period of hard work both for enterprising men and diligent sex workers. Tsutae (Michiyo Aratama) has had enough of his no good man Yoshiji (Tatsuya Mihashi) and slides back to her old profession, becoming first a hostess in a sake bar and then a kept woman of a successful radio shop owner.

The humiliated Yoshiji finally stops being sorry for himself and gets a job as a singing noodle courier. He steals money from his employer, but returns it. A female fellow workers looks at him with eyes of sympathy and more, but Yoshiji is too myopic to notice, or perhaps he has lost his self-respect.

Meanwhile, the husband of Tokuko, the sake shop madam, returns and manages successfully to take over as the father of the family, his son visibly energized by his father's attention. But in an underworld showdown Dad is killed.

Yuzo Kawashima paints a rich and vivid portrait of the milieu and the atmosphere. In the middle of Japan's economic miracle, he takes us to a gray and foggy landscape. The people who wander there are deeply hurt and disappointed. On the other hand, the streets and the yards are full of children, evidence of the baby boom that Kawashima had covered in Burden of Love.

A hallmark of the three Kawashima films that I had seen before was a sense of community. That sense is still there in the scenes at the sake bar and the noodle shop. People care, people help, they genuinely wish that the unfortunate one can get back on his or her feet again.

But in this film the force of anomie is more powerful. When Tsutae and Yoshiji are reunited in the finale we don't know if this is a cause for joy or regret.

The score by Riichiro Manabe and the song selections on the soundtrack are intriguing.

The digital transfer by Nikkatsu does justice to the densely nuanced cinematography by Kurataro Takamura.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: PRESENTATION AT THE NIKKATSU WEBSITE:

洲崎パラダイス　赤信号
(すざきぱらだいすあかしんごう)

東京洲崎遊郭の飲み屋を中心に、歓楽街に出入りする、明日知らぬ人生を生きる儚い男女の生態を描いた風俗映画の異色篇。

監督
川島雄三

キャスト
蔦枝＝新珠三千代　お徳＝轟夕起子　落合＝河津清三郎　義治＝三橋達也　玉子＝芦川いづみ　信夫＝牧真介　女中志願の女＝桂典子　廓の女＝田中筆子　傳七＝植村謙二郎　そばやの主人＝冬木京三　三吉＝小沢昭一　大工風の男＝山田禅二　廓の女＝菊野明子　傳七の女＝隅田恵子　初江＝津田朝子　すしやの主人＝小泉郁之助　警官Ａ＝阪井一郎　警官Ｂ＝里実　ラヂオ店の店員＝加藤義朗　ボートの男＝紀原耕　氷屋＝青木富夫　弁天座の歌手＝谷和子　すし屋の小女＝宮地正美　隣りのお内儀＝芝あをみ　娼婦Ａ＝鈴木俊子　娼婦Ｂ＝久場礼子　娼婦Ｃ＝森みどり　バスの車掌＝加藤温子　日雇労務者＝村田寿男　日雇労務者＝吉田勇男　日雇労務者＝椿とみ　刺青の男＝宇部信吉　連れの女＝鈴川節子　和男＝平沼徹　俊男＝松本薫（劇団N.B.K）

脚本
井手俊郎　寺田信義
音楽
真鍋理一郎　

その他スタッフ

原作／芝木好子(講談社「州崎ﾊﾟﾗﾀﾞｲｽ」より)　撮影／高村倉太郎　照明／大西美津男　録音／橋本文雄　美術／中村公彦　編集／中村正　助監督／今村昌平　製作主任／林本博佳　スクリプター／飯村知子

特飲街 「洲崎パラダイス」に当てもなくやってきた女・蔦枝（新珠三千代）と男・義治（三橋達也）。流れ者だった二人はここから真っ当な人生を歩むことにし、蔦枝は「洲崎パラダイス」の入り口に建つ飲み屋で、義治は飲み屋の女将（轟夕起子）の世話で近所のそば屋で働くことになるのだが…。遊郭の住人たちとの物語を描いた、芝木好子原作の小説を映画化したドラマ作品。