Gate of Flesh

Messy as hell, Gate of Flesh seems more keen on providing the viewer with sleazy entertainment than a serious critique of America's post-war occupation of Japan, but the highly irreverent prostitution melodrama hits a sweet spot few directors manage to pull off well. Suzuki kinda reminds me of Pedro Almodovar, in that respect. I'll have to check out more of this guy's movies, for sure. Exciting, colorful, dynamic filmmaking - kind of like a proto-grindhouse flick, as done by a non-amateur.

A vibrant color palette and the violent sheen of incredibly sweaty bodies scream through the darkened interiors of this striking mood piece, while the exteriors show a busy U.S-occupied Tokyo summer of urban decay. The angry, hedonistic, sado-masochistic, cheerfully repressed characters likewise combine a youthful energy with an amoral dilapidation ("we're alive and we're eating; what more could we want?"). This is one of the wilder Japanese answers to the European New Wave.

Yet another great Japanese movie about prostitutes.

2nd favorite Suzuki flick right here.

Gate of Flesh seems like Japan's attempt at Blacksplotation. The five leading ladies are all strong in their own right, working the mean streets of Tokyo post war. There is a bitterness that encapsulates the era, at very least within the eyes of Seijun Suzuki, the director. There is a lot of over the top acting, but it never wore on me. There were moments of sorrow for these women, forced to work like this but there was a power to them owning themselves and making their own rules.

Visceral and very entertaining, but not quite as captivating as other Suzuki movies I've seen.

Wild, colorful film full of nudity, sadomasochism and crazy melodrama. It really puts the exploitation in exploitation film.

An x-rated social-critique fable from the master of Japanese "schlock" cinema. One of my favorite Japanese films, although it does suffer from a flawed, slower pacing.

For a B-movie, this one punches above its weight. I enjoyed the sets and the unapologetically-ironic theatrical camera zooms. It's hard to tell if the director wanted to promote the women's liberation or undermine it by making them all go ga-ga over the wounded man who enters their enclave. It's just on this side of tasteful sleaze.

I enjoyed watching this, mostly, and the anti-American bitterness was unusual and oddly refreshing. But overall it just didn't push my buttons in any special way.

Em honra de Jô Shishido (1933 - 2020), as bochechas mais famosas do cinema. Na trívia no imdb há um paralelo interessante entre esse filme e The Beguiled, é claro que as coisas aqui são muito mais punks que suas versões americanas (e puritanas comparadas com esse aqui), de todo modo o filme do Suzuki é uma porrada em termos de instintos primários dos humanos versus o antiamericanismo pós-guerra. Box Versátil A Arte de Seijun Suzuki.

Suzuki'nin "çiğ" sineması mest edici. Savaş sonrası Tokyo'yu bir tür distopyaya dönüştüren teatral dekorlar, aşırı oyunculuklar ve sipsivri bir politik altmetin.

2.dunya savasi yenilgisiyle abd isgali altindaki japon toplumun yasadigi ezikligi en alt tabaka uzerinden anlatmis. bir grup fahise kendi koyduklari kurallarla acimasiz dunyada daha acimasiz olmak zorundalar.

Gate of Flesh practically drips with entertainment and sleeze, anticipating the great grindhouse films of the 70s. Paul Verhoeven would be proud.