Women of the Night

In post-World War II Japan, two sisters are forced into prostitution in order to survive and one of them discovers the other is having an affair with her drug-dealing lover., Yoru no Onnatachi (Women of the Night) was one of three Kenji Mizoguchi films entered into competition at the 1957 Venice Film Festival. Like the other two Mizoguchi efforts (Uwasa no Onna, Mushashino Ujin), the film was several years old; in this case, it was completed in 1948. Like many of the director’s best films, Yoru no Onnatachi is a pro-feminist tract, set principally in a Japanese “bagnio”, or legalized brothel. The story centers around two sisters who are forced into prostitution to survive. The film’s climax takes place in a “kangaroo court” presided over by whores, wherein the two women are accused of being traitors to their class.