The High-Definition transfer of this DVD makes all the visuals so much more appealing

DVDs:

	• Gate of Flesh - Criterion Collection Yumiko Nogawa, Jo Shishido Criterion, 2005 average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

In search of the destruction of the oppression `s chain!

Seijun Suzuki pushed out until the last consequences this tour de force script based possibly on a true story. It concerns about a group of prostitutes who decide to rebel and break away against the pimp who oppress them. This plan is molded with the help a gang of organized criminals but the things pitifully will turn another road, when the plan fails.

Brutal, somber and devastating statement about the abuse and human degradation in Japan. A story well known but told with such realism and force that engages you from start to finish.

The High-Definition transfer of this DVD makes all the visuals so much more appealing

Back in 1964, as it is still to this day, Japan has always rated their movies for two specific audiences only. In America, we rate movies, R, PG, PG-13, and even G (although, I don't think anything qualifies as G anymore). In Japan, it's either Adult or General Audience. This movie "Gate of Flesh" is definitely a Japanese Adult film. We get nudity, sex, fowl language, and even violent beatings and torture.

I love the raw, filthy extent of decadence that Seijun Sazuki has created for this film. Out of all the film's he's created, for some reason, he seems to be mildly ashamed of this one. He and production designer Takeo Kimura has created a cult classic of fabulous artistic visual achievement.

As you are aware, this film is about the life of prostitutes living within the war ravished ruins of the streets of Tokyo, just after the end of World War II. The main focus is on 5 Japanese girls. Prostitutes that work for themselves (no pimps), and share a burned out abandoned building, and live by certain set rules. They sell themselves on the streets and keep their money for themselves, however, if any of the girls give away sex for free, the other girls will tie her up and beat her senseless. All the girls are beautiful and yet their sweaty, filthy appearance actually contributes to what makes this film look so good.

What makes this film so beautiful to watch is how each of the girls wear a specific color of dress, which adds to the way the girls differ from each other, and although it was never initially intended, the Japanese audience actually created a personality perception based on colors, of the girls identified by the specific colors of how they were dressed. Here's the interpretations of how the girls are perceived:

Roko (Tamiko Ishaii) dressed in Yellow, is said to represent kindness and compromise.

Sen (Satoko Kasai) dressed in Red, is said to represent belonging or fear.

Maya (Yumiko Nogawa) dressed in Green, is said to represent peace and tranquility.

Mino, (Kayo Matsuo) dressed in Purple, is said to represent loneliness and anxiety.

Machiko (Misako Tominaga) dressed in White, isn't given a description of her persona, which is why they probably just had her dressed in white and used her as the fallen one who has broken their most enforced rule: giving it away for free. Machiko was married to a man who died in the war, so she, more or less, is just trying to find a new love. She sees a man on a regular basis and never takes any money. So eventually, she getsa caught by one of the other girls so they wait for her when she returns to them. She then gets stripped, tied-up, then beatened by the other girls just within inches of her life. To Japan, this must be acceptable behavior for prostitutes in Japan, and therefore, entertainment as well for the adult audience.

But, alas, a new obstacle enters the girl's domain. A runaway fugitive named Shin Ibuki (Jo Shishido), enters into the girls homestead and then begins to order the girls around. He's injured so he doesn't plan on leaving anytime soon and his aggressively mean demeanor is actually somewhat appealing to the girls.

The girls suddenly begin to have yearnings to be with Shin although they all know they must not break their most brutally enforced rule. Shin will not stay much longer, so Maya takes a chance at giving herself to Shin and hopes that he will take her with him when he leaves. She seduces him when he is drunk, and Sen catches her. Now, it's Maya's turn to be punished.

In the making of this film, you will see that Americans have set up a base right outside the city and they are always hitting on the prostitutes of Tokyo. You can tell, and Seijun Sazuki even admits, that he still had some bitterness and some hostility against Americans back then and so trying to work with some American actors, he had to fight with some of his own prejudices.

And here's something else that you don't see very often on film. No special effects done here. A cow is brought into the girls domain, struck on the head with an axe, killed, and gutted right there on the floor, in front of the girls, captured on film. Some people might be sensitive to seeing something like that.

So, to end this review, I will say that this film looks really good. The girls are beautiful and you can tell that this is a fabulous High-Definition transfer. Satoko Kasai (Sen) dressed in Red really looks very sharp and appealing to the eye, as all the girls do in their colors. If RED looks good on film, you know the rest of the film will look beautiful, too.

For as old as this film is, you would think they could always make films look better than they do. This film looks better than many newer films that come out on DVD today. Why is that? Do they save the better mastered copy so they can re-sell it again later? I think that's what's happening. I've bought many films on DVD, that I've re-purchased when they claim to have a "new digitally re-mastered" version. That's American commercialism for you. Give as little as you can, sell it, then beef it up, and resell it again.

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Vibrant and gritty.

I admit some degree of defeat after watching Seijun Suzuki's film Branded to Kill. Here's a movie that messed with my mind something awful; that constantly required me to reset my thought process just to be able to make heads or tales of what I was seeing. But every time I would calibrate my brain to get in step with Branded to Kill, the damn movie would do something perplexing to throw me off. There were some parts of the movie that I could comprehend, like a grown man peeing his pants. Or people with guns running around. Those things made sense to me. But otherwise I was dumbfounded.

Recently, I decided to give Seijun Suzuki another shot and check out his prostitute exploitation movie, Gate of Flesh. Man, what a completely different experience this movie was. While Branded to Kill is a frustrating avant-garde attention span torture device of a movie, Gate of Flesh is about cute Japanese prostitutes who wear colorful dresses... and torture the sweet crap out of each other.

Set just after World War II in Japan, when American soldiers were ever-present and the stench of desolation and defeat burned the collective nostrils of a once proud nation, Gate of Flesh is joyfully grim heap of fun. Seijun Suzuki himself acknowledges that this movie was intended to be an exploitation picture, but that didn't stop him from loading Gate of Flesh with lovely colors, stylish sets, and quirky visual flourishes. Gate of Flesh combines two of my favorite things, visual flair and tittilation, into a handsome package.

The main characters of the film are a group of prostitutes that don't see much good in slaving for a pimp, so they take care of each other under one condition: don't provide sex for free. This, of course, rules out having any meaningful relationship with men. When one of their group does attempt a non-business relationship, the penalty is harsh. Even though Gate of Flesh was made over forty years ago, I would have to say that it would probably get a light R-rating if it was made today. There are a few brief glimpses of female skin here and there, but the punishment scenes coupled with the frequent profanity would probably still get many viewers' panties in a bunch. There are way more graphic and sadistic movies out there, but considering the time that Gate of Flesh was made and the skill behind it, I was pretty impressed.

In an interview, Suzuki mentions how it would have been easier to make the movie right after the war ended because then he would have had real burnt out buildings to use. Though this would have probably made Gates of Flesh more realistic, I think that the sets add distinctiveness to the film. The art decoration in Gate of Flesh is borderline beautiful at times, and a more realistic approach would have greatly altered the look of the film, I believe. In Suzuki's hands, though, it may have been just as appealing.

Along with Nights of Cabiria, which I truly adore, Gates of Flesh stands as one of my favorite films about prostitutes. When I think about it, I realize that neither of these films portrays prostitution in a realistic manner. Both are somewhat fanciful in their approach, and while Gate of Flesh is considerably more gritty than Nights of Cabiria, it's really just a torture movie with pretty colors and prostitutes that are more attractive than they should be. Yes, I am a shallow escapist, thank you very much.

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Welcome to the pinky revolution.

Gate of Flesh (Seijun Suzuki, 1964)

Bad-boy director Seijun Suzuki, whose entire career seems to have involved pushing as many envelopes as possible, helped usher in the pinky era in Japanese cinema with Gate of Flesh, a period piece set just after World War II, when rationing was in effect and women who found themselves without families seem to have had no choice but to become prostitutes.

Maya (Yumiko Nogawa) is one of those girls. She starts out the film as an innocent, but is very quickly adopted into a group of freelance prostitutes who live by a strict code. The opening scenes of the movie depict Maya's transformation from innocent to professional, but she never really gives up most of her idealism. Enter Shintaro (Jo Shishido), a small-time swindler injured in the murder of a G.I., who comes back to the girls' house to recuperate from his injuries. As the two of them grow closer, Maya finds herself struggling not to break the girls' one main rule: never fall in love.

One does not really expect greatness from a pinky film, especially those of us who aren't old enough to have been around during Suzuki's golden age (he's still alive, and as of this decade, still directing-- Pistol Opera appeared in 2001-- but he stopped cranking out movie after movie back in the early eighties). But Gate of Flesh is something entirely different; it puts me in mind of Samuel Fuller or Nicholas Ray, but with added sex. The acting here is exquisite, and the direction is inspired (but those who are aware of Seijun Suzuki would expect nothing less). "Gorgeous" is not the correct work for Shigeyoshi Mine's soiled, smoky cinematography, but you get the idea; even with thirty-four years of film stock degradation and Criterion's well-meaning but often slightly off remastering, the sets and/or locations (I've no idea if this is a soundstage or the real thing, which in itself is mighty impressive) leap off the screen. Good stuff, this is, and definitely deserves a wider audience on this side of the Pacific than it's gotten. In a world of pinky, Gate of Flesh is a rich, vibrant blood red. ****

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Gate of Flesh

Brutal and unabashedly lusty, Suzuki's "Gate of Flesh" is unlike other B-movie cult classics with its self-consciously flashy editing and nightmarish artistic design. Disciplined by their sadistic leader, Komasa Sen (Satoko Kasai), this gang of hussies has been taught never to give away their bodies, so Ibuki's criminal pedigree and hunky air throws them all into heated conflict, as each wants to possess him. No mere exploitation flick, "Flesh" gets a lot of mileage out of its visual appeal, torrid (and twisted) love story, and stinging criticism of the Occupation.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

In the shady black markets and bombed-out hovels of post?World War II Tokyo, a tough band of prostitutes eke out a dog-eat-dog existence, maintaining tenuous friendships and a semblance of order in a world of chaos. But when a renegade ex-soldier stumbles into their midst, lusts and loyalties clash, with tragic results. With Gate of Flesh, visionary director Seijun Suzuki delivers a whirlwind of social critique and pulp drama shot through with brilliant colors and raw emotions.

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