Release Date

April, 13th, 1960

Running Time

105 min

Genre

Feature

Color

Color

Screening Format

-,HDCAM SR

Screen Size

Cinema Scope (1:2.35)

Sound Processing

-

[ Directed by ]

• ICHIKAWA Kon

[ Cast ]

• ICHIKAWA Raizo
• WAKAO Ayako
• NAKAMURA Tamao

[ Staff ]

• WADA Natto ── Screenplay
• ICHIKAWA Kon ── Screenplay
• YAMASAKI Toyoko ── Original Story

[ Production Company ]

DAIEI

[ Distributor (Japan) ]

DAIEI

[ Story ]

In 1926 Kikuji was a real "Bonchi", the son of a great merchant family of the Osaka Senba District. The house is ruled by the grandmother, a stern matriarch who, with her daughter Sei, wants to see young Kikuji married well. What they particularly want is for him to father a girl so that they can adopt a husband as industrious as Kikuji's father, and thus keep the power among the women.
They settle for Hiroko from a humble family and soon put her in her place. Anxiously they await the birth of the child. It turns out to be a boy and, furious, the grandmother sends the girl back to her home. Now, more or less free, Kikuji begins playing around, going from one geisha house to another. At a party they meet the proprietress of the restaurant named Ofuku to whom the grandmother takes a great liking and wants her for her grandson's mistress. But Kikuji has other ideas for he has met a very young geisha named Ponta, who has a strong yen for jewelry. Soon afterwards Kikuji begins to keep another girl named lkuko, while Ponto has a child, a boy, Kikuji, now takes yet another girl, a cafe waitress named Hisako.
lkuko gives birth to Kikuji's third boy and dies. The grandmother now insists that Ofuku be next, the reason being "She has the skin of women who bear only girls," But Ofuku says that she cannot have any children.
Soon afterwards Japan enters the Pacific War, and in February 1945, the Senba district is completely destroyed. However, the women return but grandmother, completely lost in the new world, commits suicide.
Since all his former mistresses are dead as far as he is concerned, he has put up their memorial tablets in the family shrine.
Had he not been born in such an old-fashioned house, the Master would have become the greatest "Bonchi" Osaka ever saw.

【Quoted from the database of Kadokawa Corporation】
【Quoted from Unijapan Film Quarterly 1960 3.3】

[ Contact (International) ]

KADOKAWA CORPORATION
International Sales, Motion Picture Business
2-13-3 Fujimi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8177
Rep: NATSUNO Takeshi (President)
Attn: MORI Chiyo
tel: +81 50 1746 1220
E-mail: mori-c@kadokawa.jp
http://www.kadokawa.co.jp