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Street of Shame 1956

Street of Shame

Women working in a Tokyo brothel try to secure a future while money, family and changing public attitudes restrict their choices. Mizoguchi keeps several lives in view rather than offering one representative victim.

Catalogue reference: 85 min (Criterion Collection film catalogue 970 catalogue presentation).

Listed catalogue duration, not a measured runtime. Exact cut and matching disc or stream have not been established.

1956 · Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi

What to expect

The ensemble makes exploitation concrete through different financial obligations and survival strategies. Its force comes from asking what alternatives the women actually have.

How to ease in

Follow each woman’s immediate economic problem. The differences between them are the point, not incidental background.

For viewers interested in labour, money and conflicting survival choices.

Less suitable if you want reassuring solutions.

Heads-up

Sex work, poverty and coercive dependence are central. This is a sober social drama rather than an erotic spectacle.

Sources for the facts

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