Yoshiwara (film)

Yoshiwara is a 1937 French drama film directed by Max Ophüls and starring Pierre Richard-Willm, Sessue Hayakawa and Michiko Tanaka. It is based on a novel by Maurice Dekobra. The film is set in the Yoshiwara, the red-light district of Tokyo, in the nineteenth century. It depicts a love triangle between a high-class prostitute, a Russian naval officer and a rickshaw man.^[1]

Reception

The film was Ophüls' greatest pre-war French financial success.^[2] Yoshiwara proved controversial in Japan where the government objected to the depiction of Japanese brothels and banned it. There was a negative reaction against the two Japanese actors who had starred in the film, and they were labelled as traitors.^[3]

Cast

• Pierre Richard-Willm - Lieutenant Serge Polenoff
• Sessue Hayakawa - Ysamo, Kuli
• Michiko Tanaka - Kohana
• Roland Toutain - Pawlik
• Lucienne Le Marchand - Namo
• André Gabriello - Pô
• Camille Bert - Le commandant
• Foun-Sen - Geisha
• Philippe Richard - L'attaché russe
• Ky Duyen - L'agent secret
• Georges Saillard - Le médecin

References

Bibliography

• Bacher, Lutz. Max Ophuls in the Hollywood Studios. Rutgers University Press, 1996.
• Seigle, Cecilia Segawa. Yoshiwara: The Glittering World of the Japanese Courtesan. University of Hawaii Press, 1993.

External links

• Yoshiwara at the Internet Movie Database