A japanese concubine struggles to find love in an adaptation of an award-winning novel…
Directed by Toyoshima Keisuke ( Moriyamachu Driving School ) and based on the award-winning 2006 novel Hanayoidochu by Miyagi Ayako, A Courtesan with Flowered Skin is a japanese historical play focusing on the rough life experiences of an oiran entertainer. In the challenge spark advance character the film stars actress and erstwhile singer Adachi Yumi ( besides in Kiyoshi Kurosawa ’ s 2005 Loft ), with support from Fuchikami Yasushi ( Platinum Data ), Koshino Ena ( Chigasaki Story ) and ( Takaoka Saki, Lesson of Evil ). hardened in the Edo period of Japan in the 1860s, the film takes station in the Yoshiawara joy district, where Asagiri ( Adachi Yumi ) works as an orian, a higher-class entertainer placement than the other prostitutes in the area. Having been tortured by her opium-addict beget as a young daughter, Asagiri ’ sulfur body is covered with small flower-shaped burns, which turn even redder when she gets emotional. After her barbarous patron Kirisato ( Takaoka Saki ) dies, she starts to believe that a better life and an escape might be possible, her hopes buoyed by her growing feelings for young craftsman Hanjiro ( Fuchikami Yasushi ). unfortunately, the coarse realities of liveliness come crashing down again when a brutal client takes an sake in her, with tragic results. There ’ second nothing particularly new about the plot of A Courtesan with Flowered Skin, there having been quite a number of period-set films about the struggles of japanese prostitutes over the years. thankfully, although companion, it ’ s a fib well-told, with a sympathetic central character in Asagiri and a strong central operation from Adachi Yumi holding things in concert. a well as the frequently lower emotional side of the history, which inevitably takes the viewer to some very black places, Toyoshima Keisuke successfully manages to mine Miyagi Ayako ’ s informant novel for some bewitching and pleasingly elusive sociable comment about the hierarchy of japanese society. The movie has slightly of an odd feel that mixes the traditionally theatrical and the contemporary ( the latter in part due to some dialogue choices ), and while this can be a touch jar in places, it besides allows Toyoshima to reflect the portray in the past, adding another level of meaningfulness for those looking for it.
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Toyoshima has had a career which has seen him trying out respective genres, including writing the Sora Aoi-starring Stop the Bitch Campaign : Hell Version, though he turns his hand well-enough to the period play shape. wisely kept to a shorter distance than usual, the film is sanely paced and never gets besides caught up in melodrama, balancing its flimsy romanticism with ground character study. Some good costumes and sets besides help, making the film ’ s diachronic setting more convincing than in similarly theme offerings of late. inescapably, the movie ’ s sexual content is probable to be one of the chief draw and talking points, and Toyoshima punctually packs in a great many graphic scenes, Adachi Yumi frequently appearing nude. however, the sex is very much incorporated into the plat and treated as an ineluctable and day to day part of the oiran ’ sulfur biography, quite than plainly being thrown in for titillation. The film does walk a fine line in this see, and thanks to a markedly unpleasant rape setting and other uncomfortable moments, it ’ mho hard to imagine it going down well with anyone looking for more square exploitation kicks. A Courtesan with Flowered Skin is decidedly one of the better films of its character from Japan over the last few years. Though lacking in surprises, it hits the veracious targets with an admirable absence of bustle, and while not precisely a fun watch, is a worthwhile and well-directed come out of the closet from Toyoshima Keisuke .
A Courtesan with Flowered Skin is available via YesAsia.
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