A blog formerly known as Bookishness / By Charles Matthews

"Dazzled by so many and such marvelous inventions, the people of Macondo ... became indignant over the living images that the prosperous merchant Bruno Crespi projected in the theater with the lion-head ticket windows, for a character who had died and was buried in one film and for whose misfortune tears had been shed would reappear alive and transformed into an Arab in the next one. The audience, who had paid two cents apiece to share the difficulties of the actors, would not tolerate that outlandish fraud and they broke up the seats. The mayor, at the urging of Bruno Crespi, explained in a proclamation that the cinema was a machine of illusions that did not merit the emotional outbursts of the audience. With that discouraging explanation many ... decided not to return to the movies, considering that they already had too many troubles of their own to weep over the acted-out misfortunes of imaginary beings."
--Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

Search This Blog

Monday, September 28, 2026

Zegen (Shohei Imamura, 1987)

Mitsuko Baisho and Ken Ogata in Zegen

Cast: Ken Ogata, Mitsuko Baisho, Ko Chun-hsiung, Norihei Miki, Hiroyuki Konishi, Sansho Shinsui, Tetta Sugimoto, Taiji Tonoyama, Leonard Kuma, Fujio Tokita, Minori Terada. Screenplay: Shohei Imamura, Kota Okabe. Cinematography: Masao Tochizawa. Art direction: Yoshinaga Yoko'o. Film editing: Hajime Okayasu. Music: Shinichiro Ikebe. 

Sardonic and often raunchy, Shohei Imamura's Zegen takes a jaundiced look at Japanese imperial ambitions in the early 20th century. Ken Ogata stars as Iheji Muraoka, an actual figure who made his fortune by running a chain of brothels in southeastern Asia. In the film, he jumps ship off of Hong Kong and sets up as a barber before being recruited to spy against Russia during the Russo-Japanese War. He becomes convinced of the greatness of the emperor of Japan, especially after being financially rewarded for his services in Manchuria. Returning to Hong Kong, he sets up his business as a zegen -- a pimp -- with the aid of an old love, Shiho (Mitsuko Baisho, recruiting Japanese women to serve in his brothels in Malaya. Eventually, he's challenged both in business and in his relationship with Shiho, by a Chinese rival, Wang (Ko Chun-hsiung). With abundant nudity and talk about sex, Zegen is certainly not reticent about the business it examines, but it also serves as a scathing look at that era in the history of Japan. There are a few really funny moments, such as Muraoka's failed attempt at harakiri, in which he discovers not only that it hurts but that there's actual blood. But it's the kind of film that makes you wince more often than it makes you laugh. 

Posted by
Links: , , ,