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CINEMA OF OUR TIME

I believe our admiration for -

for the Chaplins, the Griffiths, the Stroheims -

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THE FREETHINKER

Tokyo...

Tokyo...

It's Tokyo.

Hello. Is this Emiko Asada?

How are you doing?

This is Imamura. I sent you a letter.

So, what do you say? I'd like you to be in my movie.

What?

When are you coming back?

Is that so?

And about your salary,

as I mentioned in my letter -

Really? Where does your mother live?

Delicious.

Madam. Why don't you join us?

Please. Join us.

Please have some of this.

Here you go.

You've heard of Shohei Imamura, the film director, right?

Of course.

Back then, he had a great, great voice.

Very many actresses on his sets were enchanted by his voice.

That's not his only appeal, though.

That's not it at all.

He was great at directing the actors.

Especially the actresses. - That's not true.

I was the jealous type.

I was like, "There he goes. Conquering another actress."

Not that I had proof or anything.

Anyway, he had a great voice.

When he would shout, "Ready. Action!"

His voice just resonated.

How did you -

I screamed hoping my voice would reach their wombs.

Reach their wombs? Oh, my God.

I'm sure you're not going to find film directors like him.

This would upset Akira Kurosawa.

He would say, "He, as a film director, has no class."

Me? No class? That's true.

But I'm sure the actresses understood him.

Well -

They may not have known his true intentions,

but he would scream, "Ready. Action," hoping they'd hear him in their wombs.

And it worked.

It didn't work on us men.

We were like, "Give us a break."

Women do react differently than guys, you know?

- You're right. - So, naturally -

You could say he was casting a spell on them.

That was his magic. - His magic.

That was one of his great skills.

Though sometimes it may have worked against him.

But it was one of his many ways to communicate with actors.

I didn't want my voice to reach the actors' penises.

That would have been wasteful.

I followed you all the way from Sendai.

I wasn't sure when to approach you.

You're pregnant, aren't you?

Is it mine?

It is, isn't it?

I know everything.

That's why you came out here to see a doctor.

Isn't that right?

Hey!

Stop!

Please wait!

Listen...

will you run away with me?

If we stay on this train, we'll get to Tokyo.

I don't know about the future,

but even if it's just for a while...

let's live together.

Let's go to Tokyo.

We can get by there.

Please. Come with me.

Oh yeah, your son. You can bring him along.

I like kids, and they take to me too.

Don't you dare talk about my son!

It makes my skin crawl to hear a man like you even mention him.

This baby isn't yours!

It's my husband's. His and mine.

Now go away!

You promised never to come again! Now leave!

Go away!

That means you were right.

Which gave me confidence.

Also, here's another good example.

During the war,

people who were smart and reasonable -

They were under no illusion that Japan would win the war.

They weren't going to die for the Emperor.

They didn't see him as divine.

There weren't many of these people even in the intellectual community.

But a small number of people did believe we'd lose the war.

You could read the newspapers and it was obvious.

At that point, I certainly didn't think any intellectuals believed in the divine wind.

But there were some educated men who believed it would actually blow.

It wasn't just a wish they were expressing.

They really believed in divine power.

I want you to play one of them.

Remember when we met during the war when we were in junior high school?

When we were talking - - About tombstones?

You asked me, "How does your family grave look?"

I was caught off guard. It had never crossed my mind at all.

And you told me you were keeping the family grave neat and clean.

A little odd, I thought.

- Nothing odd about it. - Actually, you're right.

Anyway, you told me to keep the family grave nice and tidy.

I was shocked and speechless. - Is that so?

Was that in front of the Ueno Museum?

I remember you demanded that I hand you my boxed lunch.

That's not true.

You ate it, though.

I'm a good natured person.

Anyway, listening to you talking about your family grave,

I started to feel a little sense of shame.

Especially after you offered me half of your lunch.

That's when I told myself that I'd keep my family grave clean.

You came home.

How have you been?

This is me being selfish, but I don't want to deal with actors anymore.

I'm not comfortable with people I don't know well.

I think I'm becoming a misanthrope.

You played the lead in The Profound Desire of the Gods,

so you must remember the troubles I had with actors during that shoot.

Working with actors is more trouble than it's worth.

I started to feel that way while making that movie.

I decided that I'd only make documentaries from then on.

So I made documentaries.

You know what? I had used lots of amateur actors before.

Even when I was making dramas,

my mind-set was to "document" the scenes.

So I had no problem switching from drama to documentary.

I ended up making documentaries for nine years.

So it's no mystery

that I was kind of convinced

that pretty much anybody can do a decent job as an actor.

Actually, I don't believe that's entirely true.

Will you please change the plates?

It's more like, anybody can act well if I direct them well.

But when it comes to making movies,

casting the right actors means a lot.

So true. Choosing real actors for particular roles.

Like you said, real actors have their personas already.

Yeah, that speaks volumes in film. - Of course.

I never felt the actresses in my film had to be pretty, though.

Or that the actors had to be good-Iooking.

That was never the priority.

In my mind, every drama is a documentary.

For actors to play ordinary people in drama

they don't have to be more beautiful or handsome than they need to.

So the scripts I write,

the story lines I create,

I don't want to make them superficial by casting only good-Iooking people in them.

I don't believe in dramas consisting of only beautiful people.

Drama is about ordinary people, their lives and the turning points in their lives.

How about giblet soup?

People's everyday lives make for great drama.

I insist on showing that.

Don't do anything naughty at work.

Okay, okay.

Bye-bye.

Mister.

What's up, Kita? What are you doing?

Well, the madam went home. I'm getting us some tofu.

I see. We're getting more food.

Here we go. Enjoy.

Don't you like cold tofu? I do.

You still eat a lot.

So, back to The Profound Desire of the Gods.

You played the main character -

One of them. I played an engineer from Tokyo.

That's right.

You know when you go to small islands -

Many of them only have a population of a couple hundred.

In those remote tiny islands,

people don't have much choice but to marry the islanders.

Naturally, you'd think there would be cases of incest among them on the islands.

That's not necessarily true.

I wondered why.

There's something missing in me

Why don't humans commit incest that easily?

That's because only the Gods are allowed to do so.

We aren't supposed to do that. As humans, we understand that.

Thus, there aren't as many cases of incest as you'd imagine.

There was this one incident, though.

In all the Amami and Okinawa islands, we only found one incident.

What was the situation?

The parents ran a stationary store across from a school.

Their daughter had moved out to somewhere in Osaka.

She was a factory worker,

but ended up as a hostess in clubs.

She had a relationship with a guy who they didn't know much about.

She got knocked up.

She went home to her parents to give birth.

Her parents weren't happy.

Her father hid her from the neighbors.

He was ashamed.

His daughter was having a bastard child. He was more than embarrassed.

He hid his daughter in a farm hut.

She was going to give birth there.

He brought her meals every day.

He felt so sorry for his daughter and her future.

He felt such deep pity for her. And as an act of despair,

he raped his own daughter.

That was the only case we learned about.

He has a wife. The mother of his daughter.

- Her mother. - Yes, her mother.

The mother didn't see the daughter very often.

I wanted to know what the daughter called her father.

I was just curious and asked.

Just like everybody else, she called him "Papa."

Does your wife call you "Papa" because you two have children?

Yes, she does.

Or "Father," right?

Papa.

I'm going to start working again.

We can't go on like this.

We have to pay Mr. Honda back.

I'll save 10 yen to help you.

That's okay.

You know I'm tough. I'll make money.

Don't you worry.

I'll save 10 yen.

I see.

A little digression there.

Not that many cases of incest.

It rarely happens.

I see.

It's hard to comprehend, but I learned it happens more

among people in the city.

You have to change, right?

I can go home like this.

- Your collar is out. - Tuck it in, will you?

So the guys in Osaka

making 8 mm dirty movies were all yakuzas.

I'm sure it's the same thing all over Japan.

The big financier for that in Osaka -

He was from Shikoku. He was called "The Kurosawa of 8mm smut."

One day, he and I got together-

Yeah. Cut it away.

Thanks.

I pretended to be just an old guy from Tokyo who was into dirty movies.

Which is true. That's what I am.

So there I was, with a camera hanging from my neck.

I asked him if I could take pictures around the set, during the shoot.

And I was allowed on the set.

It was such a hot day. Like today.

They had a crew of five. Or three?

Three of four including the director and the cameraman.

So the crew members and I met up

in front of the Matsuzakaya Store in Osaka.

We used a bunch of cloth diapers

to block out the sunlight, but to keep the wind in.

Because we were working on the second floor of a building.

The madam of the bar was there with her child.

She was just...

standing there, looking into the director's face.

I wondered what she was doing. She wanted the money.

She just wanted the money promised her.

It can't have been a lot of money.

He paid her what was due.

She gave her son a little money and told him to go to Tennoji Zoo.

It was so hot, but the kid didn't seem to mind.

As soon as the kid left, we started shooting.

Go, go.

What animals are you going to see at the zoo?

Lion. Tiger. Elephant.

Right.

Hurry it up. We don't have all day.

Hold on. I have to check my inventory.

Who knows how many batteries you'll use?

Gee, you're stingy.

After 5:00 p.m., it's 500 yen for every half hour.

Got it. Will you go already?

I'm letting you use my place to shoot a smut flick.

A smut flick - - Yeah, yeah.

- Smut - - Keep it down.

Go away.

Then the actors came. A shoemaker and his wife.

They weren't young.

I was a little concerned. "How are they going to look naked?"

But the "Kurosawa of 8 mm smut," the financier of the film -

It turned out he was into that. He told me how good they'd look.

He insisted this one title would be a hit.

According to him, it would do much better than the ones with young actors.

I don't know. Maybe I was lucky to be there.

Keiko, you look good in your school uniform.

You look pretty good, too, as a doctor.

Can I see the script?

Let's see.

"A girl in school uniform is studying. A doctor comes in and rapes her.

The man is a scholar type, preferably with reading glasses on."

We need a pair of reading glasses.

What a perv. He makes his fantasy come true in his movies.

The two were drinking.

Shall we?

I think they were drinking beer at room temperature.

They looked at some dirty pictures together.

You know, the ones probably from the Edo period?

The pornographic pictures of that time. They looked at them together.

I wondered, "Can this old guy get it on?"

I didn't think so. - But he had to.

He told me he works as an actor only on Fridays.

I asked the shoemaker why.

He was really old.

He told me he goes to the racetrack every Saturday.

He wanted extra -

- Shall I do both? - Sure.

Stay right there, woman.

This time, it's a simple robbery.

Fight the intruder until I stop you.

Here we go.

Intruder, come in.

Good girl. Good girl.

What the hell?

What are you doing?

You were wearing a mask earlier.

It's okay, but do you want to put it back on?

There you go.

Probably when I changed the razor -

- I see. Do you wear it when you shave? - Yes.

Finally, we started shooting.

There was this boy holding the light.

He was a little punk.

I asked him if he'd done it before or if he'd worked another job.

He said he just got out of a juvenile detention center, a couple days before.

A detention center?

He must have been an aspiring yakuza who got hired.

It was extremely hot that day.

The shoemaker and his wife were wearing themselves out.

It may not be a big problem for the woman,

but the guy was clearly losing his energy.

He eventually gave up, saying, "I can't do this anymore."

So we let him rest in front of the fan.

Actually, he let his penis rest in front of the fan.

But it didn't work.

BARBER MATSUDA Mister, watch out.

You touch me just like it's an accident.

He wanted to rest up.

He said it had happened before.

So the different crew members - - Shall I finish this?

The crew members, including the director,

started to fill in for the actor.

They actually did it with the woman.

You know what?

I was worried about how the scene would look in sequence

because every penis is different.

The shoemaker's penis,

and the crew members' penises were, of course, different,

in size and in color.

I was told not to worry.

It's called continuity in the film world.

I told them the scene wouldn't work.

Then they told me they had a huge film library.

They had miles of footage of fuck scenes with many happy penises working hard.

They were just going to use those tapes for the necessary shots.

I was so impressed.

They were fully prepared.

I've been thinking.

The wife of the shoemaker in the movie, looked just like you do.

You're kidding me.

I kid you not. I'm serious.

She was pretty sexy.

That's good to hear.

She was a bit older.

On the set, I couldn't help myself.

I was supposed to be just a guy from Tokyo, taking pictures.

I started telling the cameraman, "Zoom in. Zoom out."

Or, "Shoot it from this angle." You know? Suggestions.

They figured out that I was more geeky than I had let on.

After a while they started to ask my opinions.

I ended up giving a lot of suggestions and opinions.

That's what I do, you know?

Man, the more I look at you, the more you look like that woman.

Do I? Really?

You don't sound like her. She spoke the Osaka dialect.

I like the sound of the Osaka dialect.

A man

And a woman

On a journey

It gets pretty hot in that area.

And we had many lights on.

It was so hot that your penis withers.

That was tough.

Let me see.

About six months later, three yakuza-Iooking guys came to see me.

To the hotel in Osaka where I was staying.

I was writing a script.

They said, "Today's the premier."

They even brought a film projector with them.

So we watched the film.

I really didn't get it, but they told me it was very successful.

They were appreciative of what I had done.

At that point, they knew who I was.

They thought what I did was a great help.

Lots of pervs bought the movie, they told me.

They thanked me and gave me a box of candy.

Then they left.

As your research work proceeds,

your interest in the subject grows.

It's like you get addicted to learning more and more.

You discover more.

What I witnessed during my research, I used as material in the film.

It was truly an interesting experience.

What I saw that day was directly reflected in my movie.

There's another way to do research.

You can go to a library and learn about the subject in abstract.

But I think hands-on study is much more fun.

That hair stylist really looked like the actress.

That's a good take.

Cut.

Man, it's been a long day.

I drank too much.

Why are you so tired? You can't be that tired.

You think so?

What do you think about when you watch a baseball game?

Nothing, really.

Nothing? But -

Oh, yeah. One thing. I think of my brother.

My oldest brother. You guys never met.

He was 12 years older than I.

He died in the war.

He was a stage actor, just like you.

Really?

Yeah. He'd been an actor since he was in school.

Our father wasn't supportive of him.

He was old fashioned. He was offended by the idea.

My brother was basically disowned for that.

Wow. Just like I was.

He often played at Tsukiji Little Theater,

as a member of a theater company called the Kinyo Club.

Which means Friday, right? - Kinyo, Friday.

Yasue Yamamoto was one of the founding members, I believe.

They did lots of operetta style plays.

Like the one called From Top to Bottom. It was the German Expressionist play.

I didn't understand any of them, though. I was in elementary school.

But my father took me to the theater.

It's funny. After disowning my brother, he still took me to see his play.

At Tsukiji Little Theater.

When the war was getting intense,

The theater was the last place still serving a sweet bean paste parfait.

I think it was operated by Shiose.

So my father said we were going to get the parfait.

That was his excuse to see my brother on stage.

He never admitted it to me, though.

When my brother died,

I, along with my other siblings and cousins, was still little.

I see.

I used to -

I think you're deeply influenced by your brother.

I don't know about that. I was much younger than him.

But you know what they say. Blood is thicker than water.

Maybe. A little bit, anyway.

I'm sure of it.

We grew up watching French films.

Before my brother went off to the war - Before he died, he had made a list.

Maria Chapdelaine was on the list.

So was Un carnet de bal.

That was the list of "20 must-see movies" that he left for us.

Like a will.

- � nous la libert�? - Yeah. That was on the list, too.

I cherish those memories. - Quatorze Juillet?

Goes like that, right?

- You were off key. - I was?

Oh, shut your mouth.

The ch�teau in Paris

So you learned about it from your brother.

- That was my second oldest brother. - Your second brother.

Man, I can't keep track. - I know.

- I'm getting sleepy. I'm tired. - Should we call it a night?

Let's do this again tomorrow.

All right.

YOKOSUKA

The fact is that American culture was suddenly all around us in postwar Japan.

I found myself stunned

that American soldiers were all well-built, or that they all had pointy noses.

But I wasn't intimidated by them.

I had seen Western men in foreign films.

Baby, do you want to go to see the parade with me tomorrow?

I think the movie turned out to be pretty funny.

But the dramatic part of it, which I worked hard on,

was compelling and well developed.

Looking back, being able to make a movie like this just after the war

was just amazing to me.

And soon enough,

ordinary folks started to have this notion

that anything American was convenient, practical, shiny and beautiful.

Japan was saturated with American culture at that time

which amazed me even more.

I was concerned that Japan would become another America.

So in Pigs and Battleships,

there was a line by a little boy

who says, "I want to be an American."

I thought that would show

the enthusiasm the Japanese had for American culture.

I tried to express it

by having this small kid say, "I want to be an American."

I thought that worked out well.

Stop it!

Asshole.

After watching the movie,

Shinji Fujiwara, the novelist, took me out to dinner.

He asked me at the dinner table, "You like the big topics, don't you?"

I told him

I did want to show the power of the pigs in Pigs and Battleships.

Then he said, "Do you want to be another Kurosawa?"

"If you keep leaning towards grandiose topics,

you'll be just like Kurosawa."

I thought "And what's wrong with that?"

But according to the novelist, he thought what Kurosawa lacked

was something I had done very well in my movies.

The way I see things and the way I express them.

The novelist said I was very optimistic.

"Kurosawa is excellent, but we don't need two of him.

Create and go down your own path," he told me.

So I was practically told to forget about grand subjects.

It got me thinking all over again about what to do.

So I was off to the library of Waseda University, just like the old times.

There they are.

Civilization of the Edo Period.

Hi, there.

I understand that you spend lots of time researching before you make a movie.

Especially for The Profound Desire of the Gods.

Or about Kunio Yanagida.

Did you ever think about becoming a scholar?

I was doing pretty well as a film director.

Too late for a career change.

But for a movie like The Profound Desire of the Gods,

you had to have some background in anthropology.

Otherwise you'd have never understood the mind-set of the islanders

or what's important to their lives.

Is that so?

Yes. It wasn't all that easy.

I didn't start writing the script until I was confident.

But you always say the most important thing for humans -

It's not clear to me what lies between depicting humans and studying them.

Just the depiction of humans as they are - isn't that good enough?

You may have a point.

But I understand that it's not that easy.

For instance, for The Pornographers,

or The Insect,

how were you different from a scholar for those films?

It's just a title.

- Is that so? - That's right.

Is that for contrast?

"For contrast"?

I don't understand the meaning of your question.

Why do I study?

I have to. So do all other film directors.

Especially if you write the script. It's your big responsibility.

You really have to work hard.

For a scene such as a killing,

don't you think your knowledge may work against what you're trying to depict?

Couldn't the scene lose the rawness of the act,

the rawness of emotion?

You know so much on an intellectual level,

but wouldn't there be some kind of contradiction?

For the subject of a movie I'm trying to make,

I'd like to prepare myself with a basic knowledge of it.

I like to study regional history to be specific about a region

and about the people who live there.

I must know about them before the first day of shooting.

And somehow, I tend to make movies that require that.

You keep saying "the rawness,"

But you need much more than that to make a film.

Won't you come over today?

I'm thinking of moving closer to your house.

Don't be stupid.

I love you.

So if you study more -

That's right. You can always study more.

You don't lose your passion as a result of studying, do you?

I mean mentally getting tired by the subject.

That never happens.

Truly, knowledge is power. It becomes your confidence.

That confidence is so precious.

When I direct actors,

I can say a lot about the characters to give the actors a reference.

They listen to you. They act as you want them to.

But after a third of the filming is done,

actors learn more about the characters

and about the region in which the story takes place.

Which sort of liberates the actors.

Then, they go their own way during the last third of filming.

It's the actors' egos at work. They're more important than everything else.

They just want to look beautiful in the movie.

And they want to have presence on the screen.

Directors have to decide what to edit out.

When you do that, it shows how much you know

or how much you've learned about the subject.

That's what it comes down to.

It does feel like all my studying is to be a better director.

But then -

Yes?

What is the truth?

I don't know that myself.

I want to find out, too.

I don't know that, either.

Is she lying?

Or is she telling the truth? There's no way to know.

I'm the only one who knows.

Maybe you don't even know.

- The mystery of life. - No one knows.

- Probably no one knows. - Break down the set.

Sounds like you're assuming that one knows whether he's telling the truth.

I don't know what the truth is,

but what I just said is true.

Let's see. Here's a movie set.

No ceiling or roof,

but we've been talking in here as though we were in a real room.

I'm sure you felt the same way.

However, this is nothing more than a stage set created for filming.

You can't really trust how you feel, can you?

It's all fiction.

Ever since Oshima went missing, we've been searching for truth.

We wouldn't be here by accident.

We're here right now because of our intentions.

Turn the house lights on.

There's nothing more to it.

We capture you two on camera.

And you're willing to be captured on camera.

Another movie will be filmed here tomorrow.

You don't know which one is real and which one is fake.

They're both fictions.

I want to know who wrote this crap.

This ain't true. This ain't right.

Look at my arms. Do you see anything?

Who the fuck wrote this?

Whoever it is, come out right now.

I don't consider you my brother anymore.

Who wrote this?

A guy called Mitamura.

Where is he?

Come out.

Come on. I'll kick your ass.

Come here. Get outside.

- What's wrong with you? - Out!

You know? I never -

If you ever call our Emperor stupid -

If you ever insult our leader,

I'll get you. - Very smart.

Get your ass over here.

Aren't you man enough?

You know who I am?

You know you've been wrong for the past four years.

Get out of my face.

What the fuck did you say?

Come here.

Will you please -

We aren't brothers anymore.

That's fine by me.

If you want to talk, get your ass over here.

Why don't you just calm down?

- Shut up. I'll send you to your grave. - Give me a break.

I can take you all down.

You're no brother of mine. Shame on you.

- What was that? - You're shameless.

- What do you know? - I don't want your money.

I didn't come here for your money!

Do you think I'm doing this to get some money?

All you think about is money.

You have no pride as a Japanese man.

You pathetic son of a bitch.

You make me sick to my stomach.

I'm out of here.

In your movies, I see many male characters who are somewhat self-destructive,

or simply dangerous to themselves and to society.

They just keep doing what they do as they please.

They all have strong personalities, like Muhomatsu.

Is that a manifestation of your distrust in society?

Not so much. Well, I guess a little.

But as far as Muhomatsu is concerned,

that character knew he was at the lowest rank of society,

and he was a proud patriot under the Emperor system of Japan.

But then he lost faith in what he had believed in.

He learned the real reason Japan started the war.

His character believed the Emperor got greedy.

We're back. We promise you better lives next time around.

All your current troubles will disappear into the River Styx.

In Eijanaika, it wasn't that extreme,

but people somehow found their own outlets.

Step right up. Over here.

This is the last festival of the year.

We travel across the ocean next week.

This is your last chance.

Who cares? Who cares?

Mister, it's been a long time.

You look different.

I guess our society is changing, too.

You look like you've changed, too.

I wish I could change.

I was, in a way -

how can I put this?

WASEDA UNIVERSITY FESTIVAL

I think about anarchism in Japan.

Kids express what's on their mind in songs and banners like these.

I understand they have a lot to say.

But I'm doubtful about the effect of their way of expressing themselves.

Some of these are pathetic, just pathetic.

Maybe that's how it is.

It's hard to tell these days

Is Tokugawa winning? Is Saccho winning?

I don't know But who cares?

Someone will win But who cares?

- Do you think that as an individual? - Yes, and of course, as a film director.

I support them, of course.

This is one way to organize for their causes,

but you can pretty much guess how it'll end up.

I want them to keep questioning authority and the establishment.

That's a running theme in my movies.

What do you think about the palace?

- Me? - Yes.

I wish I hadn't come here.

Why?

That's because

it just shows how comfortable he was here

and how he wasn't concerned with how much the people were struggling.

But here I am. I came all the way for you.

I see.

Imagine that he was your parent.

We went into the war for him, separating from our real parents.

I understand.

Now I feel abandoned by my parent. What did we all suffer for?

When the enemy was destroying us

he should have given up sooner.

Japan should have conceded sooner to lessen the loss.

A good parent would do that. A good emperor would do that.

There, you can see the new palace.

Its construction was completed in 1968.

The total cost of construction was said to be about 13 billion yen.

The whole place makes me sick.

He should have sold the palace and contributed the money to the war.

When your brother called the Emperor stupid,

you really got upset.

- Well - - Why was that?

That's for me to say.

He doesn't have the right.

He didn't make any sacrifice for the country or for the Emperor.

I can call him whatever I want.

We spent four, five years in a war zone.

When my friends died, they weren't praising him anymore.

THE ROYAL WEDDING

On April 10th, 1959,

under a gorgeous sky-

My sister's name was Michiko.

And so was hers. They even spelled it the same.

As we were watching TV,

we couldn't help but think how two Michikos wound up so differently.

My sister Michiko was a bar hostess.

And this Michiko was now a member of the Royal family.

We kept thinking about the difference.

She was a commoner who was marrying a Prince.

So we told each other that either one of us could have been her.

I remember thinking "Do they have to show off like this?

It's just a waste of money."

So I had this foreigner coming to my bar on a regular basis.

His name was Ken. He had been coming for seven months.

He came to see me. To dance with me.

He was a tall guy. But very gentle.

I thought, "Maybe I should test drive him."

- What did he do? - He wasn't very good at it.

Maybe because he hadn't done it for a while.

He didn't move as smoothly as I expected.

It wasn't horrible or anything.

It was so quick. Get naked. Put it in. Done.

I was like, "Is that it?"

I thought foreigners lasted longer. At least that wasn't what I had heard.

Then I wondered if it was because it was the first time with me?

So I decided to give it another try.

Then there was John. A black Marine.

We ended up living together.

We were going to get married on his next tour of duty.

Why do I care about those women?

Aren't they so disposable in a society

which is about consumption and taking advantage of others?

People asked me why I cared so much about them.

I don't care how they are seen in society.

I just love those women.

Don't ask me why. I don't know why.

They like me, too.

I remember one of them who was leaving Japan in an American military plane,

headed for San Diego with a soldier whose name I don't remember.

Her plan was

to marry him, live in the United States to finally obtain citizenship.

She was one powerful, goal-oriented woman.

But in the end -

he thought he could break up with her when he got tired of her.

He thought it would be that easy. Say good-bye and that's the end of it.

He didn't want her forever.

He was determined to end it right away.

It was kind of ugly.

He said to her, "Go back to Japan. I've already got a wife."

She told me about what happened a couple decades later.

It's either you like those girls or you don't. I just like them.

They exist.

The fact that they exist in our society

is something I gradually accepted without prejudice against them.

I just can't dismiss them as many people tend to do.

I used to come here for walks.

Every time I'm here,

I can't help but touch these Buddha statues.

Like this.

These are called Gomai -

They're called Gomaibaka.

This is the final resting place

of many Shinjuku prostitutes.

There were as many as 60 brothels back then.

When those women died,

no one came to claim their bodies.

So what they did was to take off their clothes

and just dump their bodies in a mass grave here.

It was called the "Dumping Grave." There was one in Yoshiwara.

One in Shinagawa, another in Senju.

But this one in Shinjuku was one of the first.

I think this one dates back to as early as 150 years ago.

But -

Up until 1912, the time when the Meiji era ended

many dead prostitutes were thrown in here.

They were all buried here.

Of course, there was no funeral. No vigil for the dead.

How sad is that?

Lots of them didn't even know who their parents were.

They had no relatives to speak of.

That's why they were easily exploited.

Traditionally, the owners of the brothels

called them their children.

So this place was also called "Gomaibaka for the children."

How dare they call them their children?

They used them to make money.

The women must have been miserable with no way to get out.

But once you were in there,

you couldn't avoid competing with the other prostitutes.

Who got the most customers? Who was the second?

I understand that happened.

It sounds like a contradiction.

But that leads me to believe

that there are two sides to everyone.

I can't write about people without knowing both sides of them.

When I come here, I remind myself of that.

I tell myself, everyone here must have enjoyed being number one at least once.

That makes me feel a little better for them.

There used to be an urban legend about a boy falling in love with a prostitute.

That story was to be the basis for my movie called Shinjuku Fantasy.

I was going to finish the movie

before finishing another movie called Dr. Akagi.

But I never made the movie because Nikkatsu went bankrupt.

I was really disappointed.

I felt like a part of me was dumped in a grave.

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