History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess (1970)

Shōhei Imamura · 105 min · Letterboxd ↗

Postwar Japan as it is described by Etsuko, the manager of a bar catering to foreigners in Yokosuka. The way of life of a woman brimming with vitality, who skipped the countryside right after the war and, with her womanhood as a weapon, lived through atomic bombings, black markets, prostitution aimed at American soldiers and the Korean War. Inserting newsreels, Shohei Imamura depicts the history of twenty-five years in the Japanese postwar by way of the female body. (doclisboa)

History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess screens once in London: ICA, Thursday 12 November at 18:30.