In the post-war Japan, Fusako Owada (Kinuyo Tanaka) lives in the home of her mother-in-law with her baby that is ill while waits for the return of her husband from the war. When she learns that her husband has died and her baby also dies, she moves to another city with her neighbor Kumiko Owada (Tomie Tsunoda) to work as secretary executive for the opium dealer Kenzô Kuriyama (Mitsuo Nagata). One day, she stumbles upon her missed sister Natsuko Kimijima (Sanae Takasugi) that has returned from the Korea on the street and she learns that Natsuko works as a dancer in a night-club. Natsuko moves to Fusako and Kumiko's apartment and soon she has a love affair with Fusako's boss. However Fusako is secretly Kuriyama's mistress and upset, she vanishes. One day, a client of Natsuko in the night-club tells to her that he saw Fusako in the Red Light District. Natsuko that is pregnant decides to seek her sister out in the prostitution area. Will she find Fusako?The bitter and melodramatic "Yoru no onnatachi", a.k.a. "Women of the Night", is a film directed by the great Japanese director Kenji Mizoguchi that shows the cruel side of the post-war Japan specially for the women. The lead characters Fusako Owada is forced to change from a mother and housewife to a cheap prostitute that wants to contaminate men with syphilis to revenge her condition. Her sister Natsuko Kimijima may stay in the shelter for women or not after the stillbirth. In the end, there is a sort of redemption when Fusako tries to rescue from the street her neighbor and friend Kumiko Owada. However the country seems to be hopeless at that moment, at least for widows and lonely women in the depressing view of Mizoguchi. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Mulheres da Noite" ("Women of the Night")

So this is the third out of the four films in the "Kenji Mizoguchi's Fallen Women" Eclipse set, the four films being divided into two pre-war and two post-war features. Women of the Night falls in the latter group, however the print of the film is just as foggy as in Mizoguchi's '30s films. It actually has some neorealistic elements, like for example shooting on location (ruined streets of Osaka). By the way, 30 minutes have been cut from the film, making the editing a bit jumpy and ruining the plot.Women of the Night was pretty tedious and mediocre for me. The message is just the regular, feminist/socially conscious idea found in many other Mizoguchi films (I guess you could call him a pre-cursor of the exploitation genre), but here it isn't treated as subtly or immersive as in Street of Shame (his final film). The message is too heavy-handed and the solid performances don't guarantee an engrossing film. In fact, I found myself bored by it and didn't even care to follow the plot.This movie is very ordinary and conventional when observed within the limits of Mizoguchi's opus, but it has one neat oddity going for it: the final ten minutes set in a nightmarish burnt-out Catholic church. It's also an unusually harsh and brutal ending, even for Mizoguchi. So yeah, it's the only interesting thing this movie has going for it that other films of his don't. It almost single-handedly salvages the film from being 100% forgettable.The cinematography is excellent as you could expect from Mizoguchi, but the musical score is pretty bad and melodramatic. Interestingly enough, the last scene is accompanied by a crappy, barely recognizable rendition of Beethoven's 5th symphony. Why, I can't tell you. One last thing: for 1948, this movie can be considered a bit risqué; sexual relations, periods and abortions are discussed almost casually. That would never fly in the West at the time.6,5/10

Women of the Night (1948) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Set in post WWII Japan, director Kenji Mizoguchi's film deals with a pair of sisters (Kinuyo Tanaka, Sanae Takasugi) who find themselves going into prostitution due to the rather dire living conditions. WOMEN OF THE NIGHT is certainly a hard-hitting little gem that manages to hold no punches in regards to its subject matter. Several countries released films dealing with the aftermath of WWII but what's so fascinating about this film is the fact that it deals with subjects that most other places wouldn't touch. This includes prostitution obviously but there's also abortion, drug use, sexual transmitted diseases and other subjects that were a big no-no during this era. This off-topic subjects certainly help keep the film very fresh for today's viewers. Another fascinating thing were some of the streets where it's obvious they haven't been fixed up since WWII. I'm guessing these streets with debris all over them weren't just made up for the film and instead they are actually locations and these images really make you understand the desperate situation of the people living there. We get three different women and their stories of how they were forced to go into the business and each of them are quite touching on their own. I will say that the ending was a bit over-the-top and didn't reach the punch it was going for but it certainly didn't ruin the movie. The two lead performances are certainly wonderful and they're just so raw that you feel as if you're watching real people struggling. There are some rather bleak and ugly images to be found here and especially during a sequence where we see the downside of this lifestyle as most of the women are suffering from various mental problems. WOMEN OF THE NIGHT runs a very quick 74-minutes and it's certainly quite memorable.

Mizoguchi is never subtle in his films. His films would work better in black and white even if color was the norm in Japan. In this film the great Kinuyo Tanaka, who has starred in other Mizoguchi films, is Fusako, a war widow who also buried a son who has to become a prostitute to live. Her sister Naksuko, played by Sanae Takasuga and their sister in law Kumiko (Tomie Tsunoda) also become ones also. Osaka is depicted as being full of prostitutes, and that could have very well been accurate at the time. Mizoguchi, fascinated in many of his films with the downtrodden, does his usual superior job but the film really is essential due to the acting of Kinuyo Tanaka and Sanae Takasuga. They bring a realistic, grim situation to live. Of course, this film is not a happy one, but if you can take that, this is another near masterpiece of Kenji Mizoguchi.