Featured Audience Ratings

• Walter M

  
  As she is growing up, Tome is happy enough, even though there are rumors that Chuji(Kazuo Kitamura) may not be her biological father, which maybe has something to do with marrying her mother En(Sumie Sasaki) months after she became pregnant with her. As an adult(Sachiko Hidari), Tome… More
  As she is growing up, Tome is happy enough, even though there are rumors that Chuji(Kazuo Kitamura) may not be her biological father, which maybe has something to do with marrying her mother En(Sumie Sasaki) months after she became pregnant with her. As an adult(Sachiko Hidari), Tome works in a munitions plant during the war but is called home due to a family emergency. While she is thrilled that her father is still alive, she is depressed at the thought of being shopped out to a neighboring farm to pay off her family's debts. They are right that her virtue will not remain intact, but the pregnancy is a little bit of a surprise, as she also keeps the baby. Directed by Shohei Imamura, "The Insect Woman" is a rambunctious tragicomedy that pauses occasionally long enough for the characters to catch their breath. That's a good thing since there is a lot of post-war Japan to get through here.(And I think some knowledge of that time period would have proved helpful going in, having to look up May 1, 1952 myself.) Inflation is a key, as an important amount early on is 10 yen, while later on, there are negotiations for a loan of 200,000 yen. That's not to mention the innovations introduced from outside that the characters try to understand like land reform and democracy, forcing them to adapt that is a painful process at the best of times. On the one hand, there are the prostitutes who do not understand the big deal about virginity(That cat does not seem to be enjoying itself, though.) while others just go around in circles. And I understand why some people might find the ending a bit anticlimactic after all of that, but this is just a cycle that is broken with the help of a new way of thinking.