Directed by Shohei Imamura • 1987 • Japan
Starring Ken Ogata, Mitsuko Baisho, Ko Chun-Hsiung

This fierce satire of Japanese colonial ambition traces the true story of Iheiji Muraoka (Ken Ogata), a Japanese spy in early-twentieth-century Manchuria, as he turns to another profession to “help” his country: importing women to work at brothels for the Japanese military, all in the name of patriotic duty. With his typically incisive eye for the vulgar yet vibrant underbelly of Japanese society, director Shohei Imamura offers a cunning, bawdily humorous critique of the imperialist mindset.