About the Film
According to the narrator (who also happens to be the protagonist, Ryunosuke Akutagawa), ‘Shanghai is a city of sin'. How and in what ways is that statement true remains a mystery throughout, as the director fails to conjure anything like a living, vivid world that could actually be characterised in any way. Rather than that, Taku Kato offers a meandering slog of a narrative drifting between characters and subplots without any specific rhyme or reason.
Synopsis
China is tumultuous in 1921 when the famed Japanese author of Rashomon, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, visits Shanghai as a correspondent. Here he encounters revolutionaries, courtesans and much more…
