“The Woman with Red Hair” is probably the most acclaimed work of the late Tatsumi Kumashiro, one of the most celebrated directors within the pinku genre (and later on, even beyond) whose pink films even made it repeatedly to the Kinema Junpo’s Best 10 of the year. This particular one was number 4 that year, and was also nominated for four awards (although it did not win any) from the Japanese Academy, including Best Director, Best Screenplay for Haruhiko Arai, Best Sound for Fumio Hashimoto and Best Actress for Junko Muyashita, who actually won the accolade from the Hochi Film Awards.
The film focuses on the friendship between two construction workers, Kozo and Takao, with the first one being a specialist worker and thus much cherished and somewhat higher up the chain, and the second a simpleton who idolizes him for the most part. The story begins when the boss’s daughter, Kazuko (played by Ako who also won an award for her performance in the Yokohama Film Festival) attempts to seduce Takao, but ends up being gangbanged by both men, in a scene that highlights their friendship in distinct exploitation fashion. A bit later, the girl informs Takao that she is pregnant, and demands a marriage proposal. In the meanwhile, however, the titular girl has entered the two men’s life when they pick her up from the side of the street, with her soon starting to live in Kozo’s small apartment, despite the fact that she is married with two children. The two share a relationship of lust and abuse from Kozo’s side, but Takao feels threatened by the presence of the girl, and even demands from Kozo to allow him to have sex with her, in a discussion that leads to fisticuffs at first, but at Kozo actually allowing him to do so, even despite the initial protests of the girl.
Kumashiro creates a rather interesting portrait that uses the love triangle to make comments about male friendship, the role of women in society, lust, and even the lives of poor construction workers, with the settings the film takes place in being almost exclusively rundown neighborhoods. Yonezo Maeda’s cinematography portrays all the aforementioned with realism, in a rather convincing job.
Takao’s obsession with Kozo definitely surpasses the borders of friendship, but the fact that the latter actually indulges his sidekick’s demands also says something about him, with the same applying to the fact that he allows for a strange woman to immediately stay with him. Kazuko’s attitude adds another element to men-women relationships, while Kumashiro also takes care of highlighting how lustful both men and women can be. This last part is cemented during the “loaning” of the red-haired woman, which finds, however, a somewhat enervated Kozo having sex with a bar hostess, who even exclaims during the act, “Men are all the same. Any woman will do”.
And talking about sex, the erotic scenes in the film are among the most sensual and well-shot in the genre, particularly because they look rather realistic, in another trait of both Maeda and Kumashiro, but also due to Junko Miyashita‘s performance as the titular woman who even manages to properly act during those scenes. Miyashita essentially anchors the film on her performance, as is equally convincing as a sexually voracious woman and a victim of her lust, with her being quite good also in the dramatic scenes. Renji Ishibashi (who was actually young at some point and even looks like a Japanese version of Pedro Pascal) as Kozo gives another good performance, portraying both his occasionally brutish ways and the fact that is helpless in the face of the demands of the red-haired woman and his best friend.
Of course, some crudity, through the repeated scenes revolving around women’s period and the violent scenes, including ones that border on rape are not missing from here also, but both the way they are shot and the way they are implemented in the narrative makes them less shocking, at least when compared with other movies of the genre. Furthermore, Kumashiro has also added some moments of humor, particularly through the almost barbaric woman from downstairs, who looks and acts as if she jumped from a scene of “Tetsuo”.
“The Woman with the Red Hair” is a great film, both within and outside the pink genre and a testament to Kumashiro’s talent.
