Name: Tokugawa onna keizu
Genre: Drama
Released: 1968-05-01
Duration: 1 h 30 min
Rating: 5.4
Cast: Masako Arisawa, Kemi Ichiboshi, Mari Iwai

A Japanese period piece about an extremely horny Shogun

This is a technically beautiful film. It is shot through the eyes of a true artist, both shot composition and color choice. Really stunning to look at and the costumes and set design were obviously all handled by seasoned professionals. This is a period piece through and through. It is also a movie about a man with unchecked power and the women in his life that make up his harem. We quickly learn the women around him, of which there are dozens if not a hundred, all profess a dying love to him and are all angling to produce an heir.

Angling is a word I'd actually like to stay on for a second though, because this script should be the example used to describe Machievalian behavior to people. It's in every scene, a constant onslaught of trickery and deceit. The Shogun here has no chance when every one of the women he lets in is out to usurp his power.

What we get, then, is 90 minutes of in-fighting, scheming, and everyone talking out of both sides of their mouth. It's a fairly straightforward story actually, but the drama is excellent and it's very easy to watch. This is not what I was expecting from the director of Inferno of Torture, but it's still an exploitation flick and definitely has lots to discuss. What a great personal intro for me to one of Japan's best and most creative directors.

Japanese cinema is celebrated for its refined minimalist dramas and avant-garde experimentation; it also introduced popular genres like jidaigeki (samurai epics), kaiju, and anime. Across both high art and mass entertainment, it often explores morality, impermanence, and the pressures of modern life.

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The drama genre is a broad category that features stories portraying human experiences, emotions, conflicts, and relationships in a realistic and emotionally impactful way. Dramas delve into the complexities of human life, often exploring themes of love, loss, morality, societal issues, personal growth, with the aim to evoke an emotional response from the audience by presenting relatable and thought-provoking stories.

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A tragic love story involving the 5th Shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty and a woman who became one of his concubines.

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