The story is set in Kofuku, a brothel in the Tamanoi district of Tokyo, before the abolition of the red-light districts. Naoko tries to break Shigeko’s record of 26 clients in one day. Shigeko is past her best. Shimako keeps giving her money away to her boy- friend who gambles heavily. Kimiko, who has left her brothel to get married, comes on a visit and sets to work on a client at her ease. Her future husband doesn’t turn up. In the morning, Shigeko leaves the brothel on her bicycle. As in Mizoguchi Kenji’s Yoru no Onnatachi (1948) and Akasen Chitai (1956), this film focuses on the prostitutes – women who sell their bodies to maintain themselves and their families and who are subservient to society and men. A significant difference from the films of Mizoguchi is however that the men do not have any power over the women. Shimako does maintain a man, but he doesn’t force her to work for him and Naoko sees men as only raw material to establish a record. Kumashiro always sang a serenade to invulnerable women.
