Japanese insects

Directed by
 Written by
 Music by
 Budget

Japanese insects (also known as The Insect Woman or 'Entomological Chronicles of Japan') is a 1963 Nikkatsu film,Directed by Shohei Imamura.

## Plot

In the early winter of the 19th year of Taisho, Tome Matsuki was born in a cold village in the Tohoku region between his father Tadashi and his mother En. Father, who is a little weak, went to the village office to give birth notification and brag about the birth of his child, but he was married to Enji in October, and it was already eight months pregnant at that time. …. This En is a disordered woman who sleeps with anyone, and her real father, Tome, seems to be her husband, Onogawa, who had a relationship with him at the time, but she does not know her mother, En. However, it is clear that Tadashi is not his kin' father.

In the spring of Taisho 13th, when I was a girl's teenager, I accidentally saw my mother's mother playing with Onogawa, a man's husband who is different from my father, and at the same time I doubt that my father and mother are really a couple, I like my father's Chuuji. A love similar to incest begins to grow between these two, a father and a daughter on the family register, but a stranger on the blood .

Tome, who turned 23 in the spring of 1945 , worked as a female worker at a silk mill. On the day Japan occupies Singapore, a family member telegram informs him that his father, Chuuji, is critically ill, and quickly returns home. However, this was a conspiracy for his mother, and was an excuse to get his third son, the Honda family, the landowner of the village, to marry him. Knowing this, Chuuji rages out and slams the hell out of his arms, shaking up the whole family, but persuading his father by promising that the maiden never sleeps with his partner's man, and the matter subsides. Tomoe, who gave up because it was for her family, marries herself to the Honda family. However, he was forced to be held by Shunzo, the third son of the Honda family, and he had a child as well as a maid. The pregnant maiden returns to her parents' house and gives birth to her daughter, Nobuko , in the New Year of 1948. However, I never returned to the Honda family...

In the summer of 1945 , Tome returned to the silk mill again and worked as a female worker. On August 15th, when the Emperor's royal language was heard on the radio, Matsunami, a section chief who had a physical relationship in a women's dormitory where there was no Tome, was forced to hold her, but the factory closed due to the war. Matsunami will do union activities at the reopened factory because of the influence of Matsunami. When I returned to my parents' house, there was no place for my wife to be occupied by my brother and his wife...

In 1948, Tome entrusted his 7-year-old daughter, Nobuko, to his father, Chungji, and moved to Tokyo alone. I was a maid at a foreigner's cafe at the base. Became the housekeeper of a foreigner's lover's house, and let the mixed-race daughter between them die from a little carelessness. While being disappointed, she was hired by a landlady who met a new religion that had begun to soak, and she would work as a maid. However, I get to know Karasawa, the owner of the wholesaler who is one of the guests who came and went to the inn at that time. When he became a concubine and got a patron, he finally sold his former landlady to the police until he managed a brothel, but gradually he was forced to work like the previous landlady....

## Cast

* Matsume Tome- Sachiko Left
* Rin Matsuki- Teruko Kishi
* En Matsuki- Sumie Sasaki
* Tadashi Matsuki- Kazuo Kitamura
* Matsukizawa Yoshio- Asao Koike
* Rui Matsuki- Keiko Aizawa
* Nobuko Matsuki- Miko Yoshimura
* Kanie Suma- Kitabayashi Sakae
* Onogawa- Shoichi Kuwayama
* Shunzo Honda- Shigeru Dekuguchi
* Kane Sakashita- Emiko Higashi
* Yoshiji Uebayashi- Daisaburo Hirata
* Morio Matsunami- Hiroyuki Nagato
* Midori Tani- Masumi Harukawa
* Team Leader- Taiji Tonoyama
* Young People A- Enoki Hyoei
* Young People B- Hiroshi Takao
* Takaba Silk Milling Company A -Setsuko Watanabe
* Takaba Silk Mill B- Michie Kawaguchi
* Seishin Pure Land A- Toru Sumikawa
* Seishin Jodokai B- Koichiro Sakai
* Karasawa- Kiyosaburo Kawazu
* Taxi Driver- Shinzo Shibata
* Tohoku Main Line Passenger A- Tomio Aoki
* Tohoku Line Passenger B- High Quality
* Police Interrogator- Akira Kume

## Staff

* Director- Shohei Imamura
* Planning- Kazu Otsuka , Jiro Tomoda
* Screenplay-Shohei Imamura, Keiji Hasebe
* Photography- Masaku Himeda
* Art- Kimihiko Nakamura
* Music- Toshiro Mayuzumi
* Lighting- Yasuo Iwaki
* Recording- Furuyama Tsuneo
* Edit- Muo Tanji
* Steel- Koichi Saito

## Titles

* The Japanese Insect Woman (Japanese, US and worldwide title)
* The Insect Woman (Original Worldwide release title)
* Entomological Chronicles of Japan (translated Japanese title)
* Japanese insects (Original Japanese release title)

## Extra information

### Overview

Born in a rural village in the Tohoku region, a family forced the landlord to marry him, and eventually went to work in Tokyo. A masterpiece by director Imamura, who energeticly depicts a half-life story full of life-like insects through the sex of women.

Starring Sachiko Saiko won the first Japanese Best Actress at the Berlin International Film Festival .

### Release

the film was originally released in japan by Nikkatsu on November 16 in 1963.