The Oldest Profession
Following in the footsteps of her mother, 19-year-old Tome has become a sex worker to support herself and her disabled brother in the red-light district of Osaka. Challenged by grisly clients, an environment of ceaseless criminality and an irreducible ennui, Tome finds brief respite in a charged flirtation with a mysterious man whose face she suspects to have seen on a “Wanted” poster around town.
A standout by Roman Porno master director Noboru Tanaka, THE OLDEST PROFESSION distinguishes itself within the genre with its bold use of form, gut-wrenching performances and uncompromising depiction of the realities of sex work in 1970s Japan, creating one of “the most distinctive titles of the category” (Asian Movie Pulse).
Cast
- Meika Seri
- Junko Miyashita
- Genshû Hanayagi
- Moeko Ezawa
- Shiro Yumemura
Blu-ray Features
- "Private Business & Public Obscenities" video essay by Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp
- 16 page booklet with a written essay by Japan Society film programmer Alexander Fee
Discs: 1
- "Tanaka’s Osaka-set Roman Porno masterpiece.... Formally daring and streaked with some of the darkest comedy you’ll ever see, “The Oldest Profession” offers a rivetingly street-level view of Japan’s post-war counterculture. "
- "Tanaka’s masterpiece, which departs even more forcefully from the impositions of the ‘Roman porno’ genre (erotic-themed films strictly codified in Japan), to build a desert film of bodies, of a void of desire (desire experienced as a desert), of erotic minimalism exhibited within the dynamics of economic need."
- "Noboru Tanaka (born in 1937) is the most direct heir to Imamura, and the most personal author of roman-porno understood as an expression of liberatory sex within a popular tradition of Japan. An intellectual director, and the most refined of his colleagues, he gave true formal existence to his films […]. Filmed in the poorest districts of Osaka, it is rather typical of his realistic-fantastic style.... Superb."
- "An intriguing mix of social critique and carnal gratification."
- "Probably the source of one of the most characteristic images of Roman Porno, “The Oldest Profession (aka Confidential Report: Sex Market or Secret Chronicle: She Beast Market), is among the most distinctive titles of the category...a very entertaining and artful movie...."
- "Meika Seri and Genshu Hanayagi, who play daughter and mother prostitutes, powerfully bare their bodies and souls in this mesmerizing portrait of a bleak existence. "
Awards & Recognition
Venice Film Festival
New York Film Festival
Hong Kong Asian Film Festival
Thessaloniki Int'l. Film Festival
Camera Japan