The film follows Tome, a young woman born to a rural lower-class family in the Tōhoku region in 1918, who, after a long series of mishaps, rises to the status of a madam in the post-war era. When she is sentenced to jail, her daughter Nobuko becomes her patron's lover, but later steals his money to use it for building up a farming commune.
In a 1977 interview, director Imamura explained that he had chosen Hidari for the role due to her vitality and energy, which had impressed him in the film The Maid's Kid (Jochukko, 1955).[7] Yet, according to Hidari, she and Imamura disagreed profoundly on the way she should play her character, calling him a "chauvinist" in retrospect for his bullying the then pregnant actress by e.g. insisting on multiple re-takes in delicate scenes.[8]
Release
The Insect Woman was released in Japan on 16 November 1963,[1][2] earning $500,000 in four weeks.[3] It was re-released with Getsuyōbi no Yuka in February 1964, earning a similar amount.[3]
Variety magazine declared the film being "potent adult film fare by any nation's standards" and praised the camera work by Masahisa Himeda and performances by Sachiko Hidari, Kazuo Kitamura and Jitsuko Yoshimura.[6] The review noted that the film takes place over a period of 45 years in an episodic technique "consciously causing viewer alienation".[6]
^ abcd"Film reviews: The Insect". Variety. June 24, 1964. p. 7.
^Tessier, Max (1999). "Shohei Imamura interview". In Quandt, James (ed.). Shohei Imamura. Toronto International Film Festival Group. p. 61.
^Raine, Michael (2019). "The Insect Woman, or: The Female Art of Failure". In Coleman, Lindsay; Desser, David (eds.). Killers, Clients and Kindred Spirits: The Taboo Cinema of Shohei Imamura. Edinburgh University Press. p. 132. ISBN9781474411813.