The World of Geisha

The World of Geisha , Yojhan fusuma no urahari? aka A Man and a Woman Behind the Fusuma Screen is a 1973 Japanese film in Nikkatsus Roman porno series, directed by Tatsumi Kumashiro and starring Junko Miyashita. The mainstream film journal Kinema Junpo included it in their choices for best ten films of the year of 1973.

The World of Geisha was very successful with the public and critics in Japan. The mainstream film journal Kinema Junpo selected it as the 6th best Japanese film of 1973. In Currents in Japanese Cinema, Japanese film critic Tadao Sato describes the film as a masterful porno film rich in emotion, anarchy, and nihilism. Director Nagisa Oshima took an opposite view of the film in a wellknown essay written before his own In the Realm of the Senses 1976. Oshima called Kumashiros film a little too refined, and took it to task for failing to realise the effect of pornography. Oshima complained about the Roman porno films that they took sex as their subject matter and not as their theme. The themes of their most highly regarded films tend to be something like adolescent rebellion sex is merely the seasoning. He concludes, this is precisely why these films are attractive to superficial critics, and young film buffs.Contemporary Western critics were also positive towards the film. A January 1974 Variety review noted that Kumashiro showed a definitely savvy directorial flair, but that there was nothing banal, or pretentious about the film. Further, the love scenes... are handled with wit and insight, and the sex bouts... all have a rightness in tone. The review continues, It is technically fine and ranks with some wellknown costumers. Right placement, Variety concludes, could have this gaining some following abroad and not for its sex scenes but its feeling for period, time and mores and social outlooks that are reflected from the sensual rather than the social side of its characters. Franois Truffaut called The World of Geisha a great movie, adding, The acting is perfect, and the film is humorous. In its praise for female beauty and derision for male stupidity lies the generous spirit of Jean Renoir. ........

Source: Wikipedia