A History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess
(Nippon sengo-shi: MadamuOmboro no seikatsu)

Screening on Film
Directed by Shohei Imamura.
Japan, 1970, 35mm, color, 105 min.
Japanese with English subtitles.
Print source: Japan Foundation

Rather than an “official story” of Japan's postwar economic miracle, Imamura offers the pointed views of the resilient, lower-caste Madame Omboro, brilliantly contrasting the bar owner's story of her life with newsreel footage of major events from 1945 to 1970: from Japan's surrender at the end of WWII through U.S. occupation to student protests and the Vietnam War.

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