The Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate

Yuzo Kawashima’s burlesque comedy is set in and around a brothel in 1862 – a time of enormous social and political unrest. The script is by the later renowned Shohei Imamura. New 4K restoration. 1862, a brothel in the Shinagawa red light district. A young samurai who wants the emperor restored while the two most beautiful geishas, Osome and Koharu, struggle to be number one and debt-ridden Osomo sees suicide with a client as the only way out. Cunning Saheiji is finally forced to pay off his brothel debts yet ends up profiting.

Yuzo Kawashima’s burlesque comedy references the Japanese Rakugo comic tradition and is set during the shogunate’s twilight on the eve of the Meiji restoration…