The film's approach to prostitution is unusual. There are more surprises than stereotypes. If anything, this is a film about commerce and labor that applies to any time in history. Add "postwar" to the mix and you have a good "slice of life" story.
There are few endearing characters, not many laughs but there are a number of plot lines to keep it interesting. I was not in the least bit bored, unlike the women who have to sit around all day hoping for a customer.

The japanese government closes brothels in the name of human rights, the owners claim that they're helping women, but it's one of the prostitutes who has the last word in my book: "What's wrong with selling what you own?". Do women own their bodies or not? Apparently, paternalistic governments and women out to protect their own business (marriage) disagree. We're shown here how a law meant to help them can actually put them in jeopardy instead, adding insult to the injury of the hypocritical social stigma. When the French closed their own brothels after WWII, they made pimping illegal, but not prostitution, thus banning the forms of exploitation, not the means of survival. This being said, Japanese prostitution survived and is alive and well.
These portraits put faces on the lives affected by the law (for those inclined to call them names, as even their families do), and show how and why the women entered this life. I enjoyed the small window into the world of that time, but I'm not sure that the film has much value to anyone else not already interested in Asian brothels or prostitution in general. Neither romanticized nor melodramatic. God, that last image was hard to take.

From the sound of the opening music on this one, you would think the story was either about martians or a haunted house. So what is the story about? Hookers. Good hookers, bad hookers, pubescent hookers, menopausal hookers, mean hookers, nice hookers, clean hookers, smelly hookers, pretty hookers, ugly hookers, young hookers and geriatric hookers. Notice I didn't say happy hookers, or hookers with bright futures? It seems the government has just passed a law banning the world's oldest profession in Tokyo, and this movie is the story of how that effects all the aforementioned hookers. Not a pretty story really. However, one of the hookers sings the Tom Jones classic "I'm a sixteen year-old girl from Manchuria" and pretty much stops the show with it. After that everything was just denouement to me. But alas, the movie drug on. And oddly enough, the science-fictionesque incidental music continues in tiny spurts here and there. Hopelessness abounds as far as the story lines of individual skanks go, peaking possibly, at the point where one hookers dad shows up to save her, but instead she tries to frub the old coot. If all that sounds like a good time to you, then watch it, just don't expect much excitement, nudity, or any characters you could care about. Very professionally shot, but only mildly entertaining.