Tokugawa Onna Keizu (1968)

Tokugawa Onna Keizu

Tokugawa Onna Keizu marks the beginning of Teruo Ishii's turn towards the depraved Japanese genre known as pinky violence or bad girl action films, a genre he is recognized as having created.  This film has lots of the pinky but hardly any violence.  His next film Tokugawa Onna Keibatsu-shi, also known as The Joy of Torture, is really where graphic violence is married to gratuitous nudity and the pinky violence genre becomes established.

The shogun is a bit of a pervert.  He wants to find a woman who will love him for who he is and not because he's the shogun but he has trouble finding one.  After witnessing a mole on the inner left thigh of one of the girls in his harem, he becomes obsessed with having her.  The other girls become jealous and threatened by the shogun's affections towards this birthmarked girl because she could produce a male heir and therefore become his favorite.  They hold her down and burn the mole off.  He loses interest in the whole mole thing.

Next, after watching a topless sumo competition amongst the harem girls he becomes enamored with the small but adorable winner played by Yukie Kagawa.  She teaches him some bedroom judo but, after talking in her sleep, the shogun learns she once slept with a monk and he becomes enraged.  She kills herself by biting off her tongue.

"I pooted."

A noble woman staying at his residence is spotted peeing in the bushes and he falls for her.  Eventually she gets pregnant but the shogun isn't sure if the child is his or was fathered by one of his daimyo.  He doesn't know whether to discard her like the other lovers or accept the unborn child and mother into his family.  After forcing himself on several other women, he does some soul searching and realizes that he has been kind of a dick.

Because this is a Teruo Ishii film, it isn't just about the shogun getting it on with his harem girls.  It has depth and makes you reflect on the human condition, about what is important in life, about personal duty and honor.  Tokugawa Onna Keizu can be slow at times and is definitely lacking in violence but it's a beautiful movie and I recommend seeing it.  It will make you think about stuff, and stuff.

Violence Rating:  1 out of 5
Booby Rating:  4.5 out of 5

Here is the shogun wrestling with his demons: