History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess

The film's title really says it all, the first of several documentaries Imamura made in the 1970s is a History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess. The history in question is for the most part told orally, as Madame Onboro recounts her life alternately juxtaposed and paralleled with the grand events and movements of Japanese society during those years by Imamura, and accompanied in places by archival material mostly in the form of newsreel reportage.

Framed as a series of bar lounge conversations between Madame Onboro and Imamura himself, who takes on the role of genuinely inquisitive interviewer, Madame Onboro guides us through a life marked by the joys and tribulations of raising children, the tireless work of running a business, and the endless search for a suitable partner.

As compelling and rich as Imamura’s best fictional portraits, albeit decidedly more essayistic, History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess revels in Imamura’s unquenchable love for honest, unconventional, and often unruly characters. In the role of interviewer that love shines through brighter than ever, as he probes good naturedly into Madame Onboro’s life, character, and thinking, to understand who she is, as best he can.

History of Postwar Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess (にっぽん戦後史 マダムおんぼろの生活), dir. Shōhei Imamura, Japan 1970, Japanese with English subtitles, 101 min.