| Yoshiwara | |
| Director: | Max Ophüls |
| Editing: | Pierre Méguérian |
| Studio: | Milo Film |
| Distributor: | Compagnie Cinématographique de France |
| Runtime: | 102 minutes |
| Country: | France |
| Language: | French |
Yoshiwara is a 1937 French historical drama film directed by Max Ophüls and starring Pierre Richard-Willm, Sessue Hayakawa and Michiko Tanaka. It is based on a novel of the same title by Maurice Dekobra.[1] It was shot at the Joinville Studios of Pathé in Paris and on location at the Musée Albert-Kahn in Billancourt and in Rochefort-en-Yvelines and Villefranche-sur-Mer. The film's sets were designed by the art directors André Barsacq and Léon Barsacq.
The film is set in the Yoshiwara, the red-light district of Tokyo, in the nineteenth century. It depicts a love triangle between a high-class prostitute, a Russian naval officer and a rickshaw man.[2]
The film was Ophüls' greatest pre-war French financial success.[3] Yoshiwara proved controversial in Japan where the government objected to the depiction of Japanese brothels and banned it. There was a negative reaction against the two Japanese actors who had starred in the film, and they were labelled as traitors.[4]