PLAY IT COOL – Arrow Video Review: Mari Atsumi Looks Out For Number One In Yasuzo Masumura’s Erotic Coming-Of-Age Drama
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INTRO:
INTRO: As far as I know and as what online data lists, Yasuzo Masumura worked on well over sixty films during his career in several facets. At present, his 1970 erotic drama, Play It Cool, is making its case ahead of release this month on Limited Edition Blu-Ray from the good folks over at Arrow Video.
Play It Cool is the kind of film that invariably partook in the last half of the industry’s eminent J-sploitation era of cinema. Topics like sex and sexuality, prostitution, and sexual assault are abound, which I’m making clear here in case you haven’t clicked away by now. This film has also been around for nearly half a century, so if you’re not into spoilers, or if you feel the details being divulged here ruin the suspense, you’re welcome to see the movie first and come back to this article another time.
STORY:
STORY: Mari Atsumi stars in the Daiei production which follows Yumi, a young fashion student living with her mother, Tomi (Akemi Negishi), who works as a bar hostess. One evening, Yumi’s life is instantly turned upside down when she is raped by Tomi’s common law husband, and watches as her mother kills him in an act of violent retribution, and is arrested and sentenced for her crime.
To make matters worse, Tomi lands herself indebted to her Madame (Sanae Nakahara) after making bail until she is incarcerated, in a toxic transaction that leaves Yumi no other choice but to quit school work as a hostess. The move marks the start of a tumultuous journey in the world of the sex trade as Yumi is forced to contend with every skivvy, low class client that oogles her.
Eventually, Yumi more than adapts to surroundings, eventually establishing a modifier for herself through gambling as a means for clients to earn their way into bed with her. When nightclub owner Nozawa (Yusuke Kawazu) discovers her in diress, he takes her into his employ, elevating her to a higher-class establishment and clientele where and with whom she can ply her trade.
Indeed, even now the competition is rough for Yumi, although the money is great, and even the prospect of sharing a life of love and happiness with Nozawa is just as enticing. What remains to be seen, however, is what happens when the aftermath of a deal with one of Nozawa’s biggest clients becomes the ultimate decider for whether Yumi and her romantic benefactor can truly share real love with one another.
REVIEW:
REVIEW: J-sploitation cinema is a rabbit hole I’ve yet to fully enter. I’ve seen a number of crime and action classics that dabble handily in that arena, although I’ve seen nothing as dramatically substantive as Play It Cool, so this was a new bookmark in my journey of intake.
Atsumi is as cool in her performance as the Western title reads, which speaks to the inherent awareness and adaptability our character has to endure in order to survive when she needs to. She starts off as pure and innocent in a lot of ways, with no interest in chasing boys when we meet her, which preambles a compelling look into her transformation throughout the film.
Where sex and love are phases of self-discovery deemed to be met with some semblance of sensitivity and care, these things almost immediately go out of the window, topped by the trauma of violence that doesn’t really leave much time for her to transition visibly so as to show us how she does it. In essence, everything happens pretty fast at certain points, allowing for a more expedient storytelling pace and rate.
There even feels like a mild sense of mania that Atsumi encompasses in her role which gives way more than the impression of a girl adapting to some pretty bleak surroundings. It feels more like survival mode masked under a façade to protect herself, lending an intrinsic psychological element to her character as things unfold. Part of that evolution is Yumi’s choice of gambling as a means of holding her own, and it’s a fascinating creative addendum to showcase her awareness and ability to ratiocinate given what she endures.
Negishi is great in the role of Tomi, whose camaraderie at work with her colleagues at the club where she works is far from cordial. Her brash demeanor and drunkeness often make her cannon fodder for a lot of backtalk, and you can bet that even her Madame shares in the disrespect to a degree. When Yumi informs her mother in front of her assailant of what just happened before she arrives home, denial and shame are the inert responses that occur moments before Tomi finally realizes the gravity of things and picking up a kitchen knife to even the score.
The sexual violence isn’t as graphic although it’s safe to say the on-camera moments these incidents occur in go as hard as one can visibly tolerate. The same goes for the sex scenes which, again, are largely modest and filmed tastefully with nudity as prominent as you would predict. Such moments where Yumi invites Nozawa in to keep her company show us that she’s all the more trustworthy of him than any other man, stripping before lying in bed as he initially refuses to sleep with the “merchandise.” One scene that taps into the more illustrious and winsome side of the romance is when they’re finally on a rotating matress in a love motel, confessing their feelings with one another and consummating their relationship.
Nakahara is great to see as Tomi’s Mama-san. She also shares credits in a few titles I’ve looked at in recent memory, namely Tai Kato‘s I, The Executioner and By A Man’s Face Shall You Know Him, and Kinji Fukasaku’s Wolves, Pigs and Men. We also meet Yuka, played by co-star Reiko Kasahara. Yuka is the Madame who works for Nozawa and takes Yumi under her wing. Even moreso, Yuka is also Nozawa’s lover, and with Yumi now in the picture, it’s only a matter of time before Yuka, like a few other female characters in the film, shows her true colors.
DISC CONTENTS:
DISC CONTENTS: I wasn’t sent the full package – just the barebones checkdisc – but the visuals are out in all their glory which give you ample ideas as to the artwork and packaging via box and jacket, as well as an illustrated collector’s mini booklet written by Earl Jackson about the film.
As for the disc, the film is presented in 1080p HD with Japanese mono audio and optional subtitles. Japanese cinema specialist Jasper Sharp and professor and Japanese literature specialist, Anne McKnight, come ready with the usual assortment of factoids and trivia in the film’s audio commentary. It’s here that I learned the film’s original title and its peculiar meaning, and they also talk about the film and where it stood at Daiei’s status back then as one of the last films produced before the studio bankrupt. Terms “Mizu shobai” and “Nantai Dobutsu” are also thrown in with some context and respective to the film as well.
Following that is the 46-minute video essay “Too Cool For School” in which Japanese film scholar Mark Roberts talks up Masumura’s background, training, and subsequent career as a post-war Japanese filmmaker. Roberts gives a detailed summary in a biographical recount of Masumura’s life before and during his career in film, ultimately debuting in 1957 and becoming a fixture at Daiei Films. Additionally, he talks about the environment of cinema at the time during Masumura’s school years, his discernible perception and focus as a filmmaker compared to others, his “watery relationship with cinema” at times, and even how his Play It Cool leading lady voluntarily walked away from the business, possibly due to how she was poorly paid for a lot of her work.
CONCLUSION:
CONCLUSION: Play It Cool cuts a few corners in its delivery, but makes up for some of its abbreviatory points with immersive story and depth, and a vision that handily explores generational taboos and power dynamics that are brought along in one woman’s own coming-of-age tale of love and redemption. It’s not an easy watch, and while the ending bodes with some ample positives, we also see the price that our protagonist invariably paid as a result. It’s a heavy-handed allegorical cherry on top that signs off on the kind daring and subversive storytelling that Daiei, and every other engaged studio from the 50s and onward, was ready for.
As for the disc, there is considerably more that you are going to want to consume if your appetite for Japanese classics like Play It Cool are up your alley. Arrow Video’s delivery promises a delightful education on the industry through Masumura’s lens, providing handfuls of insight on Daiei for anyone curious. The extras are certainly enjoyable and don’t feel like heavy-handed regurgitations of things on repeat throughout the features. The packaging is fantastic as well, which makes this film’s debut arrival on a home medium for English-speaking territories all the more welcoming.
