Region 4 Winners and Losers

     Street of Shame has been released in Region 2 in the United Kingdom by Masters of Cinema under its traditional Japanese title, Akasen Chitai. This comes in a two-disc release with Yōkihi (also known as The Empress Yang Kwei-Fei). The extras include video discussions on both films by Tony Rayns which both run for 9-11 minutes, an audio commentary on Akasen Chitai again by Japanese film critic Tony Rayns and a 64-page booklet featuring writing by Keiko I. McDonald (author of Mizoguchi), Mark Le Fanu (author of Mizoguchi and Japan), Masako Nakagawa (author of The Yang Kuei-fei Legend in Japanese Literature), ninth-century poetry (A Song of Unending Sorrow) by Po Chü-i, and rare production stills.

     Street of Shame has also been released by Eclipse in Region 1 in the United States in a Box set entitled Kenji Mizoguchi's Fallen Women. This set includes three other films: Osaka Elegy, Sisters of the Gion and Women of the Night. This box set release has no extras.

     In my opinion, the video discussions and expert audio commentary by Tony Rayns and the booklet, together with the inclusion of Yōkihi makes the Region 2 Masters of Cinema release the best available on DVD, although the Region 4 Madman Directors Suite release, with its informative audio commentary by Ross Gibson and 16-page booklet featuring Dr. Hartley's essay on Prostitution and Post-war Japan is an excellent release onto DVD also.