Yakuza Wives

Date: March 19, 2011

Time: 5 p.m.

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Part of the Japan Society's yakuza film series.

What if the hardest men in town were, in fact, women? While her husband is in prison doing time, Tamaki (Shima Iwashita), the wife of a yakuza capo, is not wasting her time--she runs her spouse's gang pretty much like Margaret Thatcher ruled the UK, with an iron fist. Meanwhile, Makoto (Rina Katase), her voluptuous younger sister, marries a member of a rival band after being raped by him. The two women decide they're mad and won't take it anymore: the mortality of the male characters is about to go north. Following the outlines of reportage by Shoko Ieda, who spent a year living among 28 wives of gangsters, Yakuza Wives became a huge hit and the first movie of a long-running classic series exposing the women who live in the shadows in a harsh, bright, crimson light.

$12, $9 for members, students and seniors.

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