(Karayuki-san). “Japanese ‘comfort girls’ were the first line of invasion prior to World War II,” Imamura said. This documentary depicts the invasion from the point of view of its foot soldiers: the karayuki-san, Japanese women tricked into leaving their homes and shipped off to brothels overseas. In Malaysia in the early seventies, Imamura met Kikuyo Zendo, who had been pressed into service as a karayuki-san some fifty years before. The film retraces her path from boat to brothel as she graciously responds to Imamura’s pointed questions about the details of her trade. In documenting the stories of Kikuyo and others like her, Imamura uncovers the prostitutes’ role as both labor force and export commodity in Japan’s economic and military expansion, and attempts to recover a place for them in the country’s history. But when he visits the Hiroshima village where Kikuyo was born, he discovers why many karayuki-san would rather be forgotten than go home.

—Juliet Clark

• Written by Imamura. Photographed by Masao Tochizawa. (62 mins, In Japanese with English subtitles, Color, 16mm, From Kino)