Shojo yutai / 処女受胎 (‘Immaculate Conception’, 1966)

Obscure Japanese Film #146

Ayako Wakao

 

This Daiei productionstars Ayako Wakao as Aiko, a modernist oil painter who has hit a creative wall.Searching for inspiration, she comes to believe that having a child will solveher problems but, having no desire to get married, she decides to tryartificial insemination. One of the sperm donors at the clinic she attends is astudent, Satoru (Takao Ito), who likes to feel that his sperm is going to beautifulwomen. When he sees Aiko visiting the clinic and learns she is a patient, hepressures a nurse, Keiko (Sanae Nakahara), to ensure that it’s his seed thatAiko receives…

 

Based on a novel by JugoKuroiwa, (who had also supplied the source material for With My Husband’s Consent), this is a silly story in questionabletaste and with a very poor ending. The film relies heavily on its star, who Ibelieve has even more costume changes here than she did in Ojo-san – although in this case some of the clothes look like theycould have come from Primark. In fact, the whole thing looks like it was shoton the cheap and in a rush, which may partly be due to shrinking budgets atDaiei at the time. However, the film’s short running time of 82 minutes andtotal lack of name actors other than Wakao also suggests that it was mostlikely a B-movie which played at the bottom half of a double bill. 

Takao Ito basks in Shima's trademark sunset lighting

 

Director Koji Shima hada weakness for the orange glow of sunset in his colour films, and this is featuredin a number of scenes here. He also liked to make dramatic use of harsher kindsof weather, so it’s no surprise to see a rainstorm at one point. Another Shimatrademark is his use of symbolic shots, which are mostly absent from this film,apart from this rather clumsy one which again indicates that haste was the nameof the game in making this movie:

Sanae Nakahara and Takao Ito

 

I love a good dream sequence, but the onefeatured here is pretty mediocre and rather obviously shot through a layer of gauze(as are, for some reason, the scenes at the beginning of the film in which Aikosearches for inspiration in a windy field, at a flamenco dance and at a divingpool). 

 

All in all, Shojo yutai is a very shallow treatment of thetheme of artificial insemination which tries to redeem itself with some awkwardmoralising towards the end before getting really weird in the final scene, whentalk of Aiko viewing men as mere ‘fertiliser’ causes one character to act in a most peculiar fashion. 

 

Thanks to A.K., and to Coralsundy for the English subtitles, which can be found here. 

DVD at Amazon Japan.