Sandakan No. 8 (1974) on Netflix
Keiko Mitani, a young journalist, is researching Japanese women forced into prostitution in Asian brothels. In a remote village she finds Osaki, an elderly woman who agrees to tell her story.
- Watch on NetflixThis title is not on Netflix right now. Please check back later for updates.
- Watch on NordVPN
- Netflix2.2/5
- IMDb7.6/10874 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Osaki, an old woman who shares a shack with several cats in an out-of-the-way village, agrees to tell her life story to Keiko Mitani, a young journalist gathering material on Japanese women forced into prostitution in brothels across Asia early in the twentieth century. The telling moves back to the early 1920s, when Osaki's impoverished family sells her into indentured service in Sandakan, in British North Borneo, at what she takes for a hotel. The night before she leaves, her mother hands her a kimono she wove herself, which becomes her dearest possession. The place is in fact a brothel, Sandakan No. 8, and after two years of work as a maid the owners force her into prostitution.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Sandakan No. 8 (1974)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Sandakan No. 8 was adapted from Yamazaki Tomoko's 1972 book about the karayuki-san, Japanese women forced into sexual slavery in Pacific Rim countries and colonies. The book caused controversy in Japan, where the subject was not discussed in public or in scholarly histories.
- Sandakan No. 8 was released in China in 1978 under the title 望乡 (Wàng Xiāng), and it was among the first foreign films released there after the Cultural Revolution ended.
- Chinese audiences responded to the film's subject of comfort women during the Japanese occupation of China, and it was among the earliest depictions of sexuality seen in Chinese cinemas.
