The critical establishment was clearly not prepared to accept a woman's prison film featuring former prostitutes recovering from venereal diseases, unwanted pregnancies, and estranged lovers. With its cat fights, hysterical tantrums, film noir lighting, and dramatic music, White Beast is indicative of the new influences of the Hollywood psychological thriller on Naruse. Caged (John Cromwell, 1950) initiated a cycle of women's prison movies in the United States that may or may not have been shown in Japan, but the stylistics of White Beast draw on the same paranoid woman's films and film noir conventions that preceded the American cycle.
Genre: Drama
Stars: Mitsuko Miura, Sō Yamamura, Eiji Okada, Kimiko Iino, Chieko Nakakita, Mayuri Mokushô
Crew: Mikio Naruse (Director), Tomoyuki Tanaka (Producer), Mikio Naruse (Writer), Motosada Nishikame (Writer), Yoshiharu Bandô (Editor), Masao Takeda (Production Design)
Country: Japan
Language: 日本語
Studio: Tanaka Production
Runtime: 97 minutes
Quality: HD
Released: Jun 03, 1950
IMDb: 5
Keywords:prison, women's prison
