It's a much better film than I'd expected. It's about the girls who work in a hostess club, a dodgy industry where men pay worrying amounts of money to be flattered and fawned over. We see a price menu:

MAIN FLOOR (1 set 60 minutes) = £60 for a visitor, or £50 for a member. (I've converted. The Japanese prices are 12,500 yen and 10,000 yen.)

VIP ROOM (1 set 60 minutes) = £100 (i.e. 20,000 yen)

TABLE CHARGE = £12 (i.e. 2,500 yen)

...and that's just the beginning. Customers are also expected to buy overpriced drinks, presents, etc. The girls' job is to wheedle as much money from the customers as possible. It's not sex work, but they're similar in terms of respectability (low) and links with organised crime.

Daisuke Yamanouchi has set several films in this world. This is the first in a trilogy he made about the Red Dragon Club, followed by two more about Club Grace. Other pink film directors have also explored hostess clubs, e.g. Yumi Yoshiyuki's Queen Rondo: A Night of Luxury with a Time-Traveling Hostess... but Yamanouchi's take on it is more brutal (and more watchable). There's no romance in this hostess club. It's exploitation. The girls are bitchy, territorial and competitive. Nice girls will either get eaten alive or pulled down into the darkness. (LATER: I was wrong; there are at least four Red Dragon Club films.)

Some of the customers are boorish and/or scary, while others pester the girls for sex. (Depending on the girl, an arrangement might be available. They call it "makura", which means "pillow".)

Our heroine is Chizuru (Iori Kogawa). Her home life included her mother having sex very loudly on the other side of a thin wall. This was followed by remarriage, suicide and a descent into insanity. (Flowers get eaten.) Laden with unhappy responsibilities, Chizuru makes the best of her limited career choices. "To support this mother, I stepped into the world of the night."

Her first customer is repellent. Menacing colleagues want to stamp her down the pecking order. The club's number one star is a pair of boobs attached to a girl played by Meguri Fujiura (H-cup, started making adult videos in 2009 and hasn't quit yet, although she takes long breaks from the industry). So far, so bad... but it'll get worse. Acid gets thrown in a girl's face. Meguri Fujiura's boyfriend gets obnoxious about money, gut-punches her and orders her to sell her body to support him. Another bloke wants revenge. It's possible to get snatched off the street and raped by someone who put a plastic bag over your head.

Ultimately, the finale involves a knife rampage.

Chizuru changes. She's got no choice. "I was thinking you've completely become a woman of the night." The film is, though, less exploitative than you might expect. Kyabajou isn't prostitution. The tits-and-arse level is a little more restrained than you'd think. The film's also capable of being thoughtful, with the girls discussing and reflecting on their situation.

"It wasn't my mother's fault. She wasn't in the wrong. What was bad was being poor."

"Men are all the same. They hear the word "virgin" and the colour of their eyes changes."