It was Japan's submission for the 1987 Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film, although it missed the shortlist. It's usually described as a black comedy, although personally I didn't find it that funny.

Ken Ogata plays Iheiji Muraoka, who was a real guy and the film's based on his autobiography. He got washed up penniless in Hong Kong in 1901, got employed to spy on the Russians and so earned enough to launch a brothel. Eventually, he had a chain of them down to Malaysia. The comedy's based in Iheiji being a passionate patriot who thinks he's selling whores FOR THE SAKE OF THE EMPIRE! (Diplomats sometimes disagree.) Shohei Imamura is lampooning a lot of exaggerated nationalism that was very much real back then, underlined by a sense of the absurd around Iheiji's increasingly peculiar views.

"State owned brothel?!"

"Yes. We'll call them 'national brothels'. Hear me out... first we'll set up in Port Swettenham, with your blessing, of course. Then in Singapore, Hong Kong, Saigon, Bangkok, Manchuria... everywhere! These brothels will be part of Japan's imperial expansion project. People say the State should write the school textbooks, so why not have state owned brothels?"

At one point, he's planning to kidnap girls from Japan and force them into prostitution. I boggled. Going into the sex industry was his wife's idea, admittedly, but he's the one who grabbed it with both hands while insisting "it's for the good of the empire".

"Have faith in our whores... they're regular moneymakers."

It can be cheerfully horrible. "I'm pregnant again. I have to get rid of it." A GIRL IS REPEATEDLY JUMPING FROM THE BATH DOWN ON TO HER FRIEND'S STOMACH. That was disgusting. Unsurprisingly, there's also lots of toplessness.

This was Takashi Miike's first film credit. Originally, he'd wanted to be a motorbike racer, but when he was 18, he entered a Yokohama film school founded by Shohei Imamura. (Primarily because it had no entrance exam.) Miike was a rubbish student, then worked in TV for a decade before becoming an assistant director under his former mentor Imamura.

This is a very Shohei Imamura film. He's examining the lower strata of society (as he tended to do) with an acidic eye on the political situation. Iheiji's fervent patriotism and pride in his dodgy activities makes him ridiculous. When watching this film, it'll help to know Japanese history in the first half of the 20th century, but surprisingly we never see Japan itself. Lots of East Asian countries, lots of languages and a narrative that spans decades, with a classy cast. It's pretty good.

"What did I do wrong? Tell me... It hurts. I can't bear this! I've done nothing wrong! I'm so righteous... always so honest. Damn!"