Play It Cool Blu-ray presents a stylish, erotically charged Japanese drama from acclaimed director Yasuzō Masumura, finally released outside Japan for the first time in a brand new high-definition transfer. A key work from Masumura’s late-career period, the film blends social critique, sexual politics, and tragic melodrama into a striking portrait of women navigating power, desire, and survival in modernizing Tokyo.
 
Mari Atsumi stars as Yumi, a fashion student living in a cramped home with her hard-working mother Tomi and her abusive stepfather. When Tomi violently intervenes to protect her daughter from sexual assault and is sent to prison, Yumi is left alone to survive in a predatory world. Taken in by a hostess bar where her mother once worked, she is drawn into Tokyo’s nightclub culture, where glamour and opportunity mask exploitation and danger. A chance encounter with a former lawyer promises escape, but only leads her into another environment ruled by male dominance and moral compromise.
 
Directed by Yasuzō Masumura, whose films are renowned for their fierce examinations of gender, power, and hypocrisy, Play It Cool showcases his empathetic yet unsparing portrayal of women pushed to the margins. With its moody atmosphere, bold subject matter, and strong central performance, the film stands as a vital rediscovery from one of Japanese cinema’s most important voices.
 
directed by: Yasuzō Masumura
starring: Mari Atsumi, Yusuke Kawazu, Akemi Negishi
1970 / 94 min