The disturbing story of a physician who conducted the first operation with general anaesthetic, and the women in his life who are both so determined to win his love that they volunteer as subjects for his experiments
Acting
Wakao and Takamine's volcanic rivalry—desperation never looked this glamorous
Direction
Masumura's lurid close-ups make surgery feel like seduction
Costume
Edo-period fashion as emotional armor, every kimono tells a story
Director
Yasuzō Masumura
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The real Hanaoka Seishū performed breast cancer surgery in 1804 using tsūsensan, a compound he developed from Chinese medicine; roughly 600 years after Hua Tuo's legendary but lost technique.
Masumura made this for Daiei Studios as part of his 'perverse melodrama' period, deliberately pushing against postwar Japanese cinema's restraint—he called it 'making wounds visible.'
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