Japan Synopsis
にっぽん昆虫記
“She lives by instinct with no sense of right or wrong.”
A woman, Tome, is born to a lower class family in Japan in 1918. The title refers to an insect, repeating its mistakes, as in an infinite circle. Imamura, with this metaphor, introduces the life of Tome, who keeps trying to change her poor life.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with The Insect Woman. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Nikkatsu Corporation
The 1962–1964 Japan Window
The Insect Woman holds position #10 of 58 Japan films in the 1962–1964 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 1960s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 1960s in Japan, 202 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when The Insect Woman premiered alongside 14 others.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 14 other Japan films in 1963.
The 182nd Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Audience Engagement
56 audience reviews — more than 66% of Japan films in our index.
Popularity sits at the 61th percentile among Japan films.
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on The Insect Woman, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- confession · 5
- lust · 4
- starvation · 4
- semi-documentary · 2
- commune · 1
- cynicism · 1
- freeze frame · 1
- prostitution ring · 1
- serf · 1
- spanning generations · 1
- breastfeeding · 1
- prostitution · 25
- poverty · 24
- 1930s · 23
- buddhism · 22
- pregnancy · 22
- adultery · 20
- 1960s · 20
- 1920s · 18
- brothel · 17
- incest · 17
- 1950s · 15
- greed · 12
- 1910s · 8
- japan · 454
- family relationships · 57
- pink film · 50
- parent child relationship · 46
- prostitute · 39
- 1940s · 35
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #1,409 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (69th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.5 points above the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Drama productions specifically: #615 of 1,933 (top 32%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Japanese |
| Production Companies | Nikkatsu Corporation |
| Runtime | 2h 3m |
| Release Date | November 16, 1963 |
| IMDb | tt0057363 |
| Official Site | www.nikkatsu.com |