Manatsu no joji, aka Midsummer Affair—Underwater Series Part 4, appeared in 1960 from Shochiku Company Limited, and above you see two nice promo posters for the movie. These epics are, of course, nothing without franchise star Kyoko Izumi, and here she plays a woman discovered adrift on the sea. She tells her rescuers that her husband, less lucky, drowned trying to save her. But some elements of her story don’t add up—for instance she claims to be a poor swimmer, but soon it becomes clear that she’s quite at home in the water. Suspicions arise that Izumi has committed foul play, a fact soon clear enough to the audience. Meanwhile a swimwear fashion show and a bitter rivalry between two female aquatic teams give her the cover she needs to try to eliminate the person most intent on proving she murdered her husband. All she has to do is point and shoot—with a poison filled syringe. Will she get away with this crazy scheme? We’re not telling. This was the last film in this franchise, but she did act in one more ama film, 1963’s Ama no kaishinju, which was made by a different production company. So it looks like this’ll do it for the series, except for an alternate poster for part 3 we have hiding somewhere. We’ll get that up at some point.
