By now you know we’re really into these promos for Japanese ama movies, so at top is a poster for Kuikomi ama: Midare-gai, aka Marked Ama: Stirred Up Shell. This is the first one we’ve seen that offers a good look at one of the ama’s most important tools. No, not that, silly. We mean her wooden tub, which floats on the water’s surface attached to its owner by a rope. Typically they’re a bit larger than the one pictured, and are used to hold whatever she finds. One source said they were used as buoys that she clung to in order to rest between dives, but we aren’t too sure on that. By chance we ran across some black and white ama photographs from the 1950s and we’ll put those up soon.
But getting back to the movie, basically you get Ryoko Watanabe headlining the standard plot of illicit sex in a small fishing village. Everything is pretty good natured until a new arrival upsets the delicate local equilibrium, triggering jealousy and revenge. As with other ama movies, this one is played for both laughs and drama, and ultimately the purpose is to show lots of skin. Since you’ll have a hard time tracking this down, we’ve provided some of Ryoko’s below in a cool series that runs from day to night. She made about a dozen films, but we don’t know if they’re available outside Japan. We hope to run across her again. Kuikomi ama: Midare-gai premiered in Japan today in 1982.
Update: As promised, those vintage ama photographs.
