Play It Cool
directed by Yasuzo Masumura
starring Mari Atsumi, Yusuke Kawazu
Arrow Video
Like a Japanese take on Bobbie Gentry’s classic song Fancy, Play It Cool is also about a teen girl who uses the power of her body to get the life she feels she deserves, exacting a measure of revenge along the way.
With her mother in prison for murder, Yumi decides to follow in her mother’s career path as a nightclub hostess, as her aspiration to be a proper middle class housewife has been shattered by her rape, leaving Yumi no longer a virgin. Yumi sees a better path for herself in sex work than as a piecework seamstress, so she starts the climb up by attaching herself to more and more powerful men. What could be a dour melodrama is far more interesting, as Yumi is also a poker player and she views life through that mindset, always keeping her cards close and being willing and able to adapt to whatever unforeseen challenges arise. She has to bluff and not be afraid to go all in, even when she doesn’t have a good hand to play. Life has always dealt Yumi bad hands, but she makes the cards work in her favor, sometimes just through sheer willpower and a bit of luck.
Play It Cool, coming in at the tail end of Daiei Film’s golden era, has often been disregarded as another in a string of increasingly sleazy sex films the studio was cranking out to try and stave off bankruptcy, but it is actually a rather effective drama with very little in the way of titillation despite the entire film taking place in the world of sex work. Sure, it has all the exploitation trappings — rape, prostitution, abortions — but they are handled with a seriousness not found in contemporaries at the studio like Women’s Prison for Torture or The Hot Little Girl, even if the marketing for the film is clearing leaning hard into the exploitation market.
Arrow Video gives Play It Cool its first home video release in the west with a lush transfer and a pair of terrific extras: a video essay on the film and the career of director Yasuzō Masumura by Mark Roberts along and a sparkling commentary from Jasper Sharp and Anne McKnight. Play it Cool is one of the more intriguing under-the-radar discs so far in 2025.
