Nippon konkuchi (The Insect Woman)

Tome - the illegitimate daughter of her loose mother - is born in 1918. At the age of 23 she goes to work in a factory where, being personally abused, she fights back as a reckless militant union member. Then she is raped and - like her mother before her - has an illegitimate daughter. To provide for her, Tome becomes a prostitute in Tokyo but, unwilling to be exploited, soon sets up a call-girl ring for her own. Jailed she is ruined by her gangster patron, who in turn is seduced and cheated by Tome’s own daughter. The latter, climbing to success over the ruins of her own mother’s life, invests the proceeds in a communal farm. And the cycle will go on, with women grubbing like insects to make some kind of life for themselves and their children.