When Hollywood does gender role reversal it’s usually for laughs, as when a female boss (Sandra Bullock) proposes a fake marriage to a male subordinate (Ryan Reynolds) in The Proposal (2009) or when a male scientist (Arnold Schwarzenegger) gets pregnant in Junior (1994).
Fuminori Kaneko’s The Lady Shogun and Her Men (O-oku) also has its comic moments, but on balance it’s a straight period drama with a what-if premise based on a manga by Fumi Yohinaga: Early in the 18th century Japanese is devastated by an epidemic that wipes out most of its male population. As a result the sexes trade places, with women occupying the positions of power and men becoming prized as breeders of the next generation.
As the film begins a young samurai, Unoshin Mizuno (Kazunari Ninomiya), training as a swordfighter has pledged himself to the winsome Onobu (Maki Horikita), but their difference in class — his family ranks relatively low in the samurai hierarchy while hers is a rich merchant clan — makes marriage impossible.
To help his family financially, Mizuno joins O-oku — which literally means “inner chamber,” but is actually the shogun’s male concubines. As in the outside world, O-oku has its leaders and followers, but the Shogun is free to choose from among all its nearly 3,000 members.
As a lowly newcomer, Mizuno becomes the object of hazing but finds an ally in Sugishita (Sadao Abe), a friendly senior who teaches him the ropes. Seeing all the beautiful men around, Mizuno realizes he has plenty of competition, though his first reaction is less envy than disgust at the petty back-biting and rank-pulling that pervades the place. He also less than thrilled by all the sexual advances receives; his heart (if never body) still belongs to Onobu.
It is not until well into this story that we finally meet the new shogun, Yoshimune Tokugawa (Kou Shibasaki), but she is worth the wait. Despite the regal manner, Yoshimune is no self-involved diva, but rather a hard-nosed politician driven to reform the rotten political and social system she had inherited from her predecessor. At the same time, she is a normal woman — and curious to see her small army of suitors.
It’s easy to guess that the paths of Mizuno and Yoshimune will cross, harder to figure how their unusual relationship will pan out. Based on Fumi Yoshinaga’s hit manga, the film creates a glamorously fantastic world, with gaily colored kimonos for the guys, soberly splendiferous costumes for the shogun — but one grounded in the stubbornly individual personalities of the two principals.
The film was a hit in Japan, especially with women, who enjoyed imagining themselves in the shogun’s tabi (split-toe socks), waited on hand and foot by legions of gorgeous guys, all of whom would die to share her futon. But what does love have to do with it? In the world of O-oku, nothing — at the heart of The Lady Shogun and Her Men, everything.