AllMovie

Noboru Tanaka's well-made but depressing entry in Nikkatsu's popular Hirusagari No Joji series is the story of a young flower-delivery boy named Jun (Akira Takahashi) who is hopelessly in love with Ryoko (Miyoko Aoyama), a sales clerk at the store where he works. Jun is an idealist, and his hopes of love are dashed when he discovers that Ryoko works nights as a prostitute to support her toddler. Devastated, Jun viciously spreads the news about Ryoko's secret life, causing her to get fired from the store and lose her enraged fiance. As in Kaben No Shiziku, Tanaka works the woman-flower connection for all it's worth, but the story line works almost perversely to undercut his imagery. The real theme here is how frustrated idealism can turn to hatred in a heartbeat, and Tanaka does a good job with that part of the story, although the overall effect is somewhat muddled.