Based on Fumi Yoshinaga’s best-selling manga about a feudal-era Japan ruled by a fictional matriarchy, 2010’s “Ooku (The Lady Shogun and Her Men)” was a typical Japanese costume film with gorgeous kimonos and a story of drama in high places.
The film’s female shogun, played by Kou Shibasaki, swaggered through the bowing ranks of male concubines — who occupy the o￣ku (inner chamber) of the Japanese title — with a mix of mild erotic interest and barely disguised contempt. While finding the eye-candy on display tempting, she wanted to justly govern a country plagued by poverty and a man-killing disease (thus the rise of female rulers) — and had little use for a small army of male drones.
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