or ''Sisters of Gion'' is a 1936 black and white Japanese

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Kenji Mizoguchi was a Japanese film director and screenwriter, who directed about one hundred films during his career between 1923 and 1956. His most acclaimed works include ''The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums'' (1939), ''The Life of Oharu'' (1952), ''Uget ...

about two

geisha {{Culture of Japan, Traditions, Geisha {{nihongo, Geisha, 芸者 ({{IPAc-en, ˈ, ɡ, eɪ, ʃ, ə; {{IPA-ja, ɡeːɕa, lang), also known as {{nihongo, , 芸子, geiko (in Kyoto and Kanazawa) or {{nihongo, , 芸妓, geigi, are a class of female ...

sisters living in

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

Gion is a district of Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, Japan, originating as an entertainment district in the Sengoku period, in front of Yasaka Shrine (Gion Shrine). The district was built to accommodate the needs of travellers and visitors to the shrine. ...

district. It forms a

diptych A diptych (; from the Greek δίπτυχον, ''di'' "two" + '' ptychē'' "fold") is any object with two flat plates which form a pair, often attached by hinge. For example, the standard notebook and school exercise book of the ancient world w ...

with Mizoguchi's ''

Osaka Elegy is a 1936 Japanese drama film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. It forms a diptych with Mizoguchi's ''Sisters of the Gion'' which shares much of the same cast and production team, and is considered an early masterpiece in the director's career. Plot S ...

'' which shares much of the same cast and production team.

Plot

The story centers around two geisha sisters, Umekichi and Omocha, who live in their own lodging house ( okiya) in the licensed pleasure district of Gion, Kyoto. The two women have very different outlooks on relationships with men. Umekichi, the elder sister, underwent classical geisha training and wears kimono, and has a strong sense of loyalty ( giri) to her patron. Umekichi's younger sister, Omocha, was educated in public schools and wears western clothing, except when she is working as a geisha. Unlike Umekichi, Omocha doesn’t trust men and believes that they will only use geisha and then abandon them without a care. Thus, she uses men to her own advantage, willing to manipulate and lie to her customers. Umekichi's patron is a newly bankrupt businessman named Shimbei Furusawa, who Umekichi takes care of after he loses his house and business. Omocha does not believe that her sister should support Shimbei, that doing so will prevent her from providing for herself by finding a new patron, and that she owes him nothing as, in her view, he has received more than he has given in the past. Omocha finds her sister a new patron and, one day when Umekichi is out, gives Shimbei some money to return to his wife in the country and tells him that her sister no longer wants him around. He takes the money but, rather than leaving, spends it drinking and takes up residence with his former clerk. Omocha also attempts to find a patron for herself and appears to be successful in gaining the attention of the owner of a clothing shop. However, in the process of helping her sister, Omocha has previously taken advantage of the owner's clerk, who has stolen from the shop to provide a kimono for Umekichi and been found out. Umekichi throws over her new patron when she learns from the kimono shop clerk of Omocha's deception of Shimbei, and returns to him. The clerk is discovered at Omocha's okiya by the shop owner and dismissed. He seeks revenge on his former employer by informing his wife of her husband's infidelity, and then exacts his revenge on Omocha by abducting her in a car and later throwing her out of it. Ultimately, both Omocha and Umekichi are defeated at the end of the film. Umekichi is abandoned by her patron Shimbei when he is given the chance to manage a factory in the country where his wife has retired, and she ends up caring for Omocha after her hospitalization for her injuries. Bandaged and confined to her hospital bed, Omocha curses the geisha system and the sexual subjugation involved.

Cast

Isuzu Yamada was a Japanese stage and screen actress whose career spanned seven decades. Biography Yamada was born in Osaka as Mitsu Yamada, the daughter of Kusudu Yamada, a shinpa actor specialising in onnagata roles, and Ritsu, a geisha. Under her mother ...

as younger sister Omocha * Yōko Umemura as older sister Umekichi * Benkei Shiganoya as Shimbei Furusawa * Fumio Okura as Jurakudo *

Eitarō Shindō was a Japanese film actor. He appeared in more than 300 films between 1936 and 1975. He is most closely associated with the work of Kenji Mizoguchi, with whom he made twelve films. Selected filmography * '' Sisters of the Gion'' (1936) * ''A ...

as Kudo * Taizō Fukami as Kimura * Sakurako Iwama as Omasa Kudō * Namiko Kawajima * Reiko Aoi * Shizuko Takizawa

Legacy

Critic

Tadashi Iijima was a Japanese film critic and screenwriter. He has been called "a leader who established film criticism and film research in Japan". Career After graduating from the Tokyo Prefectural First Middle School (now Hibiya High School), he attended t ...

considered ''Sisters of the Gion'' to be "the best prewar sound film". In the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

's "Best Japanese film of every year" list, film historian Alexander Jacoby observed that Mizoguchi "delivered his social analysis with concision, force, rigour and scalpel-like precision". Mizoguchi himself named this film and its companion piece ''Osaka Elegy'' as the works with which he achieved artistic maturity. A remake of the same name directed by Hiromasa Nomura was released in 1956. Film historian

Donald Richie Donald Richie (17 April 1924 – 19 February 2013) was an American-born author who wrote about the Japanese people, the culture of Japan, and especially Japanese cinema. Although he considered himself primarily a film historian, Richie also dir ...

also saw strong similarities between Mizoguchi's film and

Kōzaburō Yoshimura was a Japanese film director. Biography Born in Shiga Prefecture, he joined the Shōchiku studio in 1929. He debuted as director in 1934, but continued working as an assistant director for such filmmakers as Yasujirō Ozu and Yasujirō Shimazu ...

's 1951 geisha drama ''Clothes of Deception''.

Awards

The film won the 1937

Kinema Junpo Award , commonly called , is Japan's oldest film magazine and began publication in July 1919. It was first published three times a month, using the Japanese ''Jun'' (旬) system of dividing months into three parts, but the postwar ''Kinema Junpō'' ha ...

for best film (director Kenji Mizoguchi).''Awards for Gion no kyōdai'' https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027672/awards accessed 7 June 2009

Note on the running time

References

External links

* * http://www.talkingpix.co.uk/ReviewsSisterofG.html {{Kinema Junpo Award for Best Film 1936 films 1936 drama films Japanese drama films 1930s Japanese-language films Japanese black-and-white films Films about geisha Films set in Kyoto Best Film Kinema Junpo Award winners Shochiku films Films directed by Kenji Mizoguchi Films with screenplays by Yoshikata Yoda Films produced by Masaichi Nagata