Synopsis
Sisters of the Gion (祇園の姉妹, 1936) — watch online on iFILM. Kenji Mizoguchi set this film in Kyoto's Gion entertainment district, where two geisha sisters share a house but approach their lives in opposite ways. Umekichi, the older one, takes back her patron after he goes bankrupt — out of loyalty and professional obligation. Omocha, the younger, sees no reason for that and quietly moves to find wealthy clients for both of them.
Mizoguchi refuses to come down on either side. Both women are working inside a system that gives them almost no real options, and both pay for the choices they make within it. Shot in 1936, the film reads less like a morality tale and more like a careful piece of social observation.
One of the essential works of prewar Japanese cinema. Stream Sisters of the Gion (1936) on iFILM.
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