Sisters of the Gion

Made directly after the production of his Osaka Elegy, Mizoguchi’s tale of two geisha sisters in the Gion pleasure district of Kyoto in the 1930s details the struggles of the cynical and modern Omocha and the duty-bound Umekichi. Their contrasts evoke not only two different philosophies of geisha life amidst their struggles with debt, class hierarchy and misogynistic exploitation, but also gives view of a society endemically hostile to women’s autonomy.