A Geisha
(Gion Bayashi)
Screening on Film
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi.
With Michiyo Kogure, Ayako Wakao.
Japan, 1953, 35mm, black & white, 84 min.
Japanese with English subtitles.
With Michiyo Kogure, Ayako Wakao.
Japan, 1953, 35mm, black & white, 84 min.
Japanese with English subtitles.
Closely focused on the apprenticeship and coming of age of a teenage geisha in post-war Kyoto, Mizoguchi’s lesser known late masterwork offers a more lyrical and sympathetic vision of Japan’s ritualized “floating world” as a fragile safe haven where unmarried women can find a degree of freedom, and even dignity, not possible in the outside world. Yet, although A Geisha’s young heroine struggles to define geishadom in her own terms, Mizoguchi’s heart-rendering story makes clear the difficult struggle for geisha, and Japanese women in general, to achieve stability in a mercenary and machismo world.
Part of film series
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Utamaro and His Five Women
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White Threads of the Waterfall
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, 1933
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The Tales and Tragedies of Kenji Mizoguchi. ...
The Life of Oharu
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, 1952
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The Tales and Tragedies of Kenji Mizoguchi. ...
The 47 Ronin, Parts I & II
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, 1941
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The Tales and Tragedies of Kenji Mizoguchi. ...
Tales of the Taira Clan
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, 1955
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The Tales and Tragedies of Kenji Mizoguchi. ...
Victory of Women
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, 1946
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The Tales and Tragedies of Kenji Mizoguchi. ...
The Love of Sumako, the Actress
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, 1947
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The Tales and Tragedies of Kenji Mizoguchi. ...
The Woman of the Rumor
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954
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