This movie is so a e s t h e t i c. It's about this high school girl who moves from her hometown to her aunt's place in the city. Her mother and her aunt are both former geishas, with her aunt currently running the geisha house. She becomes an understudy or geisha-in-training while attending high school. First off, the way the urbanscape is shot is wonderful. The cinematography is superb. I like how there are all these 'in-between' scenes where nothing much happens. We're just looking at the main character experiencing things - like her looking at the cityscape outside while she's in the train, her watching her classmates goof off on the school lawn while she's by the window of one of the second-story rooms of their high school, her catching glances of this pretty woman while in the train leading to her not getting off at her proper stop because she wants to look at her longer. In all these scenes, there is no dialog. It's just her looking at the world.
The movie is not wholly wholesome though. It takes a look at how precarious and male-dependent her position is in society, especially in her role as a geisha-to-be. Though this is quickly subsumed when in the later part of the film it dives more into her high school life. Effectively the movie becomes a high school-focused one, and kind of cliché in certain parts. The highlight of this part for me has to be her performance as Yaoya Oshichi for her school festival and the climactic scene that follows. It was just so beautiful and cinematic.
The young actress' portrayal of the main character is very memorable. She's silent and shy, but certainly is not a pushover. Part of this angst can be attributed to her rocky relationship with her mother, a conflict whose details are not discussed in the film and later on just seems to have been forgotten. She is also persistent and tough, both emotionally and physically. As punishment for her performing badly during a performance rehearsal, she is told by her aunt that she can no longer ride in the rickshaws with them every time they go somewhere. She has to run after the rickshaws now. And this she does without any complaint.
I liked that in the later part of the film everything turned out to be so wholesome. The characters she interacts with may start off as not so likable, but we are later shown something good in them.
