A Música de Gion

There may be an element of atonement in Mizoguchi's films about exploited women. It is most powerful in "Street of Shame" but plays a role in "Gion bayashi" as well. The exploiters are bad indeed, though Mizoguchi gives them humanizing motivations; the exploited, while not too good to be true, are much better than most of the people I know.

What makes this visually beautiful film unforgettable and worthy of repeated viewing is, first, the evolving relationship between Older and Younger Sister, which is sufficiently imitative of life to satisfy the most rigorous champion of Kurosawa's "Lower Depths." As life happens, these two women evolve. It is this evolution which is the secret heart of "Gion Festival Music." Second, importantly, it is the nuanced, understated, but heroic performance of Michiyo Kogure as Miyoharu. Her artistry becomes manifest when her character portrait here is compared to her equally successful role of Taeko in Ozu's "Flavor of Green Tea over Rice," made the year before. The two women could not be more different, and she accomplishes the differences with bare flickers of change across her face and almost imperceptible alterations in body language.

These qualities inspire me to forgive the overly schematic plot and excessively contrasting portraits of the very good and the very bad.

At the end "Gion Festival Music," "A Geisha," or whatever title translation one wishes to use, is not principally about the cruel exploitation of women. The film has a secret. It is a love story. And I love this movie.

Ayako Wakao visits Michiyo Kogure. Like Miss Kogure, Miss Wakao's mother was a geisha, and now she wishes to be an apprentice. After sorting through the girl's situation, including a father who's impoverished, Miss Kogure accepts her old friend's daughter. The expense is managed by a loan from the woman who runs the largest tea house in town, and Miss Wakao seems to have a brilliant future in front of her.... until she bites a client who tries to rape her.

Kenji Mizoguchi's movie is not actually about Miss Wakao, who at 20 appears to be half a dozen years younger. It is about the elegant Miss Kogure and the discovery.... no, the re-awakening of her revulsion at the dirty side of what is supposed to be an elegant business. At the time, a 15-year veteran of the movies, she had entered at the same age Miss Wakao was now, and had lately been playing major character roles, like the acidic wife in THE FLAVOR OF GREEN TEA OVER RICE. Here, it's a pleasure to watch her grow as a human being in Mizoguchi's always outraged phillipic about the poor position of women in old Japan and new.

In the post-war, the sixteen year-old teenager Eiko (Ayako Wakao) seeks out the geisha Miyoharu (Michiyo Kogure) in the district of Gion, in Kyoto asking her to be a "maiko" (apprentice of geisha). Eiko explains that her mother, who was a geisha and Miyoharu's friend, has just passed away; her father Sawamoto (Eitarô Shindô) has failed in business; and her uncle is harassing her.

Miyoharu is a warm-hearted woman and accepts to train her. One year later, Eiko's father refuses to be her guarantor and Miyoharu borrows a large amount from the tea-house owner Okimi (Chieko Naniwa) to buy her kimono and debut in a party. Miyoharu changes Eiko's name to Miyoe and introduces the teenager to clients as her sister. Soon Miyoharu is charged for the money but neither she nor Miyoe wants to have patrons.

"Gion bayashi", a.k.a. "A Geisha", shows the life of geisha in the early 50's as exploited women without other alternative in life but pleasing clients, no matter how abusive they can be. The cruel system imposes an initial debt of a large amount to someone in order that the woman becomes slave of the "tea-house owner', or a businessman that may become his "patron" and is almost impossible to leave the prostitution. Both lead characters are strong women bowed by the system. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not Available.

Kenji Mizoguchi, an important figure in the history of Japanese cinema, is very well known for his collaboration on the portrayal of Japanese women on screen; one of the first reasons for this being his sister, who was sold to a geisha house by his father's decision. This highly contributed to his attachment to highlighting women on his films.

This is another film where geishas and their lives are involved. The story concerns one geisha and her apprentice, who is supposed to have the will to take the training into full practice and seriousness. Everything seemed fine when the training was in process, but when it came to conclusion, Eiko (the apprentice) had to debut as a geisha, but could not bring herself to accept her chosen client. Likewise, Miyoharu (Eiko's trainer), finds trouble when rejecting a client in love with her. Both rejected clients happened to be wealthy businessmen important to the geisha house where they worked, thus finding problems from there on.

While the film may not be Mizoguchi's best, I can assure it is a wonderful joy to behold its cinematography. The camera positions and movements are just something to appreciate, accompanied by a totally honest and credible acting by pretty much every actor/actress involved.

If you have liked everything you have seen from this wonderful director, there is absolutely not any reason why you should not get your hands on this film.

My score: 7.5/10

Kenji Mizoguchi's splendid "Gion Bayashi" begins like a docu-drama on the role of the geisha in Japanese society before turning into the kind of melodrama you might expect from Douglas Sirk. Eiko is the 16 year old trainee geisha and Miyoharu is the older, more experienced geisha who, as a friend of Eiko's late mother, takes her under her wing and who develops a strong, sisterly bond with her.

Few male directors could have handled this material with the empathy Mizoguchi brings to the subject. Men are basically secondary characters and are mostly seen as predators and Mizoguchi draws wonderful performances from his largely female cast and in particular from Michiyo Kogure as the unfortunate Miyoharu. If the film is not as well-known as some of the director's other works it remains absolutely essential nevertheless.