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A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
01
Why this pick
Mizoguchi’s companion film shares the unsentimental attention to a working woman navigating male entitlement, family duty, and urban economic pressure, with the same poised yet devastating social critique.
02
Why this pick
Its women confront postwar poverty and a predatory social order with the fierce, tragic dignity that animates the Gion sisters’ contrasting survival strategies.
03
Why this pick
Another lucid, compassionate study of women in the sex trade, built from sharply differentiated characters and an institutional critique rather than sentimental rescue.
04
Why this pick
Its elegant long-take style and relentless view of how custom and male power narrow a woman’s choices make it a powerful match for the fatalism beneath Sisters of the Gion.
05
Why this pick
Naruse observes a geisha house facing modern financial decline through restrained performances and everyday detail, echoing the quiet pressure and female-centered world of Sisters of the Gion.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
The story centers around two sisters (Umekichi and Omocha), who are geisha, living in a lodging house (okiya) of their own in the licensed pleasure district of Gion, Kyoto. The two women have very different outlooks on relationships with men. Umekichi, the elder sister, is the ideal geisha; she grew up going to dance and music lessons, wears kimono, and has a strong sense of Giri (Japanese), or loyalty, to her patron. Umekichi’s younger sister, Omocha, was educated in public schools and wears western clothing, except when she is working as a geisha. Unlike Umekichi, Omocha doesn’t trust men and believes that they will only use geisha and then abandon them without a care. Thus, she uses men to her own advantage. In doing so she is willing to manipulate and lie to her customers.
