Name: Itsuwareru seisô
Genre: Drama
Released: 1951-01-13
Duration: 1 h 43 min
Rating: 7.3
Cast: Machiko Kyô, Yasuko Fujita, Keiju Kobayashi

Machiko Kyô's mother was a geisha; now she is spending her savings on an old rival. Her sister, Yasuko Fujita, works for the travel commission, but is engaged to be married. Miss Kyô is in the process of dumping a lover, who stole money to give her and is now broke, for a new one, who can give her more. When Miss Fujita's fiance's mother breaks off the marriage with an eye towards a more rewarding marriage.

Throughout the movie Miss Kyô offers a cynical, greedy and insincere performance, underlining her attitude of caring for nothing but money. But does she? She tries to raise the money to pay off her mother's debts; she urges her sister to leave Kyoto, with its suffocating history. She treats men with contempt, but she seems to care for her family.

Take a look at the settings for the scenes. They are invariably indoors, in controlled environments, with the streets and roofs of Kyoto seen in the distance. This will have a major pay-off in the denouement.

Japanese cinema is celebrated for its refined minimalist dramas and avant-garde experimentation; it also introduced popular genres like jidaigeki (samurai epics), kaiju, and anime. Across both high art and mass entertainment, it often explores morality, impermanence, and the pressures of modern life.

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The drama genre is a broad category that features stories portraying human experiences, emotions, conflicts, and relationships in a realistic and emotionally impactful way. Dramas delve into the complexities of human life, often exploring themes of love, loss, morality, societal issues, personal growth, with the aim to evoke an emotional response from the audience by presenting relatable and thought-provoking stories.

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The story of two sisters in post-war Japan. One is a geisha and the other works for the tourist board.

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