Reviews of Sisters of the Gion
Displaying all 3 reviews
SAYONARA BUNKA!! (Formerly Corbeau)
9Feb11
Jacques Rivette hailed Mizoguchi as a master of mise-en-scene. Mizoguchi’s arrangements of objects and characters in front of the camera where after all undeniably beautiful. I wonder how far back Rivette likes to think this goes.
Compare his somewhat glossier productions of 1950s to those earlier, grittier films of the 1930s. These, especially Osaka Elegy & Sisters of the Gion(both 1936), seem almost starkly real in comparison with films like Ugetsu (1953) & Sansho Dayu (1954). He himself believed them to be his first works of any real importance. His personal vision had never before been truly expressed up until that time. And I feel that this half-trademark brand of realism displayed in them was, in a way, the perfect style for a Mizoguchi film; conveying his ultimate message in a more perfect way than any other film he ever made.
- Currently 5.0/5 Stars.
dope fiend willy
11Jul09
“Sisters of Gion” is the superior follow up to 1936’s “Osaka Elegy”. Its a story of two sisters who live in the Gion section of Kyoto. Fine acting from all, and in this film we get to see Mizoguchi begin to move the camera as he is known for in his late masterpieces(I haven’t seen any of his films from before 1936, so I don’t know if this was a first, of if he was just trying for something different stylistically for “Osaka Elegy”.
The film moves along at a nice pace, and while it is the same length as “Osaka Elegy” it doesn’t feel like it is 700 minutes long rather than 70. The story itself is one that Mizoguchi will become quite at home with in his later films, the story of women working in the geisha district, and while there are no significant flaws in the film; it lacks the scope and poetry that make films like “Sansho the Bailiff” and “Life of Oharo” such masterpieces.
At only 69 minutes, it seems like a dry-run for ideas that would be more fully pursued later, but as it is, it is a film that I would recommend, and if 1948’s “Women of the Night” is as good as this one, I would still feel comfortable recommending the “Fallen Women” box set. even though “Street of Shame” and “Osaka Elegy” are not nearly as good.
3 stars out of 5.
- Currently 3.0/5 Stars.
asuraf
22Dec08
Immediately following “Osaka Elegy”, Kenji Mizoguchi and star Isuzu Yamada made this even better companion piece, with Yamada as an independent minded geisha who orchestrates rich “patrons” for herself and her more demure older sister, only to have her carefully laid out plans blow up in her face. Mizoguchi suggests the outdated model of geishadom as little more than a higher class sex trade, where lonely old man can buy their helpless benefactors, who live with and care for them, and just as much leave them without a dime when a better opportunity arises. It’s a bold social feminist criticism in an era when the national psyche was all about aggression and male dominated militarism, proving Mizoguchi’s importance on the political, as well as humanist film-making map.
- Currently 4.0/5 Stars.