☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½
Sisters of the Gion (1936) – K. Mizoguchi
Watching
this 1936 film in 2019 offers some lessons.
First, that women’s mistreatment by men was fully recognised and
challenged this early. Second, that
Mizoguchi was able to express this clearly in pre-war Japan. Oh, have we moved backwards or forwards since
then? (Of course, I know that the suffragette movement was already in full
flourish a century ago but worldwide progress seems slow). Two sisters living
and working as geisha in the Gion district of Kyoto take opposite approaches to
men. Umekichi feels an obligation to
support the man who has been kind to her (as a “patron”) even after his
business has collapsed and his wife has left him a pauper. But Omocha feels that men are forever taking
advantage of women, treating them as “playthings” and she vows to do everything
she can to get back at them. The plot
then involves Omocha scheming and lying and taking advantage of drunken and
gullible men (who are obviously suckers to their sexual desires). Perhaps in 1936, Omocha was the villain and
sympathies were aligned with Umekichi? I
don’t really think so, despite the fact that Omocha is (physically) punished
for her actions (by a less powerful man she “cheated”). After all, Umekichi is also spurned by the
man in whom she invested her care and concern.
Therefore, the much more logical conclusion is that Mizoguchi is instead
showing us that “women can’t win” no matter whether they choose to side with
men and support them or to confront men and challenge their dominance. Until power differences really do change,
that is the likely reality. Of course,
in 1936, the safe course was for Mizoguchi to end the film by saying the life
of the geisha is hard … but no doubt he knew that this extended to women as a group
(as witnessed by all of the women suffering in his other films). Let’s hope that equal rights, equal pay, etc.
for women (and all gender categories) will be here soon (we will need to continue
to vote wisely and to fight).
No comments:
Post a Comment