Bangiku (1954)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Mikio Naruse

Writers:

Fumiko Hayashi (stories)
Sumie Tanaka (adaptation) ...

Release Date:

27 November 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

What is the life of a Geisha like once her beauty has faded and she has retired? Kin has saved her money...

Plot Keywords:

Neighbor | Rumor | Widow

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Haruko Sugimura	...	Kin
Sadako Sawamura	...	Nobu
Chikako Hosokawa	...	Tamae
Yûko Mochizuki	...	Tomi
Ken Uehara	...	Tabe
Hiroshi Koizumi	...	Kiyoshi
Ineko Arima	...	Sachiko
Bontarô Miyake	...	Seki
Sonosuke Sawamura	...	Sentaro
Daisuke Katô	...	Itaya
Haruna Kaburagi
Yoshiko Tsubouchi
Yaeko Izumo
Tsuruko Mano
Toshiko Nakano

Also Known As:

Late Chrysanthemums (International: English title)

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:PG (2005)

Company:

Toho Company

Good, but too slow for my tastes

A look at three geishas who are way past their prime. Now they look back on their pasts with fondness and bemoan their present. Kin (played by Floating Weeds' Haruko Sugimura) has sworn off men and has made a good living as a moneylender; everyone on the block owes her. The other two, Nobu and Tamae, wish they could land husbands, but are not foolish enough to believe they ever will. Meanwhile, their children - one has a son and one a daughter - are both about to get married (not to each other). Tamae is irked at how much prettier her daughter has become than her, and bitterly tries to convince her not to marry the man. Nobu's concerns about her son are more legitimate in nature, but they are also (understandably) self-serving. After her son leaves, she'll be alone. A bit into the film, two of Kin's former clients come looking for her, one a man so obsessed with her that he tried to get her to commit double suicide with him, the other one of her handsomest clients. Unfortunately, he comes for her money, not her love. The way I've described the film makes it sound unrelentingly depressing, but it's really not. Sad, but not fatally so. It's more bittersweet. Unfortunately, I only marginally liked Late Chrysanthemums. The story seems better when I look back on it, but it is very slow and dull. I actually nodded off twice during the film, and I wasn't at all tired before I started it. This is the kind of film that I can appreciate more than like; it reminds me very much of my reaction to a couple of Ozu's more famous films. 7/10.