Samurai Geisha
Year: 1969
Director: Mori Kazuo
Rating: 7.0
Aka - Chivalrous Geisha
Aka - Nihon jokyo-den: kyokaku geisha
The title I watched it under is Samurai
Geisha which is more than a little misleading. For one thing by the end of
the Meiji era (1912) when this film takes place the Samurai had been banned
(1876) and secondly the title character never picks up a sword. The alternative
title makes much more sense - Chivalrous Geisha. Shinji (the glorious Junko
Fuji) works in a high class geisha house where they only entertain the elite
customers with their song and dances - and of course themselves. Having been
there since she was sold at the age of ten, she has become a Big Sister to
all the girls - the Hakata Geisha House - and what she says, goes. She solves
all their problems, helps runaway brothel girls, stands up to the local Yakuza
and the coal baron who is trying to buy out all the small mines. Not with
a sword though but with charm, grace and the promise of more to come. As
she later tells the hero of the film after he tells her of his past misdeeds,
I have been with many men, all my scars are inside me.
The hero Shimada is one of those small
coal managers who took over the mountain when his boss died and is keeping
it going for his boss's daughter. He is played by Junko Fuji's co-star in
many Toei films of the 1960''s - Takakura Ken. They make a wonderful pairing.
As their characters slowly fall in last chance love, the trouble between
the coal magnate and Shimada escalates slowly as well until we have one of
those classic Takakua Ken bloody endings. This final fight is interspersed
with flashes of Shinji performing in white faced Kabuki style with flaming
red hair - knowing the man she loves is likely to be killed.
But for the most part this is a drama and
much of the time is spent in the workings of the Geisha House - the getting
ready, the call that a customer is waiting to drink with her, the flirting,
the games, the entertainment in which Shinji performs a few songs. To Westerners
this is such a strange world that feels almost make believe - lovely women
adorned in a kimono pouring drinks, making conversation for men. A good film
though a little more action would have been welcome as the title set me up
for more - but very different than I was expecting. The General is played
by a nearly unrecognizable Tomisaburô Wakayama.
