A Brief Study on Kenji Mizoguchi’s Sisters of Gion
(February 8, 2017)
Sisters of Gion provides a suitable study for the poignancy in Kenji Mizoguchi’s film, while exploring the sufferings of women in a particular social class. For this paper, I would like to discuss the artistic style used in the production, particularly the play of the camera, and how the particular shots have become representative of the salient messages that Mizoguchi wants to say in his films. In doing so, it is also important to give a foundational overview of the director’s life and influences that helped shape the portrait painted in this film.
To begin with, a brief summary and explanation of the movie is needed. Sisters of Gion tells the story of two geisha sisters in Gion– Umekichi (the older sister, traditional and observant of practice and customs), and Omocha (the younger sister, a sort of modern girl who sees to take advantage of her patrons in order to better her life). From this simple concept, we can already draw out one of the main concepts of the movie, which is the disparity of ideals among the sisters and how it influences their subsequent actions and expectations. To continue, the movie is also about how fragile love can be, and in other’s case, it can be easily manipulated or substituted. Omocha, schemes behind the scenes to have her sister become a prime candidate for a wealthy patron in order to uplift their lives, and in doing so, she manipulates the sentiments and feelings of other men towards her, using them as key pieces to her plan. This can be seen in her use of a kimono clerk, Kimura-san’s affection towards her to get a prized kimono for Umekichi to wear on an important dinner among wealthy patrons (as it was what was required for Umekichi to join as a geisha). This can also be seen when Omocha begins to deceive the curio dealer Jurakuso to invest towards Furusawa’s eviction from their home in order for Umekichi to be free from her duties towards her former patron. In the end, however, Kimura who felt betrayed by Omocha’s manipulations, after learning that she would easily leave him for his boss Kudo because the latter is wealthier, plots his revenge towards Omocha, leading to her unfortunate accident. This brings Umekichi to be by her sister’s side and while she was hoping to finally have a happy life with Furusawa, she ends up sad and lonely as the latter receives word from his wife and returns home. The ending message of the movie has Omocha cursing men for their selfish love and how their life as a geisha has cursed them to this unending suffering where there is no true love or happiness for them.
At first glance, one could easily tell that the movie revolves around themes of unrequited love and social classes. However, there is more to this. One way of analysing the influences of the director is to examine his life, and Gary Morris, in his article, “The Spirit Moves: The World of Kenji Mizoguchi” (1998) gives a perfect introduction to two possible factors that have contributed to his artistry, particularly in the narrative of his films. Morris writes: “Two events occurred when the future director was seven that may have played a pivotal role in the kinds of films he would make. In the first, his family’s fortunes were reversed when his overly ambitious father lost their money in a failed business scheme, forcing their move to the poorer district of Asakusa. In the second, which resulted from the first, his 14-year-old sister Suzu was put up for adoption and eventually sold to a geisha house. Mizoguchi’s adoration of Suzu and of his mother, who died when he was 17, was balanced by an intense hatred of his father. The senior Mizoguchi’s inability to support his family forced his son, […] to be farmed out to relatives.” (1998). If we take into consideration the movie Sisters of Gion, we can already see a similarity of the narrative to his own experience. First, the bankruptcy of Furusawa that led to selling his properties and leaving his family, is akin to that time in Mizoguchi’s life where he experienced the sufferings of losing all their fortune and home in the process. Thus, the wandering Furusawa who begins to reside in the sisters’ house could be a mirroring of his own life of having to live in temporary places. At the same time, it could also mirror the sufferings and poverty that the sisters were living in the movie’s narrative. To have his sister, Suzu, sold to a geisha house also portrays the inevitability for women to secure a proper future in times of hardship. And perhaps, the death of his mother and the general downgrading of their life, was echoed through the sufferings of the sisters in the movie, that in the world where material wealth was heavily important, one may feel cursed by the heavens by having been born into or falling into a life of poverty.
However, as heavy as the messages of the movie may be, Mizoguchi’s artistry in the narrative and the direction for camera shots is so unique that the viewer is entreated to an experience that does not isolate them from the characters on screen. Instead, by directing the angle of which we could glance into their life, the viewer’s gaze becomes the tool for judging the characters and provide social commentary. In Donald Kirihara’s, “Sisters of Gion”, he puts forth two important camera techniques to portray the narrative: the planar representation through uses of deep focus, and the uniquely Mizoguchi style long shots. In the planar representation, the use of deep focus allows the audience to focus on a certain element on the screen. This creates a sense privacy, and in my opinion, a limitation of one’s access into the world of the characters in the movie. For instance, there is that scene between Kimura and his boss Kudo, where Kimura is first admonished inside of the office area. It is striking to see that through the draping curtain that separates the space of office from the rest of the building (or in this case, us the viewer), we are invited to see the exchange through the slit in the draping. We only see the lower part of Kimura while we see the full figure of the boss, Kudo. This segues to another shot of the same scene, were the camera is overlooking from the shoulder of Kudo, and we see the disgraced face of Kimura. All the while, the draping that separate the office space and the shop would show glimpses of other workers peeping inside while doing their job. This can be a commentary on the voyeuristic tendency of man, that, like us the viewer, there is that curiosity to see more of what can be seen through the slits. In the case of the audience, when the camera had finally shown the scene from inside, we put distance between ourselves and the screen as the view has opened up for us.
Another great use of the planar representation is through the framing of the scenes. In the case where Omocha gives Furusawa the money to move out and return to his family, we see the two persons involved in the central space of the screen, framed by the setting (arrangement of the props such as doors), giving the viewer another peek into their dialogue, as if to say that this was done in secret. In the same vein, when Umekichi returns to the house (unknown to her that Furusawa has already left), we see Umekichi positioned in the front of the screen while Omocha can be seen peeking through the framed shoji that divides the space of the house from their sleeping quarters. Artistic in its portrayal of the scene, it also holds a message of secrecy, that the distance put between this two characters want to depict the need to be secretive about something. In this case, that Omocha has secretly paid Furusawa to leave Umekichi.
In terms of using long shots of which Mizoguchi is quite known for, this particular signature style of his is easily recognisable in the opening scene of the auction happening in the residence of Furusawa. The viewer moves along with the camera’s long shot, given a tour of the house and the activity that is happening inside, the emptiness of the place, and the packing of sold items. Without having to say much in this scene, the camera is all that is needed to portray the scenario, and by showing a long continuous take of the scenario, the viewer gets an immediate knowledge of the premise. This is then confirmed with following conversations between Furusawa and the clerk about the bankruptcy and having to sell his possessions. This creates a subtle exposition of the narrative without having to invest much time in creating the premise of the story. At the same time, with the speed of the movement of the camera (not too slow), it also shows the timeline or the urgency of the scene.
In Kirihara’s work, he quotes Burch: “the long takes in Sisters of Gion, better display a self-conscious internal dynamic: ‘Each given shot consists of a series of very precisely determined and distinctly differentiated compositions’ and calls this form of montage as “scroll shots” of lateral camera movement that enacts a tension between successive stages versus steady flow. […] often integrated into long takes.” (126-127). We can almost consider that the long shots are glimpses of events put into a timely manner without having to superimpose or dissolve shots into shots. This creates a natural feel in the creation of the narrative, and gives the viewer a sense of belonging into the scenario.
To conclude, Sisters of Gion is a movie that reflects the times (themes of social classes) and the experiences of Mizoguchi, even if unintentionally, which, according to Morris, made Mizoguchi known to be a sensitive leftist “woman’s director”. Furthermore, he states: “In these films Mizoguchi brilliantly uses long takes, moving camera, and shimmering tableaux to show the futility of the social and philosophical status quo, particularly as it related to women” (Morris, 1998). Perhaps it is the subtleness of the movie that the message appears sensitive, but it is also because of the issues being raised in the narrative that makes this movie quite powerful and striking (such as the inevitability of a life of a geisha). In the end, we can infer that life experiences had shown its mark in this film, and the imagination of the sufferings and the lengths of which the sisters (and even the male characters) had to go through in order to attain their desires and dreams, is one of its biggest commentaries towards the social climate of that time.
Words: 1,812
Works cited
1. Kirihara, Donald. “Sisters Of Gion”. Patterns of Time: Mizoguchi and the 1930s. Madison,WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992, p116-136
2. Morris, Gary. “The Spirit Moves: The World of Kenji Mizoguchi”. Bright Lights Film Journal. 1998. Web. Accessible at http://brightlightsfilm.com/spirit-moves-world-kenji-mizoguchi/#
3. Sisters of Gion. Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. Japan: Daiichi Eiga, 1936.
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