• 女は二度生まれる (A Geisha’s Tale)

6/13/25 (Fri)

A light-hearted dramedy of 1961 by Kawashima Yuzo. The English title is deceptive, as “geisha” here is clearly a euphemism for prostitute. (The film is also known as Women Are Born Twice, a direct translation of the Japanese title, which makes sense in the film’s final seconds. A better rendering might be “A Woman Reborn”.) The main character doesn’t play shamisen, dance or sing, so she’s not remotely a geisha. She is simply a kimono-clad hostess who entertains customers by chatting, pouring their drinks and feeding their egos, then sleeping with them afterwards. And apparently enjoying it. The Happy Hooker is probably closer to the point. She exchanges the kimono for a dress at one point, telling the client that if she leaves with him in Japanese dress, the police will assume that she’s paid for and arrest them (referencing the anti-prostitution law that was recently passed). If she’s in a dress, she says, the police will just figure they’re lovers. She later shifts employment to a Western-style bar, where her job is much the same, but eventually returns to the Japanese-style establishment.

Episodic film with Wakao flitting from customer to customer, and sometimes just local pickups (including a 17-year-old boy), with no real direction in life. That doesn’t bother her at first since she has plenty of suitors and youth on her side. Having been orphaned in the war, she’s used to making it on her own and doesn’t put high priority on stability, though she seems constantly to be looking to fill gaps in her time with someone’s – anyone’s – company. She has several men who she calls Papa, though they’re not necessarily any more committed than she is – one of them, on a weekend ryokan tryst with Wakao, leaves her there with fake apologies, claiming business reasons, after running into an old flame in the hallway.

She eventually becomes the mistress of a respectable man who genuinely likes and respects her. He asks only that she be true to him. That proves more difficult than she imagines since she seems to need companionship 24 hours a day. When he discovers that she is having fun behind his back, he threatens furiously to end their relationship. That seems to awaken something in her, making her appreciate what it’s like to be truly wanted. When he suddenly passes away, she is momentarily lost. In another shock, she is elated when a handsome young stud seeks her services, thinking that someone her age has finally taken notice, only to be deflated when she learns that he wants her to sleep with his client. She impulsively seeks out the 17-year-old and takes him on his dream trip to the Kamikochi mountains. But she has a sudden epiphany and leaves him happily on his own, while she sits waiting for a train to somewhere in an enigmatic ending suggesting a new life ahead as per the Japanese title.

Wakao is wonderful as always, though not as challenged in this role as elsewhere. (She won a Best Actress Award jointly with an incomparably rawer and deeper performance in that year’s earlier A Wife Confesses.) We’re a long way from Street of Shame, as the point here isn’t the systemic pressure that forces women into prostitution but the character’s perpetual need to be needed, always seeking the next thing even when she is with someone. Her final revelation is presumably that she needs someone special, though the film ends rather abruptly; I wonder what Masumura would have done with that moment. The theme is potent, but the story is too wandering to dig too deeply. In any event, Wakao is flawless and is surrounded by a strong cast, especially Yamamura So as the loyal papa and Frankie Sakai as a sushi chef uncomfortable with Wakao’s predatory ways. Standard fare enlivened by its performances.