"Sisters of the Gion"
1936
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi

Often considered to be the best pre-war Japanese film, and Mizoguchi's masterpiece, Sisters of Gion is set in the red-light district of Kyoto. The film tells of two sisters--the older trained as a geisha in the old tradition, the younger an apprentice devoted to the more progressive ideas. This conflict between the old and the new, wrote Donald Richie in The Japanese Film, has become "the protest symbol of modern Japan." 69 minutes.