Late Chrysanthemums (1954)

Late Chrysanthemums (Bangiku)
Directed by Mikio Naruse
Written by Sumie Tanaka and Toshirô Ide from stories by Fumiko Hayashi
1954/Japan
Toho Company
First viewing/Hulu Plus

[box]“You can be young without money, but you can’t be old without it.”
― Tennessee Williams[/box]

This is a sympathetic look at a group of retired geishas and the role money plays in their lives.

The story is very episodic and meandering.  Kin (Haruku Sugimura, the selfish daughter in Tokyo Story) saved her money wisely while she was a geisha.  Now she has become a moneylender and slumlord.  Some of her clients are former geishas themselves.  One is doing some type of menial labor and is gambling and hitting the sake too hard.  She has a sharp, modern daughter who is getting ready to marry an older man and is not a soft touch for money.  She lives with another ex-geisha who is working as a hotel maid and worrying about her unemployed son and the affair he is having with the mistress of another man.  Kin makes regular visits to the two to hound them about their unpaid debts and rent.

The other geisha’s know that as a young woman, Kin was romantic.  She attempted double-suicide with her lover Seki.  When the suicide failed, Seki was convicted of attempted murder.  After leaving prison, he made his way to Manchuria to do hard labor.

Seki is now back in town and Kin refuses to have anything to do with him.  Kin next gets a letter from another former lover who wants to visit her.  The remainder of the story moves from one woman to the next as they deal with their children and lovers and try to make ends meet.

I liked this movie a lot.  I’m still not sure what the message was, if any.  Kin is shown to be grasping and disliked by all, yet she is the only one that seems to have her life in order.  But the poorer women are not necessarily any better.  They are constantly scrounging for money, in one case just to buy sake and gamble.  They have children but these relationships are strained.  So what was a geisha to do?  The acting is excellent and the film is beautifully shot.  I also liked the score a lot.