"1936 may be considered the year when, in a Japanese film world ruled bysentimentalism and heroism, realism came into its own. The evidence is KenjiMizoguchi's film Sisters of the Gion."-Akira Shimizu. In telling the story of two sisters, both geisha in the Gionentertainment district of Kyoto, Mizoguchi strips away the romantic veneer of thegeisha business. Of the two sisters, the elder is trapped in her allegiance tothe traditional ways of the geisha, while the younger is slyly rebellious andcynical about the merchandising of women. In the end, neither can truly escapeher predicament. Both in the story and in a starkly beautiful visual style inwhich the camera maintains "a certain distance from the action" (hiswords), Mizoguchi capitalizes on the narrow alleyways and shuttered windows ofthe Gion to create a milieu closed off to the traditional machinations ofwell-meaning narrative.