For American critics Andrew Sarris and Myron Meisel, this was the signal discovery ofthe 1981 Mizoguchi tour. Meisel: "Mizoguchi returns to the world of Kyotoprostitutes°.Kinuyo Tanaka (in her last film for Mizo) plays the owner of abrothel who sends her daughter away to be educated. She returns after a loveaffair has broken up due to her mother's occupation, and begins to compete withher mother for the attentions of a cynical client. The film is particularly acuteabout the growth of sisterhood between mother and daughter born of the sufferingcaused by male manipulation and female rivalries. (The) mastery of emotionaldynamics within a complex mise-en-scène sets it beside all but the best ofhis works." Sarris: "The film has the feeling of late Ford orBuñuel, of a director who has rummaged through all the styles ofexpression and arrived at the most subtly exquisite, minimalist ways ofexpressing his deepest, most complex!nbsp;sentiments."