Matsuchiyo - Life of a Geisha

Memoirs of a Geisha(en)

In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.

Afloat(en)

'Afloat' is an experimental film that paints a portrait of Japanese performance artist: Ayumi Lanoire. The film opens as a telephone call between Ayumi and Person X, which meanders the audience through the various layers that make up her personas leading one to wonder whether she is in fact a myth or reality.

Violated Paradise(en)

A modern geisha travels through Japan trying to find a job as entertainer, and ends up by finding love and a job as ama, a pearl diver.

Geisha Girl(en)

Documentary following 15-year-old Yukina as she leaves home and moves to Kyoto to embark on the arduous training needed to become a geisha. The profession has always been shrouded in controversy, with some believing geisha are little more than high-class prostitutes. At such a young age, does Yukina really understand what this ancient profession has in store for her?

The Flower and the Angry Waves(ja)

A young yakuza in love with the girl who's to marry his clan oyabun, kidnaps the girl before fleeing with her. In Tokyo, he hides under the identity of a worker while the young woman becomes a waitress in a restaurant.

Real Geisha, Real Women(en)

Real Geisha Real Women is a documentary by Peter MacIntosh about the lives of several women in Kyoto, Japan of various generations who are, or have been maiko and geiko (the Kyoto terms for geisha). Their stories are told in their own words as a series of vignettes without the use of a narrator. Rare footage of their journeys outside of Kyoto includes a hometown visit, a trip to Tokyo, as well as travels abroad.

Geisha Québec(fr)

Geisha Girl(en)

Two American G.I.s visiting Tokyo find themselves mixed up with espionage, a pretty flight attendant, a mad scientist, geisha girls, and a goofy magician-hypnotist and his white rabbits.

In the Realm of the Senses(ja)

A passionate telling of the story of Sada Abe, a woman whose affair with her master led to an obsessive and ultimately destructive sexual relationship.

Lusty Hot Spring(ja)

Kiriko is a beautiful woman working in a quiet hot spring town. The owner of the inn, Goro, is attracted to her beauty and asks her out, but she refuses. Meanwhile, Imai, a detective staying at the inn, recognizes Kiriko's face and investigates her past on his own.

Inju: The Beast in the Shadow(fr)

The writer and college professor, Alexandre Fayard, researches and gives lectures about the gruesome literary work of the mysterious Japanese writer Shundei Oe, considered by him to be the master of manipulation.

Geisha Assassin(ja)

One rainy night in the Edo period, Kotono (a geisha) confronts samurais who killed her father. The samurais attack her one after another, but she fights hard against samurais with her sword. Kotono tries to chase the samurais who scramble to escape. Yet now three ninjas stand up against her. Kotono drops her sword by their wave of assaults. Can she beat them?

A Geisha on Horseback(ja)

Based on the original work of Akutagawa Prize-winning writer Ashihei Hino, the film depicts the love of the proud geisha Nobukichi Hakata in the early Taisho era.

Confessions of a Pillow Geisha: Bedroom Techniques(ja)

Pinku from 1971.

Hot Spring Resort: Geishas vs. Ozashiki Strippers(ja)

In a rural town the local elders and a band greet the arrival of a troupe of strippers. After a show two men who claim to be show biz producers make the elders an offer. If enough funds can be raised they will make their favorite lead stripper a star. Is this an offer too good to be true?

Zatoichi(ja)

Blind traveler Zatoichi is a master swordsman and a masseur with a fondness for gambling on dice games. When he arrives in a village torn apart by warring gangs, he sets out to protect the townspeople.

The Geisha House(ja)

Set in the late 1950s, when geisha culture was threatened by moral crusades, it tells the story of Omocha (Miyamoto Maki), a young girl who sees the geisha life as a way to lift her poverty-stricken family from their hand-to-mouth existence. Through her eyes, we see the protocols and complex financial relationships which dictate the running of the geisha house. Fukasaku's film is a work of great delicacy with moments of hypnotic beauty, and his tender direction, often touched with a sense of wonder, fills the screen with lovingly constructed scenes. At its heart is the poignant situation of the women who must sacrifice their normal relationships to live an ambiguous life in which they are a key part of society while being kept, for the most part, on its periphery, like perpetual mistresses.

RoboGeisha(ja)

Sisters Yoshie and Kikue are two Geisha who are abducted by a mysterious organization to be transformed into murderous cyborg assassins.

The Geisha Boy(en)

Gilbert Wooley is a second-rate magician who is sent to entertain the troops in the pacific. During his time in Japan he becomes attached to a little orphan boy.

Earth Defense Widow(ja)

Dan (Mitsu Dan) is a former geisha, now working as an ace pilot for the Earth Defense Troops. Her fiance was killed by the space monster Bemurasu which consumes nuclear waste. To save Planet Earth, Dan attacks Bemurasu, but whenever she does, she feels ecstasy. Can she save Planet Earth?