There
were no pension plans or 401Ks for geishas and teahouse prostitutes in post-war
Japan. Fortunately, Koen has one loyal patrons and plenty of other regular
customers. It’s a living. In fact, she lives relatively free of regret and
self-pity in Yuzo Kawashima’s Women Are
Born Twice (a.k.a. A Geisha’s Diary), which screens as
part of Yuzo Kawashima x Ayako Wakao,
the Japan Society’s series of newly 4K-restored Kawashima films, starring the
great Wakao.
Koen
presents herself as a geisha, but there is little doubt how each night will
end. It really is just a job to her, but Kiyomasa Tsutsui is special. The older
gentleman is somewhat jealous of her legit lovers, but she always grants him
top priority. Frankly, she is probably the top-earner in her house, but she
still flirts with other men.
In
one scene heavy with irony, Koen visits the controversial Yasukuni shrine with
earnest young fellow from the neighborhood, feeling at peace there, even though
it is not open to civilian bombing victims like her parents, just military
personnel killed in action (including alleged war criminals). Indeed, Koen has
a lot of reasons to be bitter, but she is practically Holly Golightly (who also
hit movie screens in the same year, 1961).
Born Twice is extremely
episodic. Men enter and exit Koen’s life without establishing themselves or
getting a call-back, but that is how life is. It is really more about how she
starts to assert greater control over her life, but it is a slow and subtle
development. Yet, it doesn’t really matter, because Koen is such an irrepressibly
resilient character to spend time with.
Wakao’s
Koen is a complex, multidimensional, acutely human figure. She is also deeply
vulnerable and stunningly luminous. Somehow, she develops a unique rapport with
her dozen or so male co-stars, even the ones whose characters quickly washout.
In many ways, her performance ranks up there with the incomparable Hideko Takamine
in When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (in
which Takamine’s bar-owning Keiko Mama-san is marginally more respectable, but
is forced to assume exponentially more debt).
Kawashima
& co-screenwriter Toshiro Ide’s adaptation of Tsuneo Tomita’s novel does
not follow along an orderly straight line, but viewers will certainly feel like
they have lived a lot of life with Koen by the time it reaches its conclusion.
Any film that makes that kind of emotional connection should be savored. Very
highly recommended, Women Are Born Twice screens
this Saturday (12/2) and Sunday (12/3) at the Japan Society, as part of the Yuzo Kawashima x Ayako Wakao mini-retrospective.