Sisters of the Gion (1936) review

Professional "entertainers" - and sisters! - Umekichi (Yōko Umemura) and Omocha (Isuzu Yamada) have differing views on their "careers": the former sees it in a much more conservative light than her younger sibling - who proudly states that "men are our enemies" - and gets into trouble when she toys with her patrons' feelings.  Mizoguchi based it (loosely) on Aleksandr Kuprin's novel The Pit and set it in Japan (as opposed to Russia) and while he's completely sympathetic to the plight of the geisha - there's an intriguing bit of dialogue between the two at the beginning to present both sides of the argument - the movie would have been stronger if the men weren't seen as weak and pathetic fools and Omocha wasn't such a conniving scoundrel.  It's also a bit stagey and I'm not sure why Mizoguchi keeps his camera so far away from the actors - it creates an unnecessary distance between the audience and them.