A Geisha

In post-war Gion, Kyoto, a teenage girl named Eiko (Ayako Wakao) leaves a troubled home and asks the veteran geisha Miyoharu (Michiyo Kogure) to take her on as an apprentice. Kenji Mizoguchi follows the two as they learn how much of the district runs on the ambitions of the men who pay for the evening. Miyoharu and Eiko want to keep their work their own, and the film treats that wish as a matter of dignity.