Utamaro and His Five Women

Utamaro (Bandō Mitsugorō VIII) is the era's celebrated printmaker, a man who lives to draw beautiful women and finds his models in the Tokyo brothels. Kenji Mizoguchi follows the women around him, among them Okita (Kinuyo Tanaka), as they compete for lovers while his portraits keep drawing trouble his way. Utamaro goes on looking at them with a painter's eye, always one step outside the passions he sketches.