Tokyo 1918. Throughout Japan there are regular riots as a result of the rising price of rice, caused by the Siberian expeditionary army. The geisha Sodeko spends the night with a new client, Shinsuke. She had never expected as a geisha that she would be taken to the very peak of ecstasy by a ‘novice client’, but this time she loses herself in pleasure. Hanse, another geisha, is ignored by her protector Shinsuke, and tries to drive out her sombreness by training a newcomer. Shinsuke falls for Sodeko and goes to live with her. The film is based on a story that is reputed to have been written by Kafu Nagai and was once published as a series in a magazine. The novel is about a single night between a geisha and her client, the film however looks at several people and nights. The story was regarded as obscene, so the producer Nikkatsu changed the original title. Kumashiro’s direction suggests the sex scenes using the sluggish movements of man and woman under mosquito nets. The critic Yamane Sadao called this a ‘cartilage-like filmic style’, that characterises much of Kumashiro’s work.
