Sakuran

Very glad I made the unexpected trip. Entertaining little film about the elegant prostitutes of pre-war Japan, a more likeable and less generic Memoirs of a Geisha. It’s the story of Higurashi-oiran, the most senior of the girls in a brothel and her life leading there, which very much echoes Memoirs except that instead of everyone being genteel and stilted, they all talk like a bunch of thugs, u’ssai this and damare! that. Some wonderful costumes and vivid imagery, striking electric guitar and dirty jazz with the inimitable tones of Shiina Ringo over the top and pithy writing that may be stylised or utilise a lot of absurdity, as well as being extremely colloquial, but still manages to make itself seem more authentic than the cod-poeticism of Memoirs. Dragged a bit and lacked a strong story or anything to carry the long

film to the end, but ultimately was worthwhile and memorable.