BU・SU

Mugiko is eighteen and lives in the country. She is unhappy with village life; she does not get on with her mother and does not want to stay. She goes to Tokyo. There she starts work at a geisha house; she will be trained, do the housework and learn the profession in time. She does not know the city, does not know the rules of the house and speaks to nobody. Her name changes too. The narrative follows her first year: the lessons, the hierarchy of the house, school, attempts at friendship and a constant sense of being a stranger. Jun Ichikawa directs. Yasuko Tomita plays Mugiko. The film is among Ichikawa's early works; in later years the director became known for quiet, distanced narratives. The form is observational; the plot is kept thin and the film proceeds through everyday detail. The training at the geisha house is shown in detail and the narrative neither romanticises nor sensationalises it. The character's silence is the real material; Mugiko barely speaks and the viewer works out what she thinks only from her behaviour. The title comes from a word about the character being found unattractive, and the narrative does not discuss it directly. The visual work is plain; fixed frames and little movement. Who it is for: viewers who like eighties Japanese cinema and quiet character narratives. Who it is not for: almost nothing happens, the pace is very slow, and the narrative explains nothing.