Sakuran

Kiyoha is sold into the Yoshiwara pleasure district as a child and climbs from the lowest rank to oiran. The climbing never teaches her deference, and that is where the film's interest lies: in what disobedience costs. Sakuran is photographer Mika Ninagawa's first feature and makes no secret of it. Adapted from Moyoco Anno's manga, it is not a faithful reconstruction of Edo. The colour is saturated, the costumes are extravagant, and the frames are composed like prints. Ringo Sheena's album Heisei Fuzoku serves as the score; Ninagawa asked her to put rock into a Japanese idiom, and Sheena wrote roughly twenty pieces in about three months. Anna Tsuchiya leads. It opened in Japan in February 2007. Who it's for: Viewers who like design-forward films, manga adaptations, and Ringo Sheena. Who it's not for: The characters get less work than the surfaces do, and anyone after a historical portrait of Yoshiwara is in the wrong film.