The Garden of Women

The film is set at a women’s college. The school is in Kyoto and is a private institution. Its rules are old and strict. The students’ days are laid out from beginning to end. The place runs like a closed order. The students begin to push back against the rules. The pushing back grows. At the centre of the account is a student called Yoshie. Yoshie has a trouble at home as well. Her father wants her to leave the school. He wants her to give up the man she loves too. He has a wealthy suitor in mind for her. Yoshie is caught between two pressures. The movement at the school hardens at one point. Mieko Takamine, Hideko Takamine and Keiko Kishi take the leads in Keisuke Kinoshita’s Japanese film of 1954.