Ginza Midnight Story - Utopia
Genres
Overview
Japanese gangster drama set in the exclusive Ginza district of Tokyo, following Haruka (Atsuko Sakuraba), a young geisha who is attacked by an influential businessman who plans to abduct her. When she is rescued by the members of a club called 'Utopia', Haruka joins them and becomes a hostess, rapidly establishing herself as one of the most sought-after geisha's in Ginza. At the same time, Haruka learns of a plan by a corrupt, gangster-owned club to set itself up as a rival to Utopia. Such is her loyalty to the club that first helped her, she is willing to do anything to protect it.
Details
Budget
$0
Revenue
$0
Runtime
83 min
Release Date
2000-07-21
Status
Released
Original Language
Japanese
Vote Count
0
Vote Average
0
Atsuko Sakuraba
Miyuki Kojima
Wakaba Nakano
Sakura Mano
Yasukaze Motomiya
Keiji Matsuda
Ryuji Murakami
Hisao Maki
Jiro Okazaki
Naoki Hongo
Rei Okazaki
Yasuaki Kurata
0.0
Arashi Tatsunari
Can a woman love two men at the same time? Set against the backdrop of Kyoto's rich history, this story depicts a woman's difficult choice for love. Ayako, played by Yukiyo Toake, is an international conference coordinator. Torn between her childhood sweetheart (played by Kenji Sawada) and her English professor (played by Noboru Nakaya), Ayako will seek answers to love, marriage, and choice.
1982-08-25 | ja
7.2
The Scent of Incense
After her mother runs away from home, Tomoko is raised to be a geisha. One day Tomoko meets her mother in a red-light district in Tokyo and her life deeply gets in trouble.
1964-05-24 | ja
6.6
In the Realm of the Senses
A passionate telling of the story of Sada Abe, a woman whose affair with her master led to an obsessive and ultimately destructive sexual relationship.
1976-09-15 | ja
7.2
Zatoichi
Blind traveler Zatoichi is a master swordsman and a masseur with a fondness for gambling on dice games. When he arrives in a village torn apart by warring gangs, he sets out to protect the townspeople.
2003-09-06 | ja
7.7
Memoirs of a Geisha
In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.
2005-12-06 | en
7.2
Sisters of the Gion
Umekichi, a geisha in the Gion district of Kyoto, feels obliged to help her lover Furusawa when he asks to stay with her after becoming bankrupt and leaving his wife. However her younger sister Omocha tells her she is wasting her time and money on a loser. She thinks that they should both find wealthy patrons to support them. Omocha therefore tries various schemes to get rid of Furusawa, and set themselves up with better patrons.
1936-10-15 | ja
5.5
Madame Butterfly
Pinkerton marries Cho-Cho San in Japan, whilst on shore leave. When he leaves, she keeps his Japanese home as he left it. He returns three years later, having married again in America, and tells Cho-Cho that their affair is over. She has had a child in his absence, who is sent to her family, before she kills herself.
1932-12-30 | en
7.2
Lady Maiko
Country bumpkin Haruko only ever wanted to become a maiko, an apprentice geisha. Initially rebuffed for lack of references, Haruko's strong accent intrigues a linguistics professor, who undertakes to coach her.
2014-09-13 | ja
7.1
Flowing
Otsuta is running the geisha house Tsuta in Tokyo. Her business is heavily in debt. Her daughter Katsuyo doesn't see any future in her mother's trade in the late days of Geisha. But Otsuta will not give up. This film portraits the day time life of geisha when not entertaining customers.
1956-11-20 | ja
0.0
Ginza Midnight Story - Utopia 2
In a continuation of "Utopia: Midnight Story, White Flower Bud" Haruka Ichijou follows through in her vow to become the No1 Geisha. She develops intricate schemes and mindful manipulations in changing her "Papa-san's," or Sugar Daddies, on her way up the modern geisha ladder. After she pits one against the other, the men begin to compete for her in elaborate and very expensive ventures, and their fight to win her for their prize in all-consuming frenzy becomes the focus for the No1 Spot. A barrage of young geisha's karate fighting seals their fate at last!
2000-08-25 | ja
7.5
A Geisha
Fleeing a distressing family situation, Eiko, a very young girl, becomes an apprentice to Miyoharu, a veteran geisha. Both, determined to preserve their professional integrity, must face the selfishness and ambition of several petty people.
1953-08-12 | ja
5.9
The Barbarian and the Geisha
Townsend Harris is sent by President Pierce to Japan to serve as the first U.S. Consul-General to that country. Harris discovers enormous hostility to foreigners, as well as the love of a young geisha.
1958-09-30 | en
7.3
Late Chrysanthemums
With delicate, unobtrusive strokes, Naruse evokes both the humor and bitterness of his characters’ dilemmas, in this bleak, compelling poignant portrait of a quartet of aging geishas contemplating their troubles with men and money.
1954-06-15 | ja
5.5
A Woman Called Sada Abe
The young and beautiful Sada Abe, the daughter of a rich merchant, is banished for losing her virginity after being raped by a college student. Sada wanders the city, becoming a geisha and eventually meeting Kichizo, a posh restaurateur who falls under her spell. Together, they embark on a week-long sexual escapade filled with dangerous obsessions. Their complete descent into each others desires culminates in a shocking crime of passion which captures the city's headlines. Based on a real event from 1936.
1975-02-08 | ja
6.4
The Geisha
Yokiro was the most successful Geisha house in Western Japan during the first half of the 20th century and remains open to this day. At its peak, it was home to over 200 geisha, however behind the fabulous facade, there were many battles - between family members, men and women, and with the Yakuza. Momokawa was sold to Yokiro at age 12, and despite being the top geisha, her many complicated relationships provide unending challenges throughout her glamorous but turbulent life.
1983-09-10 | ja
7.4
The Geisha House
Set in the late 1950s, when geisha culture was threatened by moral crusades, it tells the story of Omocha (Miyamoto Maki), a young girl who sees the geisha life as a way to lift her poverty-stricken family from their hand-to-mouth existence. Through her eyes, we see the protocols and complex financial relationships which dictate the running of the geisha house. Fukasaku's film is a work of great delicacy with moments of hypnotic beauty, and his tender direction, often touched with a sense of wonder, fills the screen with lovingly constructed scenes. At its heart is the poignant situation of the women who must sacrifice their normal relationships to live an ambiguous life in which they are a key part of society while being kept, for the most part, on its periphery, like perpetual mistresses.
1999-01-15 | ja
7.2
A Geisha's Diary
A young girl is rigorously trained in the feminine arts so that she can become a geisha. As she struggles through life, she learns to live not just as a woman but as a complete person.
1961-07-28 | ja
5.8
Inferno of Torture
Japan nineteenth century. High demand for tattooed geisha generates an entire industry for their "production". Europeans pay more for tattooed beauties. Against this background, and considering the gorgeous tattooed women develop the history of confrontation between two highly skilled masters of tattoo.
1969-05-02 | ja
7.0
A Courtesan with Flowered Skin
Japan around 1860: popular courtesan Asagiri will be freed soon from her service, yet she cannot imagine any other existence. Until one day at a local festival, Asagiri meets the young artisan Hanjiro by chance – an encounter that changes her destiny. With a strong performance by leading actress Yumi ADACHI and exquisite camerawork and production design, A COURTESAN WITH FLOWERED SKIN succeeds in recalling the golden age of Japanese erotic film.
2014-11-08 | ja
7.0
Wife! Be Like a Rose!
Kimiko, a Tokyo white-collar working girl, lives with her serious, intellectual, haiku-writing mother. Kimiko seeks to marry her boyfriend but needs her absent father to act as the go-between and negotiate the marriage. Kimiko travels and finds her father living with a second family.
1935-08-15 | ja