The movie also stars Masayuki Mori, Reiko Dan, Tatsuya Nakadai, Daisuke Kato, Nakamura Ganjiro II, Eitaro Ozawa, Keiko Awaji, Kyu Sazanka, Noriko Sengoku, and Chieko Nakakita.
It was released on January 5, 1960.
Tropes for the film:
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Kenichi delivers one of these to Keiko near the end, but she's not interested in him that way.
- Driven to Suicide: Early on, a hostess at the Bluebird bar has committed suicide, though why is unclear. Some of her colleagues say it was because of lack of money, others say it was because of a man. This is Foreshadowing for Yuri's suicide later in the movie.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Keiko, who normally doesn't like to drink, gets drunk after Yuri's suicide and after one of her clients, a banker, sent someone to the funeral home to demand money from Yuri's mother. Unfortunately, getting drunk ends up causing her ulcer to bleed.
- Hope Spot: When Keiko is despairing of finding someone to invest enough money in the bar she wants to open, Matsukichi offers to marry her, which she accepts, because while she doesn't love him, she likes him, he's nice to her, and he's rich, so it looks like things may work out for her. Then it turns out Matsukichi's already married. Not only that, but his wife tells a horrified Keiko he's done this before.
- Stepford Smiler: Keiko, also known as "Mama", is like this - she's a respected hostess with a number of male clients who like her (other hostesses like her), and she's warm and friendly towards all of them, but underneath, she's melancholy and sad, hating every part of her life.
- Train-Station Goodbye: Keiko says goodbye to Nobuhiko, her married lover, as he's leaving on the train. Because Nobuhiko is with his family, Keiko can't say all she wants to say, which makes the scene all the more heartbreaking.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Keiko is arguably a deconstruction of this trope. She's refined, warm, and caring towards her clients (she's a geisha), as well as her colleagues, but inside, she's deeply melancholy, hating the life she's living. In addition, unlike most of the other geisha, she wears kimonos instead of dresses, hates to drink, and won't sleep with clients if she can avoid it, and while this makes her respected, it also means she has to struggle with money constantly.
