Growing Up Twice (1955) Heinosuke Gosho, Hibari Misora, Kôshirô Matsumoto, Takashi Kitahara

October 14, 2024

The story here is about boys and girls on the boundary between childhood and adulthood, living in Yoshiwara (a famed red light district of Tokyo). The focus here is on a young woman (Hibari Musora, famed child singing star — and future action movie star) already contracted to become an oiran (a sort of especially high-class prostitute) and her neighbor, a young man destined to become a Buddhist priest. Mixed into the story, rival youth gangs and various older women, all of whose lives have been affected (directly or indirectly) by prostitution (actual and virtual).