Lucky In Love: Tales of a Golden Geisha (1990)

Coming across Itami Juzo, in my first deep dive into Japanese, was a milestone. From the first frames of A TAXING WOMAN, I was hooked. The sense of humor, attention to process, the recurring cast, everything about his films cuts deep. Even in his lesser works the Itami charm shines through.

A-GE-MAN aka TALES OF A GOLDEN GEISHA: Nayoko (the always delightful Miyamoto Nobuyo) is a foundling adopted by an older couple. Early on, shipping her off to a Geisha school. She becomes the mistress of a rich patron. No ordinary geisha, she’s a A-Ge-Man. A geisha that brings good luck to men she's around. As an adult, a dating service uses her to help loser rich men. She ends up getting wrapped up in a political scandal involving a billion yen bribe (that’s similar to a plot point in A TAXING WOMAN).

Nayoko picking Mondo over Zenbu.

As much as I love Itami, I wanted to like this one more. I wanted to love it. It’s overlooked for a reason. The first phase of his directing career set a high standard that for most can't be matched for an entire career. The prior universality from the first 4 features - THE FUNERAL, TAMPOPO, A TAXING WOMAN, and A TAXING WOMAN RETURNS, is missing. The major plot themes in these are things that absolutely anyone watching could relate to - death and funeral rituals, our relationship with food, and taxes. Things like geisha culture and Japanese banking are not as universal. That isn’t to say, it’s bad or even impossible to understand. Part of watching foreign films is learning about things you’ve never encountered in your own life. The jump from universal themes into specifically Japanese themes is too jarring. Itami’s satirical interests from his debut to this point, show a progression towards more insular topics. There was always a love for Japan but to truly satirize it needs a deeper connection than merely nationalistic rhetoric.

Mondo acting like a big baby.

This alone isn’t why I feel it doesn’t work as a film in general. One of Itami’s trademarks is showing the process of how things work. In the previous Itami film I’ve covered, SUPERMARKET WOMAN, you see all the ins and outs of running a supermarket in precise detail. That is the same approach here,but with too many things. It starts as a geisha film. We see the everyday life and details of that world. Not the first film to cover it (the EXCELLENT film SANDAKAN NO. 8 does it beautifully whilst showing how Japan turned into a militaristic state at the time) but it has that undeniable Itami charm.

Based on the title and the first act, you’d think it’s his take on Geishas but it gets overly complicated fast. The shift into the nooks and crannies of the banking systems and how they affect politics on the highest of the highest level - the prime fucking minister of Japan (played by the legendary character actor Tono Eijiro - GOOD MORNING, I LIVE IN FEAR, HUNTER IN THE DARK, and so much more). The scope of the film is admirable but it never feels earned or satisfying. Adding more and more to what appears to be a film about a woman seeking love in the modern world, does not work as a cohesive piece. You can look at  TAMPOPO and see how it’s influenced by Bunuel but it’s structure is established early on. It's top-heavy with politics and finance that muddles and slows everything down.

Nayoko beheading Mondo in the 2nd phase of his stress dream.

TALES OF A GOLDEN GEISHA spends nearly an hour with a rom com premise before adding the political intrigue and satire. It nearly consumes all trace of the promised romance from earlier for an endlessly convoluted attack on the most prime ministers. Political corruption is absolutely everywhere in every national and state government. However, the exact details of the specified targets are so precisely Japanese that it needs prior knowledge to follow the plot. Itami could have split these wholly separate movies.That said, the background is fascinating.

Starting in 1987 Takeshita Noboru’s first year as PM, the worlds of big money and politics hit a breaking point. A telecommunications firm, Recruit, started paying off government officials including Noboru. They gave away loans, stocks, and donations for future favors. In 1989, Noboru resigned as PM. Uno Sosuke was the new PM, since he was not one of officials paid off by Recruit. During the very brief reign as PM, he was in a months long affair with a geisha. He owed her 1,200,000 yen or $84,000. She was not his only mistress. She went public and wrecked his reputation. Within that community, he was known for disrespectful and poor behavior. After 3 months as PM, he resigned in August 1989. The next successor was the education minister, Kaifu Toshiki. This administration went scandal-free but the aftershock of his predecessors stopped him from accomplishing anything he fought for. These are not recreated in TALES but it’s the DNA of all the political satire.

White suit

White wedding dress

Green dress and stained glass

Green floor

Red highlights the shed

Red architecture

Despite the overall messiness, there is plenty to appreciate and flat out love about this. As always, the cast is fantastic. The set design and color choices astound, overtly and subtly. There flourishes of red, white, and green throughout set a unique and odd Itami world. It goes without saying Miyamoto Nobuko is a goddamn delight. She can pull off comedy with true expertise and smoothly shift into any emotion required of her. The sliding scale of tone and genre is spotty in terms of screenplay but Itami regulars Miyamoto and Tsugawa Masahiko (In 9 of 10 Itami films) manage to cover up the flaws whenever they’re on screen together. They had just co-starred in 2 films together and the chemistry is beyond captivating. The rest of the cast is good but these two elevate everyone around them. Even when it gets drowned in plot details, it’s still a delight. Itami’s style of direction was very particular and precise down to nearly every movement and word delivery. You wouldn’t be able to tell with the skill on display. The timing and humor is so specific and detailed yet it comes off (mostly) as perfectly natural. 

Zenbu's got him by the balls

His go to editor, Suzuki Akira (Suzuki Seijun’s usual editor from the 1950s to PISTOL OPERA), keeps the pace moving, smooth as silk. For a 2 hour film, it does not feel like 2 hours. Runtime is subjective, it’s all in the directing and editing. The jokes are there but fewer and further between. When they're there, they hit hard. Going out of the way to attack public figures can go very wrong and be too of the moment. Since he avoids the trappings of merely mimicking reality and creates a similar but different enough scenario, the timeliness remains intact. It’s more general but encourages looking deeper into the backdrop.

Perhaps more than satire, Itami understands how to establish and demonstrate romance in his films. This is a more flawed romance but it plays into the larger political themes at with Masahiko’s character, Suzuki Mondo. One of the several plot lines is the troubled romance between Nayoko and Mondo. She’s been employed by a dating service as a special date to rich men that are willing to pay high prices for an A-Ge-Man. She’s still being used as a Geisha but in a modern business setting. It shows the transformation from the traditional world to the modern. She tries to remain a person in a world that selling and trading her like stocks and loans. To some she’s an object to be abused and to others a real person.

Nayoko feeding her patron Zenbu Okura (Shimada Shogo)

Mondo is desperate and unlucky. She changes his career path and helps him advance in the financial political world. Through her trials, she only wants love. Mondo wants love, but can’t help fucking other women on the side. I don’t think it was intended to be a true love saves the day kind of move. It really feels closer to showing how these men in these positions are flawed people. They want to find love and can’t stop themselves from shitty behavior. At the end, they go off together as the western wedding theme plays. It’s absurd. This is a doomed relationship. He’ll cheat and she’ll leave him again. It’s not designed to the ideal pairing. It’s showing the expectations vs the reality of the situation whilst wrapping you into their whirlwind romance. This appears as a flaw but it’s a brilliant subversion of expectations. He returns to romances in nearly each film and finds a new use for it, either satirical or genuine or a mix of both.

Mondo (Tsugawa) and Nayoko (Miyamoto)

Also, the music is fucking amazing. Another Itami regular, composer Honda Toshiyuki, knocks it out of the park again.

There are a few vague similarities to Pedro Almodovar. They both love using the color red, have very specific yet similar comedy, fill their work with nods and references to film history, and have used silent film sequences( a la TALK TO HER). The silent film similarities aren't super close but there's something to both of them using the silent film format.

Strunken Man in TALK TO HER

Scientist and his lover in TALK TO HER

Mondo's stress dream in TALES OF A GOLDEN GEISHA

The mob chasing Mondo in TALES OF A GOLDEN GEISHA

This is an Itami film for Itami completionists. Don’t get the wrong idea, it’s not a bad movie. It’s a disappointing but still good enough movie. The film is available via DVD and Criterion Channel.