After falling in love with a courtesan, Rikiya is blinded by ash during a fight in a brothel. Believing the blindness permanent and his opponent dead, Rikiya goes back home to his sister. Okiku, desperate to protect her brother who thinks himself a murderer, wants to sacrifice herself for him and become a prostitute to pay for Rikiya's treatment.
Cinematography
German Expressionism crashes into Japanese cinema—shadows eat the screen.
Production
Kinugasa built brothel sets so suffocating you can smell the desperation.
Acting
Chihaya's eyes do what dialogue cannot—devastation without a word.
Director
Teinosuke Kinugasa
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Kinugasa made this between his two lost films—Crossroads survives only because a French archive held a print.
The 'moga' (modern girl) anxiety haunts every frame: traditional sisterhood crushed by urban capitalism's meat grinder.
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