Tokyo March

Tokyo March (東京行進曲, or Tōkyō kōshinkyoku) is a 1929 silent film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi, originally screened with live benshi accompaniment. Dressed in formal black-and-white Western attire, often with bow ties, the benshi provided narration alongside musical performances.

This melodramatic love story, only 24 minutes long (what remains of it anyway), incorporates several themes Mizoguchi would later become known for. These include the struggles of destitute geisha and other women, social inequality in a rapidly modernizing Japan, water as a symbol of purification and the passage of time, and relationships between men, often from the upper classes, and women in the so-called lower pleasure quarters, such as Shitamachi in Tokyo and Gion in Kyoto.

In this brief but eventful story, Michiyo and her friend Sumie live in Tokyo, described as “the center of sin and corruption.” Michiyo has never known her father, and her mother has recently died. Penniless, she becomes a geisha to survive.

A young man, Yoshiki, and his friend Sakuma spot Michiyo while playing tennis, and Yoshiki falls in love at first sight. Soon after, Michiyo takes the name Orie upon becoming a geisha, and Yoshiki claims to despise geisha. Before long, however, his feelings overcome his prejudice, and he resolves to marry her. Meanwhile, an older man, later revealed to be Yoshiki’s father, also becomes infatuated with Orie. When he learns of his son’s intentions, he strongly objects, citing class differences. The truth, however, is that he is Michiyo’s father, making her Yoshiki’s half-sister.

Yes, I was confused, too!

Compelling for its black-and-white glimpses of bustling prewar Tokyo and for its lively benshi performance, Tokyo March is a striking early work by a director often regarded as one of the most distinctly Japanese of filmmakers. There’s also a happy ending, which is something of a surprise for a Mizoguchi film.

“Tokyo March” (theme song), composed by Shinpei Nakayama, performed by Chiyako Sato

Longing for the past when the streets in Ginza were lined with willow trees

A young beauty becomes a nobody with age

Dance to the jazz music and down liquor into the night

And the rain that is the tears of the dancers will sprinkle at the break of dawn

Kenji Mizoguchi's Tokyo March

Kenji Mizoguchi's Tokyo March