Film

Utamaro and His Five Women

Name: Utamaro and His Five Women
Genre: Drama
Released: 1946
Cast: Bandō Mitsugorō VIII, Kinuyo Tanaka, Kōtarō Bandō, Hiroko Kawasaki, Toshiko Iizuka

Biopic

A 1946 Japanese masterpiece about the ukiyo-e artist Utamaro, obsessed with capturing female beauty through his woodblock prints. It's a sensuous, formally gorgeous film that moves between the brothels and studios of Edo-period Tokyo, exploring desire, artistic ambition, and the complicated lives of the women who inspire him. For anyone drawn to visual art, Japanese cinema, or stories about the tension between an artist's vision and the human cost.

TMDb rating

3.6

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Memories of Murder2003

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Bong Joon-ho's serial-killer procedural looks nothing like Utamaro—it's modern, violent, messy—but both films are obsessed with the impossible gap between how people appear and who they really are. Bong shoots it like a dark poem about frustration and the limits of vision itself.

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Ashes and Diamonds1958

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L'Avventura1960

Michelangelo Antonioni's meditation on desire and disconnection. Like Utamaro, it refuses to judge its characters for their passions, instead treating them as a natural landscape to move through.

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Floating Weeds1959

Ozu's colour remake of his own silent film, about a travelling theatre troupe. Gorgeously composed, melancholic, and fascinated by performance, desire, and the masks people wear.

But If you haven't seen other Ozu, the rhythm will feel odd. And it's long—nearly three hours—with almost nothing external happening.

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum1939

Keisuke Kinoshita's film (Utamaro's own director) about a Kabuki actor's rise and his relationship with the woman who loves him. Similar period setting, similar interest in art-making as a form of obsession.

But A product of its time and place; some emotional beats now read as dated. Subtitles required; the print quality varies.

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum poster

Sansho the Bailiff1954

Mizoguchi's masterwork about injustice and suffering, made in the same era as Utamaro. Visually ravishing, morally serious, and never exploitative despite its difficult subject matter.

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Making 'The Mahabharata'1989

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Peter Brook's nine-hour adaptation of the epic. A completely different form (theatre filmed), a completely different culture (Indian, not Japanese), but it shares Utamaro's belief that beauty and human desire can coexist with moral complexity, and that the work of art is more important than the comfort of the audience.

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Broadcast News1987

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But A 1980s American romantic comedy—totally different register and surface. If you're looking for period beauty and formal restraint, this is zippy, modern, and sometimes crass.