Surviving on grit and loyalty – three sisters’ journeys to empowerment.
In the heart of Tokyo’s bustling Asakusa, three sisters navigate life within the unforgiving hierarchy of Japanese society in the pre-war period. Trained by their strict mother to become busking shamisen performers, the two eldest sisters have worked the streets of Asakusa since the age of eight. But when the oldest, O-Ren, runs off to build a life with her boyfriend, the loving and obedient middle sister, O-Some, is left to bear the burden of shamisen busking alone. Having been granted more freedom than her older sisters, the youngest, Chieko, enjoys a relatively unbound life dancing in nightclubs, and while she idolises the strength of her sisters, she longs for a gentler existence. But when Chieko secretly starts dating a younger man of higher status, the contrast between her life and her sisters’ hardships becomes painfully clear, prompting her to vow to change their fate.
Based on the short story The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa by Yasunari Kawabata (winner of the 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature), director Mikio Naruse’s first sound film vibrantly captures the social fabric of Asakusa, Japan’s largest entertainment district at the time, with musical flair and tenderness. Inspired by the visual storytelling of the silent film era, Naruse builds tension with nuanced sound design and inventive camerawork, vividly tracing the sisters’ distinct emotional arcs. A poignant exploration of women’s roles and lives in1930s Japan, Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts is a heartfelt portrait of three siblings choosing survival, sacrifice and the bonds that hold them together.
