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lead=yes is a 1936 Japanese drama film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. It forms a diptych with Mizoguchi's Sisters of the Gion which shares much of the same cast and production team, and is considered an early masterpiece in the director's career.
After an argument with her father, who argues that he embezzled the money to finance his children's education, Ayako leaves home. She takes up Asai's offer to become his mistress, asking him in return to give her 300 yen to pay back her father's debts. She quits her job and moves into an apartment which he pays for her. When they attend a bunraku performance, they are confronted by his wife who furiously accuses Asai for having an affair. Fujino, a business acquaintance of Asai, intervenes, lying that Ayako was his date, not her husband's.
Ayako runs into Susumu in a shopping mall. Asked about her flashy appearance, she lies that she is now working in a beauty salon. When Susumu confesses that he contemplated the idea to marry her, she runs off in embarrassment. Shortly after, Sumiko shows up in Ayako's and Asai's apartment, demanding that he comes with her and puts an end to his affair. Ayako stays on living in her new home.
Ayako meets with her younger sister Sachiko. Sachiko insists that she helps raising 200 yen for their brother Hiroshi's tuition fees. Ayako acquires the money from her admirer Fujino, leaving him once he has given it to her. She then asks Susumu into her apartment, confessing everything to him and hoping they can still marry. When Fujino shows up to demand his money back, she treats him with disrespect, and he informs the police in return.
Ayako and Susumu are questioned at the police station. She overhears Susumu claim that he was dragged into the affair and never intended to marry her. As it is her first offence, she is released without charge, but into the care of her father. Back at home, Hiroshi calls Ayako a delinquent and demands that their father throws her out, while Sachiko says that she is ashamed to go to school due to the story being in all the papers. Incensed by being called a disgrace and an ingrate, Ayako leaves home again. She runs into Dr. Yoko, the physician of her former lover Asai, and asks him if there is a cure for female delinquency. He negates, and she continues on her way alone.
Mizoguchi himself cited Osaka Elegy and Sisters of the Gion as the works with which he achieved artistic maturity. Critics and film historians regard Osaka Elegy as one of Mizoguchi's "finest efforts" (Fred Camper, Chicago Reader) and "best films" (Donald Richie, Joseph L. Anderson, The Japanese Film – Art & Industry), emphasising "its visual precision and its engaged but never preachy tone" (Geoff Andrew, Time Out).
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