Growing Up Twice

Takekurabe (たけくらべ , Takekurabe , lit. "Comparing heights") , English titles Growing Up, Adolescence, or Daughters of Yoshiwara, is a 1955 Japanese drama film directed by Heinosuke Gosho. It is based on Higuchi Ichiyō's 1895-1896 novella Takekurabe.[1][2]

Growing up in the Yoshiwara red light district of Meiji era Edo, teenage boy Shinnyo, son of a buddhist priest, helplessly witnesses not only his sister Ohana being sold as a concubine by his money-loving father, but also the fate of Midori, a neighbourhood girl to whom he has an unspoken affection, who is destined to become a courtesan like her older sister Omaki.

Takekurabe was independently produced by Tsūjin Fukushima's company New Art Productions (新芸術プロダクション , Shin Geijutsu Purodakushon ) , which resulted in budgetary constraints and compromises in the filming. It received mixed reviews during its initial run for being "overliterary" and the casting of pop star Hibari Misora.[3] Film scholar Donald Richie and Gosho biographer Arthur Nolletti later called Takekurabe an "outstanding example" (Nolletti)[3] of the Meiji-mono (Meiji period film) and "one of the finest due to its excellent sets" (by Kazuo Kubo), "its superb photography and the nearly perfect performances" (Richie).[4]