Woman of Rumor

Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.

Documentary depicting the lives of child prostitutes in the red light district of Songachi, Calcutta. Director Zana Briski went to photograph the prostitutes when she met and became friends with their children. Briski began giving photography lessons to the children and became aware that their photography might be a way for them to lead better lives.

Successful and married with children, paper-mill owner Jihei knows better than to contradict the strict social and moral codes of 18th-century Japan. But when he meets the lovely courtesan Koharu, he becomes a man obsessed. Koharu returns his love, even foregoing other customers while Jihei schemes to somehow buy her freedom. His efforts yield ruinous consequences for his business and his family life, and Koharu is meanwhile purchased by another client.

The family of an older man who runs a small sake brewery become concerned with his finances and his health after they discover him visiting an old mistress from his youth.

In the post-war Gion district of Kyoto, the geisha Miyoharu agrees to apprentice the 16 year-old Eiko, whose mother was a former geisha who had just died. After a year of training they have to find a large sum of money before Eiko can debut. Miyoharu borrows the money from the tea-house owner, Okimi, who in turn obtains the money from the businessman Kusuda. Kusuda fancies Eiko himself and wants to give Miyoharu to Kanzaki in order to close a large business deal. However both geishas have minds of their own and, going against tradition, want to be able to say no to clients.

Famed movie director Paul Robaix breaks with tradition by not casting his actress-comedienne wife, Lucy Dell, in his latest film production, a version of Madame Butterfly. Undaunted, the resourceful Lucy wings her way to Tokyo and, masquerading as a Japanese geisha, lands the coveted role from her unsuspecting husband! But in front of the cameras (and behind the pancake makeup), Lucy faces greater challenges: her lecherous leading man - and a husband who is beginning to realize that his talented new "discovery" seems vaguely familiar...

Two characters on a Noh stage dramatize the rite of love and death of Lieutenant Shinji Takeyama and his wife Reiko.

The lives of five prostitutes employed at a Japanese brothel while the nation is debating the passage of an anti-prostitution law.

Ichie is the owner of a dressmaking shop. Her grandmother started the shop and now Ichie runs the business. Her clothes are made with an old sewing machine and are very popular. Following her grandmother’s will, Ichie only makes clothes for individuals and turns down offers to turn her clothing into a brand.

In the Depression, Pete and Sidney are good kids, working hard, giving money to their parents, and engaged for three years while they save to get married. Each has a selfish mother: Sydney's is cold, Pete's is clingy. Sidney's mother is looking for her own happiness, no matter how much that search harms her daughter and long-suffering husband; and, the longer the engagement lingers, the more pressure Pete's mom puts on Sidney to break it off and set her son free. "After Tomorrow" is Pete and Sidney's favorite song, but with illness, poverty, and temptation: will that good day ever come?

A very beautiful Japanese woman is in love with Persian carpets. She is being chased by lecherous Saburi Shin and a handsome young photographer. Lecherous Saburi Shin knows what she wants, and is able to produce it for her.

A young man takes a succession of odd jobs in order to save enough money to buy himself and his mother a house. He lands a position in a newspaper office and falls in love with the beautiful society editor, who is secretly having an affair with the married managing editor. She returns the young man's affections in order to make her lover jealous, but finds herself falling for him.

Umekichi, a geisha in the Gion district of Kyoto, feels obliged to help her lover Furusawa when he asks to stay with her after becoming bankrupt and leaving his wife. However her younger sister Omocha tells her she is wasting her time and money on a loser. She thinks that they should both find wealthy patrons to support them. Omocha therefore tries various schemes to get rid of Furusawa, and set themselves up with better patrons.

The story of a traditional Kyoto woman who runs a failing kimono business and the entrepreneurial, biracial, business consultant who comes to help keep it solvent. Along the way they fall in love, but his need for change clashes with her desire for the world to stay the same. In the end, can they change enough for each other?

Set in the late 1950s, when geisha culture was threatened by moral crusades, it tells the story of Omocha (Miyamoto Maki), a young girl who sees the geisha life as a way to lift her poverty-stricken family from their hand-to-mouth existence. Through her eyes, we see the protocols and complex financial relationships which dictate the running of the geisha house. Fukasaku's film is a work of great delicacy with moments of hypnotic beauty, and his tender direction, often touched with a sense of wonder, fills the screen with lovingly constructed scenes. At its heart is the poignant situation of the women who must sacrifice their normal relationships to live an ambiguous life in which they are a key part of society while being kept, for the most part, on its periphery, like perpetual mistresses.

A hotheaded widow searching for the hit-and-run driver who mowed down her husband befriends an eccentric optimist who isn't quite what she seems.

ER explores the inner workings of an urban teaching hospital and the critical issues faced by the dedicated physicians and staff of its overburdened emergency room.

After the death of his wife, world-class neurosurgeon Dr. Andrew Brown leaves Manhattan and moves his family to the small town of Everwood, Colorado. There he becomes a small-town doctor and learns parenting on the fly as he raises his talented but resentful 15-year-old son Ephram and his 9-year-old daughter Delia.

The MVPs from past seasons of Project Runway compete for a second chance at runway gold.

Prostitutes are often seen as either immoral individuals or exploited victims. Rupert Everett uncovers the real story of the sex industry, going behind the stereotypes to hear the unvarnished truth from sex workers and their clients.

Nathalie Lapointe is in her early forties, a single mother of three with a successful career as columnist at a major newspaper. Just as she’s starting to think she might be able to pay more attention to her own needs, she gets terrible news: the cancer from which she recovered two years previously is back. How can she break the news to her kids? How can the family plan for the future with this sword of Damocles hanging over them? Despite the shock, life goes on. Nathalie must cope with evolving circumstances at the paper as well as at home. She wonders if she can allow herself to fall in love with her daughters’ school principal. As for her children, they must deal with their own teenage life challenges, all the while knowing that their mother may soon be gone. Nathalie’s best friend and neighbor is particularly hard-hit by the news: she’s already suffering from her husband’s infidelity and from the absence of her son, who is overseas. Nathalie’s misfortune also has a powerful effect on her three siblings. They must re-think their priorities at a time when all three are facing crucial choices in their emotional and professional lives. For Nathalie’s parents Janine and Gérard, her illness makes no sense. How do you face the very real possibility that your child will die before you?

Three adult siblings find their family thrown into disarray when their recently widowed mother, Vivien, declares she is in love with a new man. The tension his presence creates threatens to drag the whole family towards tragedy, and perhaps crime.

When psychiatrist Dr. Neil Chase encounters two women suffering from the same symptoms with similar nightmarish stories, rational explanations just don't seem to fit.

Explore the relationships between exclusive escorts and their clients, for whom they provide far more than just sex. Known as GFEs, they are women who provide “The Girlfriend Experience”—emotional and sexual relationships at a very high price.

Act of Will is a 1989 mini-series directed by Don Sharp. It the third mini series based on a Barbara Taylor Bradford novel he had directed and was an early lead role for Elizabeth Hurley.

Brothel owner, Margaret Wells, struggles to raise her daughters in London during the 18th century.

Maureen is an Irishwoman, happily married and living in Germany. Or so she thinks. When her husband dies, she finds that not only had he debts, but was also a bigamist, having had a second wife and family in Ireland. Shocked and angry, she travels there to meet the other family. And she learns that they have troubles of their own, the worst of them being that the other woman's young son is suffering from leukemia and a suitable bone marrow donor is urgently needed.

Kiyo and Sumire came to Kyoto from Aomori Prefecture, dreaming of becoming maiko. But after an unexpected turn of events, Kiyo starts working as the live-in cook at the Maiko House. Their story unfolds in Kagai, the Geiko and maiko district in Kyoto, alongside their housemate maikos. Kiyo nourishes them daily with her homecooked meals, and Sumire strives toward her promising future as the once-in-a-century maiko.

Two inseparable friends move to Kyoto to chase their dreams of becoming maiko, but decide to pursue different passions while living under the same roof.

A male escort's life begins to unravel when he gets involved in a client's family affairs and breaks the cardinal rule of his work: Don't fall in love.