Keiko, whom everyone calls Mama, narrates her story: she's a hostess on the Ginza, 30, a widow. She describes life's vicious cycle: acting cheerful around drunks, dressing and living well to convey confidence, needing money for these expenses and for her demanding mother and brother, and knowing she's growing older. She's of an age when she must choose: to seek marriage (difficult given her tarnished occupation), to be a kept woman, or to borrow money to buy a bar of her own. Each route has dangers, including investors demanding a return on their loans. Keiko has a quiet dignity that attracts men, but are they what they seem? Does she actually have choices?
Elenco: Hideko Takamine , Masayuki Mori , Reiko Dan , Tatsuya Nakadai , Daisuke Katō , Ganjirô Nakamura II , Eitarō Ozawa , Keiko Awaji , Chieko Nakakita , Jun Tatara , Yū Fujiki , Masao Oda , Ken Mitsuda , Chikako Hosokawa , Sadako Sawamura , Kyū Sazanka , Noriko Sengoku , Kin Sugai , Toshiko Higuchi , Noriko Honma , Natsuko Kahara , Machiko Kitagawa , Rumi Konishi , Takuzō Kumagai , Fumie Noguchi , Yutaka Sada , Akira Sera , Toki Shiozawa , Ayumi Sonoda , Yoshifumi Tajima , Akira Tani , Mitsuo Tsuda , Haruko Tōgō , Keiko Yanagawa , Michiyo Yokoyama , Kyoko Mori , Akiko Wakabayashi .