3.5/5 stars Yukiko Sode’s Aristocrats shows that even young educated urban women in Japan remain beholden to a society predicated on outdated traditions and family expectations. Its release comes months after Eiji Uchida’s Midnight Swan won the top prize at the Japanese Academy Awards and suggested that attitudes towards Japan’s minority groups have taken an encouraging step forward. Regardless of their social standing, providing financial support for parents and male heirs for the family business are still valued more highly than any personal or professional goals they may have set for themselves. Hanako (Mugi Kadowaki) and Miki (Kiko Mizuhara) both live in Tokyo, are in their mid-twenties and hail from vastly different backgrounds. Hanako is the youngest of three daughters of a successful doctor. Her family is anxious to see her married off as soon as possible, going so far as to set her up with a number of eligible young men who could one day take over her father’s practice. Miki, conversely, grew up poor in the provinces and worked hard to gain a place at Tokyo’s prestigious Keio University. But her father is a deadbeat and her mother is demanding that Miki quit her studies to come home and provide for her parents. Their lives become entwined after Hanako becomes hastily engaged to Koichiro (Kengo Kora), her latest arranged suitor. Through her friend Itsuko (Shizuka Ishibashi), Hanako learns that her fiancé has a suspiciously close relationship with Miki, an event planner. Itsuko arranges for both women to meet, but instead of an accusatory showdown, the two young women find an unexpected kinship in their respective plights. Adapted from a novel by Mariko Yamauchi, the film jumps backwards and forwards in time, first following Hanako on her reluctant quest to find a suitable husband, before travelling back in time to explore Miki’s markedly different backstory. What we witness is both women discovering that, regardless of their social status – be it Hanako’s wealth and privilege or Miki’s dedication and hard work – they both remain condemned to live as second class citizens purely because of their gender. Unsurprisingly, Sode has been able to attract an impressive ensemble of female performers, who all appear to share her passion for this, frustratingly, still relevant subject matter. Kadowaki and especially Mizuhara are both excellent, as are Ishibashi and Rio Yamashita, who plays Miki’s childhood friend. Without question, Aristocrats is a compelling and inspiring story, but hopefully, one that won’t need to be told for much longer. Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook