Review | Netflix drama review – The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House by Hirokazu Koreeda is a vibrant look at the geisha world and a celebration of homestyle cooking
- Nana Mori and Natsuki Deguchi star as 16-year-old best friends who head to Kyoto to pursue their dreams of becoming apprentice geisha.
- The series is full of beautiful kimonos, elegant performances and mouthwatering dishes, and provides broader knowledge of this fascinating Japanese subculture
4/5 stars
Celebrated Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda teams up with Netflix for this nine-part adaptation of Aiko Koyama’s award-winning manga series, Kiyo in Kyoto: From the Maiko House.
Set in Kyoto’s historically rich and culturally vibrant Gion district, the series, retitled The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House, is as much a guided tour of the geisha world and their traditional performance arts as it is a celebration of simple, homestyle cooking.
Nana Mori and Natsuki Deguchi star as Kiyo and Sumire, 16-year-old best friends from Japan’s Aomori prefecture, who head to Kyoto to pursue their dreams of becoming maiko, or apprentice geisha.
They are accepted into an okiya establishment named Saku and trained in the disciplines required to become a successful geiko, as geisha are known in Kyoto.