I honestly have no idea why, it's not so much that as it "bothers" me, but I do always when I see the movie really wonder why. Though stating this now I realize that it might have something to do with the geishas also being kids earlier in the movie.. Did I just answer my own question? =X
shareIt's because they were kids. If you look carefully enough, you'll see that the smaller geisha are the performers who play the geisha as children (Saotome Taichi and...er...I can't remember the girl's name right now...). I guess it's just to give them a chance to be in the finale too.
shareThe big sister was the one getting attention from all the men, until someone cross-dressed the little brother and they realized that they would profit more by letting him be the "leading act" of the two geishas.
You can see that she gets very upset when they practice, where she gets to play the instrument and he gets to dance. I can think of two reasons for this.
a) She is upset that her little brother is considered a more attractive woman, eventhough he is a boy or
b) She is upset because he has gotten more "action" selling himself to men. There is a scene where the sister sells herself to a passerby, and when she returns the brother starts to cry. It's possible that they have switched roles over the years, and she is upset about that, because she feels that she has failed him.
Either way, you can see that they don't just morph into kids again, but also switches to the clothes they wore from when everything was normal and they had a family. The villains are dead and they don't have to pretend anymore in order to get their revenge, but can go on about their lives, yet again.
UMM no..... It was the little BROTHER who dressed up as a girl who sold himself to the passerby. The sister always played the instrument and the brother always danced, ROLES WERE NEVER SWITCHED.
The big sister is upset NOT because she is jealous of her brother and NOT because she thinks she is prettier or got "more action" to men. The sister got upset while they were practicing because she had a flashback of all the hardships they went through as kids. She was SAD because she remembered her brother resorted to whoring himself so they could surivive. Remember when that perverted passerby was "done" with the little brother who wore makeup and dressed up as a girl? He walked up to his big sister and showed him the coins the passerby paid him. He basically showed he big sister the money he made so they can eat. The big sister was probably also touched and grateful for what he did. It's a very sad scene and a little uncomfortable to watch but it helps us understand the characters quite well.
Plus there's no scene where the big sister got more attention from the men when they were younger.
Anywho, at the end of the film Kitano probably showed the two kids again as a metaphor that their childhood scars are healed after the murderers have been killed. Then again maybe I'm over analyzing it. =p Most likely it was just a nice way to just incorporate the child actors in the happy ending.
I think your pretty much bang on......the scene with the dance routine always makes me cry...Just thinking about what he had to do inorder for them to survive and how selfless that was, just brilliant.
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