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Early Japanese filmmaker Kenji Mizoguchi directs the black-and-white silent drama Taki No shiraito, based on the tragic novel written by Kyoka Izumi during the 19th century. (The title has been translated into both The Water Magician and White Threads of the Waterfall.) Takako Irie plays Takino Hiraito, a strong-willed water magician in a circus. Popular entertainers of the time, water magicians used paddles to sculpt streams of water into different shapes. She travels around the Hokuriku district with her act until she meets a timid boy named Kinya Murakoshi (Tokihiko Okada). His boyish sensitivity is very attractive to the independent Takino. They must part ways, but she sends him money so he can go to law school. Like many of Mizoguchi's heroines, Takino sacrifices her own happiness in order to provide for the man she loves. The benshi (narrator) is Shunsui Matsuda.