Really Surprised!

Good concept, poorly executed.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Blistering performances.

FLOATING CLOUDS (UKIGUMO). Viewed on Streaming. Subtitles = seven (7) stars; continuity/editing = four (4) stars; restoration = three (3) stars; score = three (3) stars. Director Mikio Naruse's bitter love story (based on a still-in-print novel with the same name) of a woman's pathological romantic attraction to a cold-heart-ed, womanizing loser set before, during, and after the War in the Pacific. Naruse's favorite veteran actress Hideko Takamine (see below) holds this rather fragmented film (the tale is told mostly in flash backs and flash forwards) together by playing multiple variations on one basic role. It's quite a performance (or rather a nuanced set of performances!). The narrative wanders about quite a bit (as do the protagonists). Starting off in Tokyo (from which Takamine's character flees to escape being a De Facto household sex slave); to Malaysia (now modern Viet Nam) and a remote forestry service operation (where the lovers first meet before and remain during the war); to seemingly all over devastated Tokyo (where the repatriated protagonists engage in an endless on-off, love-hate affair); and to a remote forestry station this time on a small (and inhospitable) island south of Kyushu (where the lovers end up). Along the way, the Director does a fair amount of editorializing such as exhibiting his preference for mixed-bathing Onsen and demonstrating one reliable way to get rich quick (start your own religion). Naruse also raises a series of question marks on the viewer's forehead: not much examination/explanation of the psychology behind a stunning, smart, and independent woman's continued attraction to a not-particularly-bright, inferior wastrel; the uncanny ability of the protagonists to always find each other's latest room/apartment in the jumble and chaos of post-war Japan; and the unchanging beauty (even when playing dead) of Takamine's character over what seems to be decades of to and fro (perhaps Naruse couldn't bare messing with the beauty of his lead actress?). Leading actor Masayuki Mori creates a well-defined, self-centered character (the object of deep-seated affection for Takamine's character), but ends up playing at most a supporting role for the actress (Takamine easily steals every scene she is in). Actor Daisuke Katô appears in a humorous cameo role where he is seen buying Mori's high-end new watch ostensibly for cash, but with the real price being the loss of his new wife to Mori's character (with tragic results). Takamine's spectrum of portrayals is simply fascinating to watch. Line reading dynamics, facial expressions, and body language--she employs them all! Her repertoire includes: an innocent appearing but sophisticated and determined young seductress (working as a secretary/typist in Malaysia); playing prostitutes at various levels on the financial-success "food chain"; eye-blink switching from a subservient, passive role to one of complete dominance (in most/all scenes with Mori's character); undergoing an abortion in a performance that does not run afoul of the occupation censors; playing a sick and dying (due to tuberculosis) character who is all but dragged into a climate sure to kill her; on and on. Restoration remains a work in progress. (And this was streamed off the new FilmStruck/Criterion site no less!) The print looks old and gray. Artifacts often appear where reels would seem to have been spliced together originally. Visual wear lines can be seen here and there. Audio artifacts are particularly noticeable during the first third of the movie. Opening credits exhibit jitters. Cinematography (narrow screen, gray and off/on white) seems okay, but some interior scenes are a bit under-lit. Continuity suffers from excessive/poor editing (perhaps to just reduce running time?) with discordant jump cuts occurring particularly during the middle third of the film. Score wanders all over the place (from sort of Middle Eastern to vaguely Hawaiian to melodramatic lush violins) and usually distracts from (rather than adds to) scenes. Subtitles are close enough and often a necessity due to lines delivered in different dialects (sometimes used to make minor plot points). Recommended especially for soap-box opera enthusiasts (and especially if/when restoration is completed). WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

Ot the three senior directors who dominated the golden age of Japanese cinema, Mikio Naruse is the least known in the West. This could be partly due to the fact that unlike his contemporaries, Mizoguchi and Ozu, his cinematic language was more conventional and less innovative. And yet, if one looks long and hard, it becomes possible to identify stylistic trademarks that could be uniquely his, characters that are forever walking and interiors that are often shot from the centre of a room looking towards a corner. The very title is a metaphor for characters that are drifting their lives away with very little sense of purpose. The tragic couple, Yukiko and Kengo, who met in French Indo-China during the second world war when they were engaged on a forestry project find themselves drifting when they meet up again in a post-war Japan soured with defeat and despair. Generally when we see them they are walking, often through urban landscapes of a Tokyo desolate and scarred by the immediate past. They are always on the move in the manner almost of characters in a road movie to wherever they can travel, be it to a sad holiday resort out of season or a remote island drenched by rain that hardly ever stops. But their relationship is doomed partly because whatever passion they may feel for one another is always curiously out of sync with each other's. Their personalities are also deeply flawed to the extent that neither is able to cope with the social disadvantages of being part of a defeated nation. It has been said that defeat left many professional Japanese men feeling emotionally emasculated. This is certainly true of Kengo. As for Yukika, she has none of the stoicism of Mizoguchi's long suffering female protagonists. Dissatisfaction with her lot has left her whingeing with self pity. ""Floating Clouds" is a deeply pessimistic film in a way that Kurosawa's "The Silent Duel", which deals with a pair of lovers living through the similar period of the immediate aftermath of war, is not. Ultimately Kurosawa's characters come to terms with misfortune in a way that presages a future of some hope. Both films no doubt reflect their directors' widely different temperaments.

Ukigumo (1955), directed by Mikio Naruse, was shown as "Floating Clouds" at the Dryden Theatre in Rochester as part of a Naruse retrospective. This is Naruse's best-known film, and it stars his muse, the outstanding actor Hideko Takamine. The film is adapted from a novel by Fumiko Hayashi. Seven or eight of Naruse's films were based on novels by this author. Finally, many of the Toho studio supporting players appear in this movie, as they do in all of Naruse's films. In summary, "Floating Clouds" is classic Naruse. As in many Naruse films, the theme is grim. Japan is still struggling in the aftermath of World War II. The economy is slow, and the pall of defeat still hangs over the country.Although we think of the war as totally tragic for everyone involved--especially everyone Japanese--this isn't accurate. Hideko Takamine's character (Yukiko) had a passionate and sincere wartime romance with an engineer when they were both stationed in an area away from the combat zone. It becomes clear--ten years later--that this love affair was the high point of both their lives. Masuki Mori plays Kengo, the engineer who loves Yukiko, but who will never marry her.The tragedy of the film is that both Yukiko and Kengo have known happiness, but realize they will never know it again. Such happiness as they can grasp is undone by the harsh realities of financial and physical problems.This movie is not exactly a masterpiece, but it is the perfect film if you can only see one work by Naruse. It defines his themes, demonstrates his unique skills and extraordinary expertise, and showcases the best actors in his company. It's a movie worth seeking out and watching.

This melodrama of postwar Japan seemed to resonate with the people I watched it with; many seem to have seen it when it came out and it really spoke to them; but alas it is really a turgid melodrama that can't sustain your interest. Well directed and acted; it none the less becomes a series of redundant bad break scenes for it's heroine. Worth seeing, but not one of the greats of Japanese film.