Floating Weeds
(Ukigusa)
With Ganjiro Nakamura, Machiko Kyo, Ayako Wakao.
Japan, 1959, 35mm, color, 119 min.
Japanese with English subtitles.
Shot by Japan's greatest cinematographer, Kazuo Miyagawa (Ugetsu, Rashomon, Enjo) and starring an extraordinary ensemble, the rarely seen Floating Weeds is suffused with the nostalgia and bittersweetness of the late Ozu. A remake of his silent A Story of Floating Weeds, the film focuses on an itinerant acting troupe, "weeds" who "float" through the countryside. When they arrive in a remote fishing village after a long absence, the head of the troupe is confronted with a dilemma of paternity. He must either reveal himself to be the father of one of the locals, a strapping young postman who believes him to be only his uncle, or watch as the villager is enticed into an affair with a young actress. The complications are ruefully funny, but as always with Ozu, shade into melancholic resignation.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Woman of Tokyo / A Mother Should Be Loved
Where Now are the Dreams of Youth?
The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family
The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family
Record of a Tenement Gentleman
I Was Born But...
The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice
An Autumn Afternoon
