At the railway station, Kihachi meets Otaka who helps light his cigarette with matches. Sakamoto’s anger at the manipulation of his son, for example, seems more deeply felt, and his future at the end of the film seems less assured than Ganjiro, who gives the impression that life will somehow go on. Kihachi is called ‘the boss’ by everyone in his impoverished troupe, but for the first half of the film, this seems to be joke. The silent version was narrated live by a benshi, a storyteller unique to the Japanese silent film era who voices the dialogue, characters’ feelings and storyline in much the same way as the taiyu narrator in Bunraku puppet theater and comic rakugo storytellers. Soon, both Otoki and Otaka must answer to Kihachi. A Story of Floating Weeds (1934) The work of Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu (1903 to 1963) is a good fit for someone used to silent film. Moreover, silence in many cases proves golden. Find out more about A Story of Floating Weeds (1934) A Story of Floating Weeds (1934) on Disc. We sense she could be devastated at any moment. Yet when Kihachi, with now-typical thoughtlessness, remarks how hard it must have been for her to raise Shinkichi alone, she almost chirps her response: “I don’t mind hardship as long as it’s for his sake.” Otsune seems so much older than Kihachi. Ozu’s comic moments can be overdone in both versions, but the accumulation of small moments ultimately makes for a rich portrait. Kihachi Ichikawa (Takeshi Sakamoto), the head of the troupe, is a very popular actor. When Gantetsu delivers the line, "The wild geese are calling as they fly towards the southern skies," he points off-stage into the auditorium. “He’ll be eligible for the draft next year,” she adds. He also loves Kihachi as family; enough to laugh at him when Kihachi loses his wallet in the swift waters. Kihachi visits Otsune, and tells her of his troupe's break-up. She then begins fantasizing about their new family life. The younger man is tall, lean and formally dressed; he is a student and very serious minded. Oyoshi urges Komazaburo to tell the truth, but the actor has big dreams for his progeny. Not because Ozu was primarily a silent director—he’s more famous for talkies like, The film opens with the arrival by train of travelling actor, Kihachi Ichikawa (Takeshi Sakamoto) and his troupe. Amid Komajuro's personal dramas, the troupe's old-fashioned kabuki-style performances fail to attract the town's residents. Having lost his mistress and job, Komazaburo returns to Oyoshi and briefly considers staying with her, but comes to blows with his son over the latter’s relationship with the actress. Kihachi becomes enraged, warns Otaka never to come and harass the mother and son again, and breaks off his relationship with her. Kihachi discovers their affair, confronts Otoki and slaps her, demanding to know what she wants. She offers Otoki money to seduce the boy—“this makes us even,” she’ll later tell Kihachi when he discovers the plan. The last scene of the film shows Komajuro, tended by Sumiko, in a train heading for Kuwana. Her face moves too fast from grin to frown to grin again. The film starts with a travelling kabuki troupe arriving by train at a provincial seaside town. And now you can read about them. Kihachi decides to disband the troupe, selling all their costumes and props. The plot gets going when Otaka (Rieko Yagumo), one of Kihachi’s actresses and his lover, discovers her boss’ secret. Otaka goes to buy an extra ticket to accompany him. ( Log Out /  The benshi was accompanied by a pianist playing an original score. I've been watching silent films since my teens. Modern Sculptor (Sculpteur moderne) (1908), Searching Ruins On Broadway for Dead Bodies, Galveston (1900), The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ (1906), The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1895), All Quiet on the Western Front (silent version) (1930), Sitting Bull at the Spirit Lake Massacre (1927), Sing Me the Songs that Say I Love You (2011). Otsune reasons that Kihachi doesn't want Shinkichi to become a traveling actor like him. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. The women especially are racked with pain from their vulnerable positions and the sadness is palpable and heartfelt and includes one of the most powerful scenes in the history of film. (The names for some reason are slightly different in the two works; those below are from the later film.). The leader Komazaburo has taken the troupe to a tiny town with scant prospect of success, a decision that has his actors baffled. His white-garbed travels end at a local watering hole run by Otsune (Chouko Iida), who greats him enthusiastically; she offers him a drink as soon as he enters. In 1959, Yasujiro Ozu remade his 1934 silent classic A Story of Floating Weeds in color with the celebrated cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa (Rashomon, Ugetsu). Komajuro confronts Kayo, who tells him of Sumiko's setup, but only after asserting she now loves Kiyoshi and is not doing it for money. Directed by Yasujirô Ozu. Otoki, perhaps seeing her own future, asks Kihachi to take her with him. As audiences decline, problems pile up: the manager of the troupe abandons them, and a principal supporting player absconds with the remaining funds. When they rendezvous that night, she appears beneath a tree shaped liked a ‘V’. When the troupe's performance tour is postponed by the constant downpour around the region, one of the members of the troupe unwittingly reveals a secret: that Kihachi is seeing a woman every day. His mother, oblivious to the fragility of their situation, reveals the truth to him. Kihachi’s conflicts resolve themselves soon after. Akagi. The gap is even more pronounced in the women. He declines, charging her instead with making Shinkichi a good man. It’s Kihachi’s story that brings the weight. Shinkichi and Otoki return, but Shinkichi and Kihachi get into a violent quarrel when Kihachi hits Otoki repeatedly. A Story of Floating Weeds (浮草物語, Ukikusa monogatari) is a 1934 silent film directed by Yasujirō Ozu which he later remade as Floating Weeds in 1959 in color. Ozu Floating Weeds Sakamoto Iida Mitsui Yagumo Tsubouchi Criterion. A Story of Floating Weeds (浮草物語, Ukikusa monogatari) is a 1934 silent film directed by Yasujirō Ozu which he later remade as Floating Weeds in 1959 in color. When Sumiko, the lead actress of the troupe and Komajuro's present girlfriend, learns that Komajuro is visiting his former mistress, she becomes jealous and makes a visit to Oyoshi's eatery, where Kiyoshi and Komajuro are playing a game of go. Otoki doesn’t expect to fall in love, but she does. “Life is like a lottery,” she explains. Kiyoshi later has a change of heart and goes downstairs to look for Komajuro, but his father has already left, and Oyoshi tells Kiyoshi to let him go. His son, now a student, does not know that Kihachi is his father, thinking him an uncle. (The later film was uniquely made for Daiei rather than Shochiku due to a contractual obligation, so maybe he felt freer to experiment, using his decades-old silent work as a basis.) He then gradually mastered the domestic drama during the war years and afterward, employing both physical humor, as in Good Morning, and distilled drama, as in Late Spring, Early Summer, and Floating Weeds. Setting his later version in a seaside location, Ozu otherwise preserves the details of his elegantly simple plot wherein an aging actor returns to a small town with his troupe and reunites with his former lover and illegitimate son, a scenario that enrages his current mistress and results in heartbreak for all. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. The hallmarks of Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu’s mature style were solidified in this highlight from his silent period, playing this week in Washington, D.C. Neil LaBute, director of In the Company of Men, Your Friends and Neighbors, and Nurse Betty, has contributed supplemental interviews to two Criterion DVD editions: Mike Leigh’s Naked and Eric Rohmer’s Love in the Afternoon, the latter available i. Yasujiro Ozu has often been called the “most Japanese” of Japan’s great directors. Floating Weeds is widely acclaimed by film critics. The film includes the first appearance of what became one of the director's trademarks: a title sequence in which the credits appear against a sackcloth backdrop. This plant, the ukigusa (duckweed in English), floating aimlessly, carried by stronger currents, is seen as emblemati. Komajuro invites Kiyoshi to go fishing by the sea. Together, the films offer a unique glimpse into the evolution of one of cinema's greatest directors. “It isn’t good to be alone all the time,” she warns him, as though that had been his problem, rather than hers. A Story of Floating Weeds was released on Region 1 DVD on The Criterion Collection on April 20, 2004 as a two-disc set with Floating Weeds. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Audiences may balk at the male/female hierarchy implicit in the film and especially Komazaburo’s impulsive violence against his mistress and the young actress (even I was uncomfortable with that), but its willingness to show the unpleasantries underlines the humanity in all characters. With his singular and unwavering style, Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu disregarded the established rules of cinema and created a visual language all his own. The silent version’s Iida Choko is heartrending when her lover, heading to a new beginning, leaves her utterly alone. Oyoshi persuades him to tell Kiyoshi the truth about his parenthood and then stay together with them at her place as a family. The silent version was unquestionably more moving than its later counterpart. Otaka reveals nothing during the confrontation (she even hides the truth from Otoki), but Kihachi is livid. He leaves her with the weeping Otsune and is gone. Kiyoshi first responds that he had suspected it all along, but then refuses to accept Komajuro as his father, saying he has coped well without one so far, and goes to his room upstairs. The troupe is first observed performing a scene from a play about Chuji Kunisada, a 19th-century historical figure who was romanticised as a forest-dwelling Robin-Hood-like hero in a number of plays, novels, and films. ( Log Out /  Kihachi then beats up Otaka, but realizes he no longer has any control over the affair. The trouble begins when Komazaburo’s current mistress Sumiko becomes suspicious of his unusually numerous visits with his “sponsor”. A Story of Floating Weeds. And if not for fear that Shinkichi would be shamed by having an actor for a father, Kihachi could have been home all the time. She decides to pay a visit to Otsune’s restaurant with her friend, fellow actress Otoki (Yoshiko Tsubouchi).