A Story of Floating Weeds
(1934)
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A Story of Floating Weeds
(1934)
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| Credited cast: | |||
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Takeshi Sakamoto | ... |
Kihachi
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Chôko Iida | ... |
Otsune, Ka-yan
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Kôji Mitsui | ... |
Shinkichi
(as Hideo Mitsui)
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Rieko Yagumo | ... |
Otaka
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Yoshiko Tsubouchi | ... |
Otoki
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Tomio Aoki | ... |
Tomi-boh
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Reikô Tani | ... |
Tomibo's father
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| Rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
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Kiyoshi Aono | ... |
Sword trainer
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Mariko Aoyama | ... |
Barber's landlady
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Mitsumura Ikebe | ... |
Villager
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Seiji Nishimura | ... |
Kichi, an actor
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Mitsuru Wakamiya | ... |
Station attendant
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Emiko Yagumo |
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Nagamasa Yamada | ... |
Maako, an actor
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Munenobu Yui |
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A troupe of actors comes to town, short on funds and bedeviled by bad weather, so they can't put on shows. Kihachi is the troupe's leader. He steals off every day to visit Otsune (an ex-lover) and their son, Shinkichi, who believes his father is a long-dead civil servant. Kihachi has been paying Shinkichi's tuition, and he's now at university. Kihachi's lover, Otaka, the troupe's lead actress, learns Kihachi's secret and plots to ruin Shinkichi and humiliate Kihachi: she offers money to Otoki, the troupe's ingénue, to seduce Shinkichi. Soon the boy is head over heels, and Otoki finds herself with feelings for him. Can this end well or is tragedy at hand? Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>
Remakably similar in structure yet different in tonal effect to Ozu's more famous 1959 remake, this story of a travelling troupe's last days in a seaside village was one of Ozu's first forays into a quiet, rural background, though it still feels brisk compared to the more staid and sumptuous remake. The depictions of stage life are more slapstick-oriented than in the remake (most notably in Tokkan Kozo's hilarious turn in a full-sized dog costume), but are counterbalanced by sensitive portrayals of all the characters, especially the great, dignified lead performance by Takeshi Sakamoto. The romantic interludes are as powerful as in the remake, though without employing the overt sensuality of on-screen kissing; instead there appears to be the use of a filter or gauze to give the scenes between the young couple an otherworldly effect, which gives more emphasis of the idea of the actress employed to seduce the troupe leader's son enacting a "performance", an idea that I would have like to have seen developed even further. Even so, this is a marvellous work with a set of wonders distinguishable from that of the remake.