Flowing (1956)
"Nagareru" (original title)

Otsuta is running the geisha house Tsuta in Tokyo. Her business is heavily in debt. Her daughter Katsuyo doesn't see any future in her mothers trade in the late days of Geisha. But Otsuta ... See full summary »

Director:

Mikio Naruse

Writers:

Toshirô Ide, Aya Kôda (novel),

Stars:

Kinuyo Tanaka, Isuzu Yamada, Hideko Takamine

4 wins.

Cast

Credited cast:
Kinuyo Tanaka	...	Rika Yamanaka / Oharu
Isuzu Yamada	...	Otsuta
Hideko Takamine	...	Katsuyo, Otsuta's daughter
Mariko Okada	...	Nanako
Haruko Sugimura	...	Someka
Sumiko Kurishima	...	Ohama
Chieko Nakakita	...	Yoneko, Otsuta's sister
Natsuko Kahara	...	Otoyo, Otsuta's sister
Seiji Miyaguchi	...	Namie's uncle
Daisuke Katô	...	Yoneko's ex
Nobuo Nakamura
Kumeko Otowa
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Hideko Ebata
Chiyo Izumi
Masayoshi Kawabe

Storyline

Otsuta is running the geisha house Tsuta in Tokyo. Her business is heavily in debt. Her daughter Katsuyo doesn't see any future in her mothers trade in the late days of Geisha. But Otsuta will not give up. This film portraits the day time life of geisha when not entertaining customers.

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Plot Keywords:

geisha | literature | 1950s | tokyo japan | japan | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

29 November 1985 (USA)

Also Known As:

House of Geisha

Company Credits

Production Co:

Toho Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Did You Know?

Connections

References The Life of Oharu (1952)

User Reviews

Interesting observation of a declining trade

This is a series of vaguely connected episodes set in and around a geisha house. Staff come and go. There are money transactions between everybody. Naruse knows this area to perfection and uses this knowledge and some tremendous actresses to portray both interesting day to day details and some of the major issues. Linked themes are the ending both of careers and of businesses in the context of a decline in the popularity of geishas and their traditional entertainment skills in post war Japan. Even less than in other Naruse films, there is little depiction of the geisha with clients and more about their 'off stage' lives.

As ever, Naruse's camera-work and editing is tremendous in capturing scenes and actions.