Floating Weeds
| Floating Weeds | |
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Criterion Cover to Floating Weeds (1959)
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| Directed by | Yasujirō Ozu |
| Produced by | Masaichi Nagata |
| Written by |
Kogo Noda Yasujirō Ozu |
| Starring |
Ganjirō Nakamura Machiko Kyō Ayako Wakao Hiroshi Kawaguchi Haruko Sugimura |
| Cinematography | Kazuo Miyagawa |
| Distributed by | Daiei Film |
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Release date
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Running time
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119 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Floating Weeds ( Ukigusa?) is a 1959 Japanese drama film directed by Yasujirō Ozu, starring Ganjirō Nakamura and Machiko Kyō. It is a remake of Ozu's own black-and-white silent film A Story of Floating Weeds (1934).
The film takes place during a hot summer in 1958 at a seaside town on the Inland Sea. A troupe of travelling theatre arrives by ship, headed by the troupe's lead actor and owner, Komajuro (Ganjirō Nakamura). The rest of the troupe goes around the town to publicise their kabuki performances.
Komajuro visits his former mistress, Oyoshi, who runs a small eatery in the town. They have a grown-up son Kiyoshi, who now works at the post office as a mail clerk and is saving up to go to the university. However, he does not know who Komajuro is, thinking he is his uncle. Komajuro invites Kiyoshi to go fishing in the sea.
When Sumiko, the lead actress of the troupe and Komajuro's current mistress, 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. Komajuro chases her away before she can say anything destructive, then confronts her in the pouring rain. He tells her to back off from his son, and decides to break up with her. Sumiko calls Komajuro an ingrate, and cites examples when she has helped him out in the past.
Backstage one day, Sumiko offers Kayo, a pretty young actress from the same troupe, some money and asks her to seduce Kiyoshi. Although Kayo at first refuses, she gives in after Sumiko's insistence. She goes to Kiyoshi's post office to make him fall for her. However, after knowing Kiyoshi for some time, she falls for him and decides to tell Kiyoshi the truth. Kiyoshi says it does not matter how it all starts. The two then engage in a relationship which only later is found out by Komajuro.
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