Floating Weeds

Directed by
 Budget

Floating Weeds  (浮 草( うきくさ),   *Ukikusa*?, Lit. Floating Grass) is a 1959 daiei drama film Directed by Yasujiro Ozu It is a remake of Ozu's original 1934 black-and-white silent film *A Story of Floating Weeds*.

## Plot

A small port town on the southwestern tip of the Shima Peninsula. Arashi Komajuro Ichiza took over the Aioza there for the first time in years. A total of 15 people, including the chairman Komajuro, Sumiko, Kayo, and Yoshinosuke, have traveled around the Chita Peninsula. Everyone in the troupe knew the relationship between Komajuro and Sumiko. However, Oyoshi, who had a child when Komajuro was in his thirties, moved to this land and was waiting for Komajuro. The child, Kiyoshi, worked at the post office. Oyoshi told Kiyoshi that Komajuro was his uncle. Komajuro went fishing against Kiyoshi and played shogi. Sumiko noticed. I tried to tempt Kiyo to seduce my sister Kayo and at least make her angry. Qing was in his hands. Eventually, the relationship between Kayo and Kiyo had become something that Kayo couldn't miss. Komajuro had no choice but to disband the troupe due to the lack of customers and Yoshinosuke's kidnapping of the troupe's money. After selling the costumes and letting go of the props and getting a little money, Komajuro handed it over to everyone's feet, parted from the troupe, and went to the Oyoshi store. I had the feeling that I would give up on the long-standing actor business and live steadily with Oyoshi and Kiyoshi in this land. Things have changed. It is said that Kiyo was invited by Kayo to leave the house and never come back at night. At the cheap hotel in front of the station, Kayo and Kiyo spent the night and returned to Oyoshi's shop to get their friendship. Komajuro hit Kayo. Kiyoshi protected Kayo and pushed Komajuro. Oyoshi told Kiyoshi about his relationship with Komajuro. Qing ran upstairs. After seeing this, Komajuro decided to go on a journey again. In the waiting room of the station where I was dandruff at night, there was Sumiko who was left behind. Sumiko silently stood beside Komajuro. After all, it seems that they were two people who couldn't leave.

## Cast

* Juro Arashikoma: Kojiro Nakamura
* Sumiko: Machiko Kyo
* Kiyoshi Homma: Hiroshi Kawaguchi
* Kayo: Ayako Wakao
* Kiyoshi's mother Oyoshi: Haruko Sugimura
* Aiko Ogawaken: Hitomi Nozoe
* Husband of Aioza: Chishu Ryu
* Yoshinosuke: Koji Mitsui ( Shochiku )
* Yatazo: Haruo Tanaka
* Sugiyama: Yosuke Irie
* Kimura: Hikaru Hoshi
* Sentaro: Mantaro Ushio
* Seated: Kumeko Urabe
* Aiko's mother: Toyo Takahashi
* Umeka Family's Katsuko: Mutsuko Sakura (Shochiku)
* Yae of the Umeka family: Natsuko Kahara
* Masao Son of the Fan: Masahiko Shimazu (Gekidan Wakakusa)
* Old tool shop: Sugawara Tsusai
* Rokusaburo: Tatsuo Hanabu
* Folding fan: Tadashi Date
* Kamenosuke: Tsutomu Nakata
* Sailor: Hachiro Misumi
* Shokichi: Taro Marui
* Old man's guest: Saburo Sakai
* Landing staff: Koh Sugita
* Guest of Ogawaken: Nobuo Minamikata
* Postal worker: Kyosuke Shiho
* Relatives of Ume no Ie: Tadashi Sasaki
* Joe Ohara
* Aiko's father: Kenichi Miyajima
* Kisao Tobita
* Hut man Tokuzo: Osamu Maruyama
* Chotaro: Yoshiaki Fujimura

## Staff

* Director: Yasujiro Ozu
* Production: Masaichi Nagata
* Planning: Hideo Matsuyama
* Screenplay: Kogo Noda , Yasujiro Ozu
* Photo: Kazuo Miyagawa
* Art: Tomoo Shimokawara
* Music: Takanobu Saito
* Recording: Takeo Suda
* Lighting: Yukio Ito
* Color technology: Shozo Tanaka
* Equipment: Tokujiro Harashima
* Decoration: Iwami Iwao
* Makeup: Takashi Makino
* Dance choreography: Toshiyuki Hanayagi
* Stage guidance: Kichijiro Ueda
* Assistant Director: Nobuya Nakamura
* Edit: Toyo Suzuki
* Production chief: Keno Matsumoto
* Development: Tokyo Laboratory (Agfa Color)

## Titles

* Floating Grass (Japanese: 浮草 Original Japanese release tilte)
* Floating Weeds (Worldwide release title)
* Ukikusa (Worldwide title)

## Data

* Produced by: Daiei Tokyo Studios
* Format: Color / Standard size (1.37: 1) / Monaural
## Overview

1934 to Shochiku "was produced in the Kamata studio duckweed story works its own director was remake". Agfa 's color images taken by Kazuo Miyagawa emphasize the emotions of the world of a lone traveler. This film is also the only film filmed in location in Ozu's second home, Mie Prefecture . Mie Prefecture Shima District Hamajima , Great-cho , Ago-cho , Tokyo Akiruno of Musashi itsukaichi station , Kanagawa Prefecture Chigasaki City has been captured by a Chigasaki coast of.

In "A Story of Floating Grass", Hideo Mitsui (later Koji Mitsui ) appeared in the role of "Nobuyoshi" (the role equivalent to Qing in this work ). Only Mitsui appeared in both works  . In addition, Chishu Ryu also appears in "A Story of Floating Grass" as a guest of the playhouse (a man who calls out "Takashimaya!"), But it is non-credit .

This work was supposed to be shot in Shochiku as "Radish Actor" in 1958, and the main cast was planned to be Eitaro Shindo , Chikage Awashima , Ineko Arima , Isuzu Yamada . I finished location scouting in Sado and Niigata, but I gave up shooting because there was little snow this year. The following year , in 1959, in return for borrowing Daiei actress Fujiko Yamamoto for the production of " Equinox Flower " (1958) the previous year, it was decided to shoot in Daiei.

## Production

*Floating Weeds*, Ozu's only film for Daiei, was produced at the studio's urging after he completed *Good Morning*, which had fulfilled the director's contractual obligation to complete one film per year for Shochiku. Ozu first planned to remake *A Story of Floating Weeds* for Shochiku, and the title was intended to be *A Ham Actor* (大根役者 '**daikon yakusha'**, "radish actor"); the stars (most of whom were attached to Shochiku) were to include Eitarō Shindō and Chikage Awashima as the primary leads, Masami Taura and Ineko Arima as the youth leads, and Isuzu Yamada as the former mistress. Filming had been delayed in 1958 due to an unexpectedly mild winter in the Niigata region, where Ozu had hoped to film a snowy location; when the Daiei opportunity arose, he followed through on his plan to move filming to a summer setting in seaside Wakayama. The actors were replaced mostly with Daiei contract players, and the title was changed in deference to Ganjirō Nakamura, the respected kabuki theater star who played the lead. (When Kiyoshi charges Komajūrō with hamming it up, the actor asserts that it's the style of acting that his public pays to see.)

In a bit of stunt casting, Ozu did secure Kōji Mitsui from Shochiku for his seventh and final role for the director, as the character who drives the subplot about the amorous escapades of the supporting players; as Hideo Mitsui, the actor had portrayed the protagonist's son in the 1934 version.

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. In the scene shown, Kunisada (played by Sumiko) is taking his leave of his faithful companions, Gantetsu and Jōhachi, on Mt. Akagi. Wild geese flying south for the winter and crows returning to their nests are used as images of parting. Ozu includes a small joke in the staging of the scene to confirm that this is not a very polished troupe of actors. When Gantetsu delivers the line, "The wild geese are calling as they fly towards the southern skies," he points off-stage into the auditorium. So when Sumiko, as Chuji, turns stage left to deliver the line "And the moon is descending behind the western mountains," she is actually facing east.

Despite Ganjirō Nakamura's fame as a noted star of kabuki theater, he is shown applying full makeup but not actually filmed onstage, though he is heard off-screen as the audience watches him perform and players backstage lament the show's poor attendance.

## Reception

*Floating Weeds* is widely acclaimed by film critics. Roger Ebert gave the film four stars out of four, and included it on his "Ten Greatest Films of all Time" in 1991. Alan Bett of *The Skinny* gave the film a full five stars. Tom Dawson of BBC gave it four stars out of five. Allan Hunter of *Daily Express* rated it 4/5, while Stuart Henderson of PopMatters gave it a 9/10. The film currently holds a 95% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the critics consensus stating that: "Floating Weeds boasts the visual beauty and deep tenderness of director Yasujiro Ozu's most memorable films -- and it's one of the few the master shot in color."

In 2002, American film director James Mangold listed *Floating Weeds* as one of the best films of all time. He said, "Ozu is the world's greatest director film geeks have never heard of. A poet, humanitarian, stylist, innovator - and a brilliant actors' director. I would recommend the film to anyone with a heart who knows direction is about more than camera moves." In 2012, Spanish film director José Luis Guerín, as well as two other directors, listed the film as one of the greatest ever made.