A Story of Floating Weeds

One of Yasujiro Ozu's final silent films, A Story of Floating Weeds (1934) opens with the arrival of an itinerate theatrical troupe to a small mountain village. Though troupe leader Kihachi (Takeshi Sakamoto) has no home to speak of, it is nonetheless a homecoming of sorts. He left a lover behind many years ago, Otsune (Choko Iida), and she raised their child, Shinkichi (Koji Mitsui), now a young man who believes his father is dead and that Kihachi is simply an eccentric, fun-loving uncle. It was a casual affair -- and indeed, Kihachi is nothing if not casual in all areas of his life -- but while he's no father to the boy, he does feel a responsibility and a great affection for him. He and Otsune agree to keep his true identity from the boy to protect him: "He wouldn't want a no-good father like me," shrugs Kihachi, who wishes something better for the boy than a life as a travelling actor. But when his current mistress, the company's leading lady Otaka (Rieko Yagumo), discovers his secret, she devises a revenge that involves his son and a young actress (Yoshiko Tsubouchi) in the company. Based on (or inspired by) The Barker (1928), a romantic melodrama from director George Fitzmaurice set in the carnival culture, Ozu reworks the story (which is credited to James Maki, a name he often used for writing credits) to make the material his own. He plays down the melodramatic aspects of the plot to focus on the emotional lives of the characters involved in the story, which is explored in mostly understated scenes. An especially lovely, understated sequence of Kihachi and Shinkichi fishing side by side in a river, casting their poles in unison and watching the lines drift downstream, was reused by Ozu in There Was a Father (1942) to even more profound effect. Ozu casts members of his stock company for the leading roles and they bring a lived-in quality to the characters and their relationships, in particular Takeshi Sakamoto, who made dozens of films with Ozu, most of them in the silent era; Ozu held out longer than most directors, finally turning to sound in 1936. This was the second of what Ozu called his "Kihachi" films, named after a recurring ne'er do well character type first played by Sakamoto in Ozu's 1933 Passing Fancy. He played similar characters, also named Kihachi, in An Innocent Maid (1935) and An Inn in Tokyo (1935), but while Ozu shifted his focus from hapless, unreliable, lovable losers to the responsibilities of family life, the figure of the lonely, sacrificing father recur throughout Ozu's career. Comic relief is provided by the young son of a company player, played by Tomio Aoki, another Ozu regular best known as the sly elder son in I Was Born, But... (1932). He's relegated to the fringes of this story, a distracted, unfocused boy in the company of adults and a would-be apprentice shoved into a dog costume and sent on stage, where he clearly hasn't the focus (or even the inclination) to stay in character. Ozu had made dozens of films before A Story of Floating Weeds but with this film we see him developing the unique, restrained, mature style of his sound films. While he still periodically moves the camera in slow, graceful tracking shots (something he ended completely in later films), most of the film is photographed from a static camera located low to the ground, as if seen from an observer seated cross-legged on a tatami mat. The pace is slow, almost languid, matching the pace of life for the company in their break from the bustle of the road, while the tone shifts from the lazy days of the company at rest to the despair of the company disbanding when it goes broke. This is a threadbare troupe with little talent and less reserves, but it's also a family in its own right and Ozu presents their final evening together as a melancholy farewell. Ozu remade the film twenty five years later as Floating Weeds (1959), a lovely color production that he relocated from a mountain village to an island resort town but otherwise approached with remarkable fidelity to the original. The differences are in his sensibility: Floating Weeds is the work of an older artist, more reflective and forgiving of human mistakes and weaknesses. A Story of Floating Weeds springs from a younger, more ambitious filmmaker eager to stretch beyond the comedies and light melodramas and genre films that had defined his career to date. He had infused films like Tokyo Chorus (1931) and Passing Fancy and I Was Born, But... with depths of character and reflections of life in the depression. With A Story of Floating Weeds he uses a melodramatic situation to examine the disappointments of life and the repercussions of decisions on all concerned with a mix of resignation and respect. But Ozu also offers a spirit of endurance: life does go on. We simply endure the sacrifices along the way. A Story of Floating Weeds was both a popular and critical success, winning the coveted Kinema Junpo Award for Best Film (Ozu's third in three years), and it confirmed him as one of the great talents in the Japanese film industry. Director: Yasujiro Ozu Screenplay: Tadao Ikeda, James Maki Cinematography: Hideo Shigehara Film Editing: Hideo Shigehara Cast: Takeshi Sakamoto (Kihachi), Choko Iida (Otsune, Ka-yan), Hideo Mitsui (Shinkichi), Rieko Yagumo (Otaka), Yoshiko Tsubouchi (Otoki), Tomio Aoki (Tomi-boh), Reiko Tani (Tomibo's father), Seiji Nishimura (Kichi, an actor), Emiko Yagumo, Nagamasa Yamada (Maako, an actor), Chishu Ryu (Shouting audience member, uncredited). BW-90m. by Sean Axmaker