Ukigumo

This melodrama of postwar Japan seemed to resonate with the people I watched it with; many seem to have seen it when it came out and it really spoke to them; but alas it is really a turgid melodrama that can't sustain your interest. Well directed and acted; it none the less becomes a series of redundant bad break scenes for it's heroine. Worth seeing, but not one of the greats of Japanese film.

"Ukigumo" covers a considerable span of time and numerous locations. It tells the story of a young woman (Hideko Takamine) who served in Japan's forest service in Indochina during WW2, and fell in love with a (married) co-worker (Masayuki Mori) while there. After the war, she returns to Japan, completely impoverished, and finds her lover (more or less) comfortably re-established in his family and uninterested in fulfilling the idle promises he made during the war. While Mori is only willing to dally half-heartedly with her (as well as younger prettier women), Takamine remains obsessed with him. Takamine and Mori do a fine job. I found the story effective enough, albeit a bit overly melodramatic. Not my favorite Naruse film, but very much worth seeing.

If you're looking for a movie that deals with clingy relationships, then Floating Clouds is without a doubt a movie that fits the bill to a T. Directed by Naruse Mikio and based upon the novel by Fumiko Hayashi, the female character in the movie will bring back memories of those who have had to deal with such stifling clinging, and well, for those who do act as such, a stark and accurate portrayal that would be akin to holding up a mirror and looking at oneself.

Hideko Takamine put up a commendable, if not personally what I deem as a remarkably irritating performance as Yukiko Koda, a woman perhaps with little self-esteem and respect, who decided to sacrifice an entire forest for one singular tree. Being sent to Indochina during WWII, she chances upon Kengo Tomioka (Masayuki Mori), and while he seemed to be prim and proper, and not giving her a second glance, soon they fall in love with each other, one despite having a wife back home, and the other, knowingly being the other woman.

But when the war ends and they get repatriated back to Japan, she looks him up, only to discover that he will not leave his wife, nor to rekindle their passion started in a foreign land. To make things worse, she discovers he's quite the cad, and to compound the problem, her insecurities and her paranoia makes you wonder why she can't afford to sever ties. It's one thing being made to suffer from unrequited love, but it's another if you are made to suffer deliberately, and bear witness to the insincerity of the other party. Running slightly over 2 hours, it does take its time to showcase the sorry state that Yukiko undergoes.

You can't really find fault with Naruse Mikio's direction of the movie - the handling of the narrative structure in the first act was deft, with the transition of time seamless, and the actors do their job to allow you to connect with their characters. However, like I mentioned, perhaps Yukiko Koda did such a fine job, that for me I found her to be a tad too irritating, even for my liking.

This is a story about a couple who met in French Indo-China working for the Forestry Department for Japan. The story is ultimately about the time they spend once they return to Japan, which is somewhat tumultuous, as her is married. They do not spend the whole film together, at times Tomioka is with his wife and he even leaves Yukiko for another still younger woman, Osei. If this sounds like a tear-jerking soap opera, it kind of is. However, the movie is a powerful tale of love, betrayal and obsession. The beautiful Hideko Takamine (at times, I don't think she was ever more beautiful in a film) is excellent in a very challenging role, conjuring raw emotions often. At times you are torn between them even wanting to be together and I think that is what gives the film its compelling nature. If you are not fond of heavy drama, this is not your film. I feel the acting is superb (again, especially Ms. Takamine) and the story very watchable. Another great film by Mikio Naruse.

Hideko Takamine and Masayuki Mori had an affair in Indo-China during the Second World War. Now they have returned to a conquered Japan, he to his wife and she to nothing. But they still love each other, although she more than he.

The idea of a woman sacrificing herself for a man, unworthy though he be -- as all men are -- in a "He'll be sorry when I'm dead!" mood, is certainly not unique to Japanese cinema, although Western culture tends to tack on a "Reader, I married him" happy ending. Even so, I often blink and tell myself "I give them six weeks." Either that, or it's MarySue fanfiction of the bleariest sort.

In short, this strikes me as what used to be called shopgirl fiction, piffle, and unworthy of Naruse, whose narratives of downtrodden women suffering in a misogynistic Japan speak of real problems, real anguish. Yes, he gave this movie his usual attention to detail. Yes, Hideko Takamine gives one of her sterling performances, and yes, Masayuki Mori gives a performance that, like many a Naruse film, smacks less of sympathy for the downtrodden than misandry. But piffle is piffle, and it's only by remembering that film is first and foremost commercial art, that this makes sense; it's a shopgirl movie from a novel by Fumiko Hayashi (1903-1951).

She was born the daughter of a poor peddler -- somehow "poor" is always attached to the noun, as if we think of guys who have to tramp hither and yon to sell their cheap wares, as eccentric millionaires. She tried to commit suicide on several occasions. By the end of the Second World War, she was Japan's top novelist; government-sponsored trips to China in which she reported that things were great kept her in the public eye. This was the fifth novel of hers that Naruse had made into a movie, and those are also highly regarded. I like the ones I've seen a lot, particularly MESHED.

This one, however, is shopgirl piffle, even though it is shopgirl piffle of the highest order.