Nuages flottants

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.

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.

Ot the three senior directors who dominated the golden age of Japanese cinema, Mikio Naruse is the least known in the West. This could be partly due to the fact that unlike his contemporaries, Mizoguchi and Ozu, his cinematic language was more conventional and less innovative. And yet, if one looks long and hard, it becomes possible to identify stylistic trademarks that could be uniquely his, characters that are forever walking and interiors that are often shot from the centre of a room looking towards a corner. The very title is a metaphor for characters that are drifting their lives away with very little sense of purpose. The tragic couple, Yukiko and Kengo, who met in French Indo-China during the second world war when they were engaged on a forestry project find themselves drifting when they meet up again in a post-war Japan soured with defeat and despair. Generally when we see them they are walking, often through urban landscapes of a Tokyo desolate and scarred by the immediate past. They are always on the move in the manner almost of characters in a road movie to wherever they can travel, be it to a sad holiday resort out of season or a remote island drenched by rain that hardly ever stops. But their relationship is doomed partly because whatever passion they may feel for one another is always curiously out of sync with each other's. Their personalities are also deeply flawed to the extent that neither is able to cope with the social disadvantages of being part of a defeated nation. It has been said that defeat left many professional Japanese men feeling emotionally emasculated. This is certainly true of Kengo. As for Yukika, she has none of the stoicism of Mizoguchi's long suffering female protagonists. Dissatisfaction with her lot has left her whingeing with self pity. ""Floating Clouds" is a deeply pessimistic film in a way that Kurosawa's "The Silent Duel", which deals with a pair of lovers living through the similar period of the immediate aftermath of war, is not. Ultimately Kurosawa's characters come to terms with misfortune in a way that presages a future of some hope. Both films no doubt reflect their directors' widely different temperaments.

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.

This at first appears to be a riveting study of human relationships, and it is entertaining. But ultimately it never gets beyond the level of a high class soaper, and it goes on far too long. Calling it a soaper is by no means pejorative; I am a dedicated fan of Douglas Sirk. But Sirk never took himself as seriously as the makers of this film appear to, and that makes it all the more ponderous. Worth seeing, however.