Floating Weeds
1959 ‘Ukigusa’ Directed by Yasujirō Ozu
Synopsis
A troupe of travelling players arrive at a small seaport in the south of Japan. Komajuro Arashi, the aging master of the troupe, goes to visit his old flame Oyoshi and their son Kiyoshi, even though Kiyoshi believes Komajuro is his uncle. The leading actress Sumiko is jealous and so, in order to humiliate the master, persuades the younger actress Kayo to seduce Kiyoshi.
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Popular reviews
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Ozu's mastery of visual and aural texture is even stronger here than in Tokyo Story. But the story doesn't hit me quite as strongly, maybe because I don't appreciate the more overt emotional explosions. Great stuff though.
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Yasujiro Ozu is on my list of directors that i want to see the filmography of, and it's a pretty massive list. This is only my second film I have seen by him, I know i'm terrible, but both have been fantastic so far.
This is a very beautiful film, one thing you notice very early on is the vibrant use of colours, everything looks so fantastic that you're eyes never go hungry. It paints a very beautiful portrait of Japan, which i'm beginning to think isn't that hard to do, just document the Japanese culture and it'll look amazing. It's an atmospheric and engaging journey, much more so than i anticipated, i rarely know much about a film when… -
One of the key pillars of Japanese cinema as Yasujiro's sound/color remake of his 1934 silent film is a majestic and poignant film about family, regrets, and redemption as it's told with such beauty and simplicity.
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Durante la carrera hubo un par de meses donde me metí tal empacho de películas de Ozu que ni os lo creeríais. Como son todas primas-hermanas, todavía hoy mezclo argumentos y personajes van saltando en mi recuerdo de uno a otro film. Sin embargo, Las Hierbas Flotantes sí que se mantiene diferenciada en mi memoria, en parte porque es la que más he revisitado y en parte porque creo que es la que más se aparta de los lugares comunes de la filmografía del japonés: sale del contexto urbano ambientándose en un pequeño pueblito pesquero y se acentúa el elemento de drama con una historia que, por momentos, recuerda a una novela de Kawabata, donde la aparente quietud; el aquí-no-está-pasando-nada, tiene la misma solidez de una copa de cristal a punto de estallar contra el suelo.
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Having now watched both versions of Floating Weeds (this version with colour and sound and his earlier silent version, A Story of Floating Weeds), I can understand why Ozu held out so long on adopting sound and colour in his filmmaking. It was not necessarily that he was uninterested in the shift or modernisation of the medium; it is that he recognised that for his style of filmmaking, sound and colour was not an essential component.
Ozu worked well within the constraints that bound him, so much so that, despite the use of colour and sound in this remake, there is not a dramatic uplift in the power of the film.
What I loved most about the earlier version was…
Recent reviews
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Ozu's mastery of visual and aural texture is even stronger here than in Tokyo Story. But the story doesn't hit me quite as strongly, maybe because I don't appreciate the more overt emotional explosions. Great stuff though.
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finally the film that can make me love Ozu
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One of the reasons this is a great film; its protagonist is actually an enormous asshole.
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Liked it, but not as engaging or thought provoking as some of his other films.
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One of the key pillars of Japanese cinema as Yasujiro's sound/color remake of his 1934 silent film is a majestic and poignant film about family, regrets, and redemption as it's told with such beauty and simplicity.
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Stunning. One of Ozu's finest works. Sublime acting. Great story. Beautiful use of colour. Quite possibly my favourite Ozu.
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With Roger Ebert commentary this time.
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I definitely need to start watching more Ozu films. Good stuff
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I ultimately respect this film much more than I feel close to it. I'm hardly adding anything new to the conversation by saying that Ozu is masterful at composition and that his deep focus democratizes the film. He avoids melodrama and scrapes beneath it to get at something much more genuine. Dealing with bourgeois values and aging puts me in mind of Mike Leigh, except Leigh isn't as nearly classically polished. I'm going to be chewing on this one for a while. The Ebert commentary track is outstanding as well.