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DVD Stories of Floating Weeds (A Story of Floating Weeds (1934) / Floating Weeds (1959)) - Criterion Collection
Providing a unique opportunity for the appreciation of Yasujiro Ozu's signature style, Criterion's definitive double-feature of A Story of Floating Weeds (1934) and Floating Weeds (1959) demonstrates the evolution of a master. Drawing inspiration from the now-obscure 1928 American carnival-troupe drama The Barker, Ozu first made A Story of Floating Weeds as a silent film (despite the advent of sound by that time), and Criterion's DVD features a sublime, newly recorded original score that sounds and feels like it's been part of the film all along. The film itself concerns a traveling Kabuki troupe faced with dramatic revelations as they perform in a rural village: Their master has had a son from a former lover whom he is visiting for the first time in a dozen years. Unaware of his parentage, the now-grown son thinks the visitor is his rarely seen uncle, and the master's mistress, upon discovering her lover's secret family, plots to undermine their relationship by urging a young actress to seduce the son, knowing that this would enrage the master's discreet familial pride. By story's end, all of these central relationships will undergo deep and resonant change.
Ozu was justifiably proud of this meticulous character study, in which his celebrated low-angle style began to assert itself. A quarter-century later, he remade the film as Floating Weeds, retaining the same story and characters, switching the setting to a seaside town, and demonstrating a more casual acceptance of human foibles that makes the 1959 version (Ozu's first film in color) relatively calm and compassionate when contrasted with the more turbulent tone of the '34 silent. Having grown as an artist, Ozu was at his stylistic peak here, having refined his style to the point where all camera movement had given way to flawless refinement of static compositions. These and other comparisons abound in the study of original and remake; to that end, commentaries by preeminent Japanese film expert and dialogue translator Donald Richie (on the '34 film) and film critic Roger Ebert (on Floating Weeds) provide astutely thorough appreciations of the parallel structures, stylistic evolution, and cultural specifics of films that, until the early 1970's, were considered "too Japanese" for an international audience. Never dry or pretentious, their scholarly analyses lend solid, sensitive context to the enjoyment of two of Ozu's most critically and commercially successful films. --Jeff Shannon
Review(s): DVD Stories of Floating Weeds (A Story of Floating Weeds (1934) / Floating Weeds (1959)) - Criterion Collection
Same Story, Two Movies and Ozu's Mastery in Both
What a treat to see two masterworks from director Yasujiro Ozu, both telling the same story but separated by 25 years of filmmaking experience. Both are accomplished but in subtly different ways that allow one to appreciate the prodigious skill behind 1934's "A Story of Floating Weeds" and then a master's fully realized artistry in 1959's extended color remake, "Floating Weeds". The story in both films focuses on an over-the-hill Kabuki actor who brings his troupe to a small town for hopefully a successful run at the local theater. His name is Kihachi in the first movie and Komajuro in the second. It turns out they have landed in the town where his former wife lives, raising their now grown son by herself. The young man believes the actor to be his uncle, and as a family unit, they all bond much to the consternation of his mistress, the leading actress of the troupe. After a fiery confrontation with the actor in a torrential downpour, she exacts revenge by hiring a younger actress to seduce the son. Even though the young couple falls in love, the damage has been done and the actor's dream of his son's future success shattered in a fit of familial rage that leads toward a bittersweet ending.
As he proves with classics such as "Tokyo Story" and "Early Summer", Ozu makes the most seemingly mundane events seem powerfully defining, and conversely, he enhances dramatic events by insinuating rather than highlighting them. The director minimizes the inherent melodrama by cutting to the core of human emotions. The 1934 silent version has an almost Murnau-like lyricism and often beatific imagery made all the more impressive by Ozu's immaculate sense of composition. Even at this early stage, he almost never moves the camera and has the camera positioned at eye level as if one was sitting on a tatami mat, the same technique he would use throughout his career. What results is a very Japanese aesthetic applied to a story with universal themes. The optional piano accompaniment, composed just for the Criterion release, enhances the drama, though it feels somewhat anachronistic given the Schumann-like, European-sounding rolling interludes. The 1959 remake is Ozu's first color film and incredibly vibrant thanks to the expert cinematography of Kazuo Miyagawa, who did similar duties on Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" and Kenji Mizoguchi's "Ugetsu". The newer movie is also 33 minutes longer than the 1934 version, which allows Ozu to take his time in building the story and introduce subsidiary characters to give a stronger sense of setting. In comparison, the earlier film feels more emotionally resonant, perhaps because the lack of dialogue makes the actors more expressionistic, but the 1959 version feels more complete in its portrayal of the story, even including some welcome comedy bits. The distinction makes the identical endings yield different emotions in me: sadder with the earlier version and somehow more accepting with the later film.
The acting is superbly understated in both films. In the central role of the theatrical artisan, Takeshi Sakamoto plays Kihachi more sympathetically than the older, more aggressive-looking Ganjiro Nakamura does in the later version as Komajuro. As the dejected mistress, Rieko Yagumo plays Otaka in the 1934 version in an almost Kabuki-like manner with a sinister edge, whereas the legendary Machiko Kyô ("Rashomon") portrays the renamed Sumiko with a sharper fury and more open resignation at the end. Both films contain the classic Ozu scene where the two characters yell vindictively at each other in a rainstorm as they stand under opposing eaves. The wife, Otsune in 1934 and Oyoshi in 1959, is portrayed more emotionally by Chuoko Iida in 1934 and on the stoic side by Haruko Sugimura in 1959 (she was the needy mother in 1951's "Early Summer" and the nasty daughter in 1953's "Tokyo Story"). The same contrast is evident with the son, portrayed more openly by Hideo Mitsui in 1934 (who returned for the 1959 version as a lecherous actor) and with rebellious surliness by Hiroshi Kawaguchi in the later version. Ozu regular Chishu Ryu shows up in a cameo as the theater owner in the 1959 film.
Criterion has done another excellent job in repackaging these films and the transfers are superlative. Commentary tracks are provided with both movies, a very informative one by film historian Donald Richie on the 1934 version and a more effusive one by Roger Ebert for the 1959 version. There is a trailer included with the later film. Viewing both movies is mandatory for any Ozu aficionado, as his subtle mastery is fascinating to see at both junctures in his career, made all the more intriguing by his unwavering aesthetic.
A wonderful Movie and A Great DVD
I have only really discovered Ozu in the three years or so and in my mid-- life it is like entering a bright new world. I have recently watched Floating Weeds for the second time (having ordered it on video). The first time I thought it an unusual film- though not one of his best. I have now completely revised this opinion and consider it a supreme masterpiece. Ozu astonishes with a quiet directness I find moving , completely absorbing and exhilarating to watch. I realize the theatre troup which comes into the town, contstructs its little Kabuki world and then fades into nothing is a perfect vehicle and symbol for what Ozu is consistently portraying in all his little plays: the transient , troubling beauty of the world . The transient troubling little dramas of human relationships. The imagery in all Ozu's films(but somehow epsecially this one) make me see images as I did in childhood : a turned corner on a side street, a scene of a harbor at dusk, a slightly surprised look on the face of middle-aged woman. Many of these movies were filmed when I was a child but I believe there is more than a kind odd 1950's familiarity. There is a kind of direct , unfettered appeal to sensations it is almost difficult to name. Something immediately
innocent and guileless in ourselves. Something always,already seeing and awake. The more I watch Ozu the more I see this and nowhere more than in this film. I kept chuckling at little, scene after little scene. Tiny little nuanced moments I kept rewinding to see if I'd really seen . Anyone who hasn't seen this film: Don't just watch it once.
Bright News From The Dark Valley (Part 2).
Why do I think Ozu is the greatest director who ever lived? Because more than any other director his style and thematic concerns represent a full-stop in the evolution of cinema. Ozu recognises It's All Been Said Before; his films are a kind of End of History moment, where he acknowledges that the only enduring ceremonies and conflicts will take place within the family -and therefore his films take place within that horribly overused milieu of the "domestic drama". There will be no politics beyond the personal, no heartache beyond the mundane, and no change beyond the temporary. To resist is useless. It is this Zen acceptance which means that people will be watching his films for as long as they are watching films at all.
This DVD represents the perfect introduction to Ozu's work. Criterion produce the goods again with excellent restorations of his 1934 film and its 1959 colour remake. The DVD release is excellent value, and gives an insight into how Ozu's technique hardly changed over the space of a quarter of a century. The 1934 film was a marked change from his previous film, "Women On the Firing Line", which was a gangster film made using more conventional snappy editing techniques; but after this, his style solidified around his favourite themes of marriage, the family, and the sad repetitive mundanity of life.
Related DVD's Stories of Floating Weeds (A Story of Floating Weeds (1934) / Floating Weeds (1959)) - Criterion Collection
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