Reviews of A Story of Floating Weeds
Displaying all 3 reviews
CriterionRefs
8Mar09
I posted my thoughts on this film to my blog: http://criterionreflections.blogspot.com/2009/03/story-of-floating-weeds-1934-232.html
A quote: The “floating weeds” referred to in the title serve as a metaphor, apparently familiar enough in Japan, referring to people whose lives drift aimlessly through the currents of time and circumstance. I think it’s important to point out that Ozu shows little interest in moralizing or “fixing problems” in his films. He’s much more interested in depicting the subtle tensions that shape and underlie realistic human relationships, and our all-too-frequent inability to resolve them to our or anyone else’s satisfaction. And I think what makes his cinema so refreshing and engaging, once one makes the needed adjustments to get into it, is his willingness to depict his characters in the ordinariness of their lives. Of course, for us living in 21st century USA (or anywhere else in the world, for that matter) we also get a fascinating glimpse in to the world of 1930s Japan. The interior shots give us an idea of the rustic simplicity these people lived in, and the outdoor scenes possess a beautiful luminosity that I greatly enjoyed. I think I have a lot of stereotypes to unlearn about that era and I’m really glad to have this record
dope fiend willy
19Feb09
spoilers:
(1934) A Story of Floating Weeds
Well, let me start by saying that I don’t believe that Ozu ever understood cinema, but he did understand emotion and how to tell a story. This is not to insult his pictures, or to say that he wasn’t a good filmmaker; but that he somehow made great films that exhibit hardly any of the physical qualities that great films exhibit. You can’t judge his films with the same criteria that you would judge most other films. I think the biggest mark against Ozu is his refusal or inability to change or adapt to new ways of making films. He began making films the same year that Metropolis, The Passion of Joan of Arc, The End of St. Petersberg, and Abel Gance’s Napoleon debuted, yet he took away seemingly nothing from them.
A Story of Floating Weeds is the earliest film by Ozu that I have seen,[when I wrote this review, in March of 2007] and if his other silents are like this, than I can say that he was a man ahead of his time, in that this is really a talkie without sound. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen such a dialogue heavy silent picture before, and when judging this as a silent film I must consider that a flaw, but as I have said, I haven’t seen his earlier silents, so I don’t know if this is how he has always done it, or if he just has been influece by the talkies that other directors around the world had been making since 1929…yeah, Ozu really didn’t like change did he?
Aside from the fact that this is a talkie without sound, this is quite a good film, and all of the traits that Ozu would exhibit in his films until his death are to be found in this picture. If it had sound it would really be hard to guess when the movie was made, given that it is so stylisticly similar to all of the other films that Ozu would ever make.
In the end this is a good film, though I am anxious to see the 1954 version that has the benifit of sound, and even color! A side note, which has nothing to do with Ozu’s work, but I really disliked the piano accompaniment that criterion added for its dvd. Sure, it was optional, and preferable to no sound at all, but it just seems so typical of what you expect a silent film soundtrack to sound like, and most of the music did not fit the scenes very well. The music that Ozu uses in his sound pictures are much, much better, and should have been a model for anyone trying to compose accompaniment for a slient Ozu picture.
- Currently 3.0/5 Stars.
asuraf
14Jan09
On the commentary track to Criterion’s presentation of this all time great Ozu silent, film scholar Donald Richie, always excellent for Criterion, points out the ways in which this seemingly simple film posits Ozu between his early comedies and the devastating family dramas of the ’40’s and ’50’s, starting with a burlap background during the titles, and going on to explore the dissolution of the Japanese family unit through suggestions, quiet emotions, and a perfectly constructed mise-en-scene. Takeshi Sakamoto reprises his role from “Passing Fancy” as Kihachi, the wandering hero of the proletariat, who this time is coming back to his hometown as the director of a struggling Kabuki troupe, finding comfort in an old mistress and an estranged son, who calls him “uncle” and shares an achingly beautiful fishing trip with the man, before a jealous mistress ruins the party by interfering with gossip and nasty schemes. It’s a testament to the ever burgeoning brilliance of Ozu’s mastery of construction and storytelling that, even though the film is silent, the design, staging, camera-work, and effectively dramatic emotions are hardly different twenty five years later in his famed color remake, “Floating Weeds”, and as Richie points out, it’s a mature style for a filmmaker whose characters progressed through the years, from militarization, war, devastation, and economic recovery, as the director got older, wiser, and wealthier, from tenement dwelling peasants, to upper-middle class executives, but whose lives, families, and emotional difficulties seemingly stayed the same.
- Currently 5.0/5 Stars.