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{{Short description|1955 Japanese film}}
{{About|the film|the art piece|Floating Clouds (artwork)}}
{{Infobox film
{{Infobox film
| name = Floating Clouds
| name = Floating Clouds
| image = Ukigumo poster 2.jpg
| image = Ukigumo poster 2.jpg
| caption = Japanese film poster
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = [[Mikio Naruse]]<br>[[Kihachi Okamoto]] (assistant director)
| director = [[Mikio Naruse]]
| producer = [[Sanezumi Fujimoto]]
| producer = [[Sanezumi Fujimoto]]
| based on = {{based on|''Floating Clouds'' (novel)|[[Fumiko Hayashi (author)|Fumiko Hayashi]]}}
| based_on = {{based on|''Floating Clouds''|[[Fumiko Hayashi (author)|Fumiko Hayashi]]}}
| screenplay = Yōko Mizuki
| screenplay = [[Yōko Mizuki]]
| starring = [[Hideko Takamine]]<br/>[[Masayuki Mori (actor)|Masayuki Mori]]<br/>[[Mariko Okada]]
| starring = [[Hideko Takamine]]<br />[[Masayuki Mori (actor)|Masayuki Mori]]<br />[[Mariko Okada]]
| music = [[Ichirō Saitō]]
| music = [[Ichirō Saitō]]
| cinematography = Masao Tamai
| cinematography = Masao Tamai
| editing = Hideshi Ohi
| editing = Eiji Ōi
| studio = [[Toho]]
| studio = [[Toho]]
| distributor =
| distributor = Toho
| released = {{Film date|df=y|1955|01|15|Japan|ref1=<ref name="kinenote">{{cite web|url=http://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=24371 |title=浮雲(1955) |website=Kinenote |language=ja |access-date=20 July 2023}}</ref><ref name="jmdb">{{cite web|url=http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1955/ce000290.htm |title=浮雲 |website=Japanese Movie Database |language=ja |access-date=20 July 2023}}</ref>}}
| released = {{Film date|df=y|1955|01|15|Japan}}
| runtime = 123 minutes
| runtime = 123 minutes
| country = Japan
| country = Japan
| awards =
| language = Japanese
| language = Japanese
| budget =
}}
}}
[[File:Ukigumo poster.jpg|thumb|Japanese film poster showing (from the left) [[Mariko Okada]], [[Masayuki Mori (actor)|Masayuki Mori]] and [[Hideko Takamine]].]]
[[File:Ukigumo poster.jpg|thumb|Film poster showing (from the left) [[Mariko Okada]], [[Masayuki Mori (actor)|Masayuki Mori]] and [[Hideko Takamine]].]]
{{nihongo|'''''Floating Clouds'''''|浮雲|''Ukigumo''}} is a 1955 black-and-white [[Cinema of Japan|Japanese film]] drama directed by [[Mikio Naruse]]. It is based on a novel with the same name by Japanese author and poet [[Fumiko Hayashi (author)|Fumiko Hayashi]], written just before she died in 1951. The novel is set after [[World War II]] and contains the common post-war theme of wandering; the female main character struggles to find where she belongs in post-war Japan, and ends up floating endlessly around the land.
{{nihongo|'''''Floating Clouds'''''|浮雲|Ukigumo|lead=yes}} is a 1955 Japanese [[Drama (film and television)|drama film]] directed by [[Mikio Naruse]].<ref name="kinenote" /><ref name="jmdb" /> It is based on the novel ''Ukigumo'' by Japanese writer [[Fumiko Hayashi (author)|Fumiko Hayashi]], published just before her death in 1951.{{efn|The serialisation of ''Ukigumo'' ended in August 1951, two months after Hayashi's death on 28 June.<ref>{{cite book|chapter=Preface by Lane Dunlop |title=Floating Clouds |last=Hayashi |first=Fumiko |translator-last=Dunlop |translator-first=Lane |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2006}}</ref>}} The film received numerous national awards upon its release and remains one of director Naruse's most acclaimed works.<ref name="bfi" /><ref name="mubi">{{cite web|url=https://mubi.com/lists/kinema-junpo-critics-top-200 |title=Kinema Junpo critics top 200 |website=MUBI |access-date=12 July 2023}}</ref><ref name="sens">{{cite web|url=https://www.senscritique.com/liste/top_200_kinema_junpo_2009/725030= |title=Top 200 - Kinema Junpō (2009) |website=Sens critique |language=fr |access-date=12 July 2023}}</ref>

The film is Naruse's most popular film in Japan,<ref>Freda Freiberg,speaking about the film , DVD extras, BFI VD 694/2</ref> and was in 1995 named the third best film in Japanese film history.


==Plot==
==Plot==
The film follows Yukiko Koda, a woman who has just returned to Japan from [[French Indochina]], where she has been working as a [[secretary]]. Yukiko seeks out Kengo, with whom she had an affair in [[Da Lat]] during the war. They renew their affair, but Kengo tells Yukiko he is unable to leave his wife. Brightly lit flashbacks of their time in Indochina contrast with the sombre tones of the film's present.
The film follows Yukiko, a woman who has just been expatriated from [[French Indochina]], where she has been working as a secretary for a forestry project of the Japanese wartime government. In [[Tokyo]], Yukiko seeks out Kengo, one of the engineers of the project, with whom she had an affair and who had promised to divorce his wife Kuniko for her. They renew their affair, but Kengo tells Yukiko he is unable to leave his sickly wife. She becomes the mistress of an American soldier as a means to survive in times of economic restraint. Still, Yukiko can't cut ties with Kengo, although he even starts an affair with a married younger woman, Osei. Pregnant from Kengo, Yukiko has an [[abortion]]. She later hears from Kengo that Kuniko has died from illness. Eventually, Yukiko follows Kengo to his new job on [[Yakushima]] island, where she dies of her bad health and the humid climate.


==Cast==
==Cast==
Line 32: Line 30:
* [[Hideko Takamine]] as Yukiko Koda
* [[Hideko Takamine]] as Yukiko Koda
* [[Masayuki Mori (actor)|Masayuki Mori]] as Kengo Tomioka
* [[Masayuki Mori (actor)|Masayuki Mori]] as Kengo Tomioka
* [[Mariko Okada]] as Sei Mukai
* [[Mariko Okada]] as Osei Mukai
* [[Chieko Nakakita]] as Kuniko Tomioka
* [[Chieko Nakakita]] as Kuniko Tomioka
* [[Daisuke Katō]] as Seikichi Mukai
* [[Daisuke Katō]] as Seikichi Mukai
* [[Isao Yamagata]] as Sugio Iba
* [[Isao Yamagata]] as Sugio Iba
* [[Mayuri Mokusho]] as Nomiya no musume
* Mayuri Mokushō as girl from Nomiya
* [[Noriko Sengoku]] as Yakushima no okaasen
* [[Noriko Sengoku]] as a lady of [[Yakushima]]
* [[Fuyuki Murakami]] as Futsuin no shikensho-chou
* Fuyuki Murakami as Makita
* [[Heihachiro Okawa]] as Isha
* [[Heihachiro Okawa]] as Dr. Higa
* [[Nobuo Kaneko]] as Futsuin no shoin-Suitou
* [[Nobuo Kaneko]] as Kanō
* [[Roy James (actor)|Roy James]] as American soldier
* Roy James as American soldier
* [[Akira Tani]] as Shinja
* Akira Tani as a believer
{{div col end}}
{{div col end}}


== Acclaim ==
==Reception==
Film director [[Yasujirō Ozu]] saw ''Floating Clouds'' upon its release and called it "a real masterpiece" in his journals.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/668-an-autumn-afternoon-ozu-s-diaries |title=An Autumn Afternoon: Ozu's Diaries |last=Richie |first=Donald |publisher=The Criterion Collection |date=29 September 2008 |access-date=17 February 2021}}</ref>
⚫
* 1956 – [[Blue Ribbon Awards]] for best film ([[Mikio Naruse]])
⚫
* 1956 – [[Kinema Junpo Award]] for best actor ([[Masayuki Mori (actor)|Masayuki Mori]]), for best actress ([[Hideko Takamine]]), for best director (Mikio Naruse) and for best film (Mikio Naruse)
⚫
* 1956 – [[Mainichi Film Concours]] for best actress (Hideko Takamine), for best director (Mikio Naruse), for best film (Mikio Naruse) and for best [[sound recording]] ([[Hisashi Shimonaga]])


==Awards==
[[Yasujirō Ozu]] saw ''Floating Clouds'' in 1955, and in his journals called it "a real masterpiece".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/668-an-autumn-afternoon-ozu-s-diaries |title=An Autumn Afternoon: Ozu’s Diaries |last=Richie |first=Donald |publisher=The Criterion Collection |date=September 29, 2008 |accessdate=March 20, 2016}}</ref> In 1995, film magazine ''[[Kinema Junpo]]'' named it the third best Japanese film of all time. It also received 10 votes total in the [[British Film Institute]]'s 2012 ''[[Sight & Sound]]'' critics' and directors' polls.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://explore.bfi.org.uk/sightandsoundpolls/2012/film/4ce2b6b94f5ad |title=Floating Clouds |publisher=British Film Institute |accessdate=January 25, 2016}}</ref>
⚫
* 1956: [[Blue Ribbon Awards]] for Best Film
⚫
* 1956: [[Kinema Junpo Award]] for Best Film, Best Actor (Masayuki Mori), for Best Actress (Hideko Takamine), and for Best Director (Mikio Naruse)
⚫
* 1956: [[Mainichi Film Concours]] for Best Film, for Best Actress (Hideko Takamine), for Best Director (Mikio Naruse), and for Best Sound Recording (Hisashi Shimonaga)


==Impact==
==Legacy==
''Floating Clouds'' is Naruse's most popular film in Japan.<ref name="bfi" /> It ranked number three of the best Japanese film of all time in a poll of 140 Japanese critics and filmmakers conducted by the magazine ''[[Kinema Junpo]]'' in 1999.<ref name="mubi" /><ref name="sens" /> Filmmaker [[Akira Kurosawa]] cited the film as one of his 100 favourites.<ref name="farout">{{cite web |last1=Thomas-Mason |first1=Lee |title=From Stanley Kubrick to Martin Scorsese: Akira Kurosawa once named his top 100 favourite films of all time |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/akira-kurosawa-100-favourite-films-list/ |website=Far Out Magazine |date=12 January 2021 |access-date=23 January 2023}}</ref>
⚫
Adrian Martin, editor of on-line film journal ''[[Rouge (film journal)|Rouge]]'' has remarked upon Naruse's ''cinema of walking''. [[Bertrand Tavernier]], speaking of Naruse's ''[[Sound of the Mountain]]'' described how the director minutely describes each journey and that "such comings and goings represent uncertain yet reassuring transitions: they are a way of taking stock, of defining a feeling". So in ''Floating Clouds'', the walks down streets "are journeys of the everyday, where time is measured out of footfalls, – and where even the most melodramatic blow or the most ecstatic moment of pleasure cannot truly take the characters out of the unromantic, unsentimental forward progression of their existences."


It was screened at the [[Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive]] in 1981,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://bampfa.org/event/floating-clouds-ukigumo |title=Floating Clouds (Ukigumo) |website=BAMPFA |access-date=20 July 2023}}</ref> at the [[Museum of Modern Art]] in 1985,<ref name="moma">{{cite web|url=https://www.moma.org/momaorg/shared/pdfs/docs/press_archives/6228/releases/MOMA_1985_0082_79.pdf |title=Mikio Naruse: A Master of the Japanese Cinema Opens at MoMA September 23 |website=Museum of Modern Art |access-date=20 July 2023}}</ref> and at the [[Harvard Film Archive]] in 2005<ref>{{cite web|url=https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/floating-clouds-2005-10 |title=Floating Clouds |website=Harvard Film Archive |access-date=20 July 2023}}</ref> as part of their retrospectives on Mikio Naruse, and at the [[Cinémathèque Française]] in 2012 and 2018.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/37935.html |title=Nuages flottants |website=Cinémathèque Française |language=fr |access-date=20 July 2023}}</ref>
⚫
The Australian scholar Freda Freiberg has remarked on the terrain of the film: "The frustrations and moroseness of the lovers in ''Floating Clouds'' are directly linked to and embedded in the depressed and demoralised social and economic conditions of early post-war Japan; the bombed-out cities, the shortage of food and housing, the ignominy of national defeat and foreign occupation, the economic temptation of prostitution with American military personnel."<ref>BFI Mikio Naruse, booklet with DVD BFIVD 694</ref>


== References ==
==Analysis==
⚫
Adrian Martin, editor of on-line film journal ''[[Rouge (film journal)|Rouge]]'', has remarked upon Naruse's ''cinema of walking''. [[Bertrand Tavernier]], speaking of Naruse's ''[[Sound of the Mountain]]'', described how the director minutely describes each journey and that "such comings and goings represent uncertain yet reassuring transitions: they are a way of taking stock, of defining a feeling". So in ''Floating Clouds'', the walks down streets "are journeys of the everyday, where time is measured out of footfalls, – and where even the most melodramatic blow or the most ecstatic moment of pleasure cannot truly take the characters out of the unromantic, unsentimental forward progression of their existences."{{Citation needed|date=February 2021}}
{{reflist}}

⚫
Film scholar Freda Freiberg has remarked on the terrain of the film: "The frustrations and moroseness of the lovers in ''Floating Clouds'' are directly linked to and embedded in the depressed and demoralised social and economic conditions of early post-war Japan; the bombed-out cities, the shortage of food and housing, the ignominy of national defeat and foreign occupation, the economic temptation of prostitution with American military personnel."<ref name="bfi">{{cite AV media|people=Freiberg, Freda |date=2007 |title=Mikio Naruse |medium=DVD |publisher=British Film Institute}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}


==External links==
==External links==
Line 74: Line 81:


[[Category:1955 films]]
[[Category:1955 films]]
⚫
[[Category:1955 drama films]]
[[Category:Japanese drama films]]
[[Category:Japanese black-and-white films]]
[[Category:Japanese black-and-white films]]
⚫
[[Category:Japanese films]]
[[Category:Films based on works by Fumiko Hayashi]]
[[Category:Films based on works by Fumiko Hayashi]]
[[Category:Films directed by Mikio Naruse]]
[[Category:Best Film Kinema Junpo Award winners]]
[[Category:Best Film Kinema Junpo Award winners]]
[[Category:Toho films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Mikio Naruse]]
[[Category:Films produced by Sanezumi Fujimoto]]
[[Category:Films produced by Sanezumi Fujimoto]]
[[Category:Film scores by Ichirō Saitō]]
[[Category:Films scored by Ichirō Saitō]]
[[Category:Toho films]]
[[Category:1950s Japanese films]]

Latest revision as of 05:34, 26 October 2023

This article is about the film. For the art piece, see Floating Clouds (artwork).
Floating Clouds
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMikio Naruse
Screenplay byYōko Mizuki
Based onFloating Clouds
by Fumiko Hayashi
Produced bySanezumi Fujimoto
StarringHideko Takamine
Masayuki Mori
Mariko Okada
CinematographyMasao Tamai
Edited byEiji Ōi
Music byIchirō Saitō
Production
company
Distributed byToho
Release date
  • 15 January 1955 (1955-01-15) (Japan)[1][2]
Running time
123 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese
Film poster showing (from the left) Mariko Okada, Masayuki Mori and Hideko Takamine.

Floating Clouds (Japanese: 浮雲, Hepburn: Ukigumo) is a 1955 Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse.[1][2] It is based on the novel Ukigumo by Japanese writer Fumiko Hayashi, published just before her death in 1951.[a] The film received numerous national awards upon its release and remains one of director Naruse's most acclaimed works.[4][5][6]

Plot

[edit]

The film follows Yukiko, a woman who has just been expatriated from French Indochina, where she has been working as a secretary for a forestry project of the Japanese wartime government. In Tokyo, Yukiko seeks out Kengo, one of the engineers of the project, with whom she had an affair and who had promised to divorce his wife Kuniko for her. They renew their affair, but Kengo tells Yukiko he is unable to leave his sickly wife. She becomes the mistress of an American soldier as a means to survive in times of economic restraint. Still, Yukiko can't cut ties with Kengo, although he even starts an affair with a married younger woman, Osei. Pregnant from Kengo, Yukiko has an abortion. She later hears from Kengo that Kuniko has died from illness. Eventually, Yukiko follows Kengo to his new job on Yakushima island, where she dies of her bad health and the humid climate.

Cast

[edit]

Reception

[edit]

Film director Yasujirō Ozu saw Floating Clouds upon its release and called it "a real masterpiece" in his journals.[7]

Awards

[edit]
  • 1956: Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Film
  • 1956: Kinema Junpo Award for Best Film, Best Actor (Masayuki Mori), for Best Actress (Hideko Takamine), and for Best Director (Mikio Naruse)
  • 1956: Mainichi Film Concours for Best Film, for Best Actress (Hideko Takamine), for Best Director (Mikio Naruse), and for Best Sound Recording (Hisashi Shimonaga)

Legacy

[edit]

Floating Clouds is Naruse's most popular film in Japan.[4] It ranked number three of the best Japanese film of all time in a poll of 140 Japanese critics and filmmakers conducted by the magazine Kinema Junpo in 1999.[5][6] Filmmaker Akira Kurosawa cited the film as one of his 100 favourites.[8]

It was screened at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in 1981,[9] at the Museum of Modern Art in 1985,[10] and at the Harvard Film Archive in 2005[11] as part of their retrospectives on Mikio Naruse, and at the Cinémathèque Française in 2012 and 2018.[12]

Analysis

[edit]

Adrian Martin, editor of on-line film journal Rouge, has remarked upon Naruse's cinema of walking. Bertrand Tavernier, speaking of Naruse's Sound of the Mountain, described how the director minutely describes each journey and that "such comings and goings represent uncertain yet reassuring transitions: they are a way of taking stock, of defining a feeling". So in Floating Clouds, the walks down streets "are journeys of the everyday, where time is measured out of footfalls, – and where even the most melodramatic blow or the most ecstatic moment of pleasure cannot truly take the characters out of the unromantic, unsentimental forward progression of their existences."[citation needed]

Film scholar Freda Freiberg has remarked on the terrain of the film: "The frustrations and moroseness of the lovers in Floating Clouds are directly linked to and embedded in the depressed and demoralised social and economic conditions of early post-war Japan; the bombed-out cities, the shortage of food and housing, the ignominy of national defeat and foreign occupation, the economic temptation of prostitution with American military personnel."[4]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ The serialisation of Ukigumo ended in August 1951, two months after Hayashi's death on 28 June.[3]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "浮雲(1955)". Kinenote (in Japanese). Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  2. ^ a b "浮雲". Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese). Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  3. ^ Hayashi, Fumiko (2006). "Preface by Lane Dunlop". Floating Clouds. Translated by Dunlop, Lane. Columbia University Press.
  4. ^ a b c Freiberg, Freda (2007). Mikio Naruse (DVD). British Film Institute.
  5. ^ a b "Kinema Junpo critics top 200". MUBI. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  6. ^ a b "Top 200 - Kinema Junpō (2009)". Sens critique (in French). Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  7. ^ Richie, Donald (29 September 2008). "An Autumn Afternoon: Ozu's Diaries". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  8. ^ Thomas-Mason, Lee (12 January 2021). "From Stanley Kubrick to Martin Scorsese: Akira Kurosawa once named his top 100 favourite films of all time". Far Out Magazine. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
  9. ^ "Floating Clouds (Ukigumo)". BAMPFA. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  10. ^ "Mikio Naruse: A Master of the Japanese Cinema Opens at MoMA September 23" (PDF). Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  11. ^ "Floating Clouds". Harvard Film Archive. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  12. ^ "Nuages flottants". Cinémathèque Française (in French). Retrieved 20 July 2023.
[edit]
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