Floating Weeds

The Brief

One of Ozu’s very few color films — and also his first experiment with the CinemaScope format. A small kabuki troupe is on tour, heading toward a remote coastal town. One of the older actors has a son there, whom he has hardly seen but is now eager to visit. However, Komajuro has never admitted to being the boy’s father, and the son believes the man is his uncle. When Komajuro’s current mistress, one of his fellow performers, learns of this secret, she devises a plan to punish him. Floating Weeds is a reworking and remake of Ozu’s A Story of Floating Weeds, a silent film he made in 1934 and held especially dear. Completed in 1959, it stands as one of Ozu’s later works, where many of his cinematic principles and trademarks appear in their purest form. Good to know: * Language: Japanese * Subtitles: English