Floating Weeds: unforgettable symphony

The three ideograms of kabuki, the Japanese theater form depicted in Floating Weeds, signify singing, dancing, and skill. The movie is all this, and more: music, cinematography and art direction are so coordinated that the play resembles a symphony of the kind we usually hum for the rest of our lives.

In the village of fishermen, where the plot takes place, there are no grandiose characters; it is as if they were people from the neighborhood living their lives day by day. The protagonist, Komajuro, is a middle-aged actor who leads the troupe of a decadent and itinerant theater company, artists known in Japan as "floating weeds."

Called the master by the other components of the team, the old actor spends a lot of time in Oyoshi's saki house, with whom he has had a child in the past. Komajuro rejoices with the boy, a post office worker who thinks he is his uncle.

The constant absences arouse suspicions, and later jealousy, of his current companion and star of the company Sumiko, who discovers the secret of the master, and, strongly rebuked by him, hires the young actress Kayo to seduce Kiyoshi, the son of Komajuro. This plot leads to unexpected consequences, as the two young people fall in love.

Yasujiro Ozu conducts these disagreements in a peculiar way, far from Western drama and much more economical than the cyclothymic of romantic comedies. Empathy with the characters is conquered by a trick of direction: most dialogues occur without the characters looking at each other. The look is usually directed directly to the audience.

The beautiful cinematography of Kazuo Miyagawa is made in a lower position than the actors. Among the scenes, the director inserts what he called a “pillow shot”, a short video of about seven seconds, which allows the viewer to "recover his calm".

In the final scene, Komajuro, like many husbands, throws a tantrum at the boarding station. Gradually, it calms down, the train departs, and we get the wonderful music of Takanobu Saito.

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