Floating Weeds
1959
Directed by Yasujiro Ozu
I rented this movie as soon as I finished The Elegance of a Hedgehog. The main character was so enthralled by the beauty of the film that it made her cry. I, on the other hand, was rather bored and unimpressed. Either I am not as sensitive as she is or I am not as easily impressed as she is. I think it is the former.
Basically, this is the story of Komajuro, who has a son with a former mistress. The son, Kiyoshi, does not know that Komajuro is his father. Komajuro's current mistress becomes jealous and Shakespearean-esque schemes ensue.
Ozu has a very traditional style of story telling that I cannot get into. He is absolutely fascinated with the relationship of different generations. I, however, am not that interested in that theme. In fact, I get along fine with older generations, though I do have to help them with computers a lot.
Additionally, this film is basically just like Tokyo Story, though I enjoyed that a lot more than this film. There was nothing new here, though we did get some pretty shots.
Overall, I wasn't too thrilled and I have seen Ozu do better.
RATING: **---
Interesting Facts:
DONE WITH THE FIFTIES!!!
One of Roger Ebert's favorite films. Now I feel ashamed that I did not like it.
Haven't watched this yet and may return to comment properly when I do, but just noticed that you mistyped "Toyko Story", which leads me to wonder whether "Toy Story" was a clever play-on-words movie title for film buffs only?
ReplyDeleteSome of these films, particularly slow-moving, foreign films, can be pretty boring when watching them. Not that there's anything wrong with them, just that it's an extra level of disconnect with a movie which isn't reaching out and grabbing you.
ReplyDeleteBut somehow by the time they've got to the end and in hindsight, they don't seem so bad.
I'm going to step in and defend this, or rather, 'slow moving foreign films', at least in part.
ReplyDeleteOh sure there are some utterly culture gap, disconnect films on this list, that us poor ignorant foreigners cannot get... but it's good to try.
Ozu... MMmmm .. He is superb, if in the right mind frame, but.. even I will admit that after.. several.. I struggle to tell some of them apart.
Thanks for the catch Dessie! Yes, these blend together for me as well but I can still see why somebody would find the experience of watching these peaceful.
ReplyDelete