Flowing
Japanese theatrical release poster
Kanji流れる
Directed byMikio Naruse
Written by
Produced bySanezumi Fujimoto
Starring
CinematographyMasao Tamai
Edited byEiji Ooi
Music byIchirō Saitō
Production
company
Distributed byToho
Release date
  • 20 November 1956 (1956-11-20) (Japan)[1][2]
Running time
116 minutes[1][2]
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

Flowing (流れる, Nagareru) is a 1956 Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. It is based on the novel Nagareru by Aya Kōda.[3]

Plot

Widow Rika starts working as a maid in the okiya (geisha lodging house) of geisha Otsuta, who lives with her daughter Katsuyo, her younger sister Yoneko and Yoneko's child, and geisha Nanako. Of the seven geisha who once worked for Otsuta, only Nanako and Someka are left; a third girl, Namie, has just run away, convinced that she has been tricked out of her share. Otsuta's older sister Otoyo tries to pressure Otsuta into finding a financially secured husband to pay back the loans on the house which the two of them mortgaged together. Ohama, a former geisha sister of Otsuta, tries to help by making contact between her and her nephew's employer Hanayama, a former patron of Otsuta. The situation tightens when Namie's uncle shows up, demanding the money which he thinks his niece is entitled to. Otsuta tries to compensate him with 50,000 yen, half of Hanayama's onetime donation, but he refuses and goes to the police instead, resulting in the questioning of Otsuta and Katsuyo. Eventually Ohama pays for Otsuta's mortgaged house, but only to move the Tsuta House out and open her own restaurant instead. She offers Rika an employment in her future business, but Rika declines. In the final scene, Rika, instructed not to tell anyone of Ohama's plans, watches the unknowing Otsuta giving music lessons to apprentices.

Cast

Book and film

Aya Kōda's novel, which had been published one year prior to the film's release, described the events mainly from the perspective of Rika/Oharu, an educated woman, other than the rather simple character portrayed by Kinuyo Tanaka in the film. Also, the film enlarged the role of Katsuyo, thereby presenting two outside views onto the geisha milieu. Again, the ending differs in book and film: In the book, Rika accepts the offer to manage Otsatu's former house once the women have been removed.[3]

For her book, Kōda had used her own experiences she had made while working as a maid in a geisha house in Tokyo's Yanagibashi district in the early 1950s.[4]

Release

Flowing was released in Japan on 20 November 1956.[1][2] An English subtitle version was released in the United States on 13 May 1978.[5]

Legacy

Flowing was screened at the Museum of Modern Art in 1985[6] and at the Harvard Film Archive in 2005[7] as part of their retrospectives on Mikio Naruse.

Awards

Isuzu Yamada received the 1956 Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actress, the 1956 Mainichi Film Concours For Best Actress (for Flowing, A Cat, Shozo, and Two Women and Boshizō),[8][9] and the 1956 Kinema Junpo Award for Best Actress (for Flowing and A Cat, Shozo, and Two Women).[10]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "流れる (Flowing)". Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese). Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 "流れる (Flowing)" (in Japanese). Kinema Junpo. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  3. 1 2 Russell, Catherine (2008). The Cinema of Naruse Mikio: Women and Japanese Modernity. Durham and London: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-4290-8.
  4. ↑ Sherif, Ann (1999). Mirror: The Fiction and Essays of Koda Aya. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 9780824821814.
  5. ↑ Galbraith IV, Stuart (2008). The Toho Studios Story: A History and Complete Filmography. Scarecrow Press. pp. 126–127. ISBN 9781461673743.
  6. ↑ "Mikio Naruse: A Master of the Japanese Cinema Opens at MoMA September 23" (PDF). Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  7. ↑ "Flowing". Harvard Film Archive. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
  8. ↑ "1956 Blue Ribbon Awards" (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 7 February 2009. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  9. ↑ "1956 Mainichi Film Awards" (in Japanese). Retrieved 9 July 2022.
  10. ↑ "1956 Kinema Junpo Awards" (in Japanese). Retrieved 9 July 2022.
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