Story of Floating Weeds, The (1934)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
A traveling actor returns to a town where his his old flame lives, which causes complications with his current girlfriend and the son who doesn't know he's the father. This was my first film by Yasujiro Ozu and I'm really not sure the reputation this one has over the remake but this here really didn't work for me. The story never fully grabbed my attention and I must say that some of the dialogue was pretty lame, although I've heard some Japanese words don't translate very well to English so perhaps this had something to do with it. The visual style of the film is really the only thing that kept me awake. The stark photography and lush blacks really look terrific and the simple direction also works well.
** 1/2 (out of 4)
A traveling actor returns to a town where his his old flame lives, which causes complications with his current girlfriend and the son who doesn't know he's the father. This was my first film by Yasujiro Ozu and I'm really not sure the reputation this one has over the remake but this here really didn't work for me. The story never fully grabbed my attention and I must say that some of the dialogue was pretty lame, although I've heard some Japanese words don't translate very well to English so perhaps this had something to do with it. The visual style of the film is really the only thing that kept me awake. The stark photography and lush blacks really look terrific and the simple direction also works well.