Floating Clouds (1955)

With Japan on it’s knees following the end of the Second World War, “Yukiko” (Hideko Takamine) is struggling to find meaning in her life. She had had a fling with the married “Tomioka” (Masayuki Mori) but when he had been despatched to work for the forestry service in Annam, she assumed that was that. Well no, as it happens, for she is also posted there as a typist and so they pick up where they left off. Whilst perhaps not a sense of happiness, there is contentedness for “Yukiko” until returning to Japan, she soon realises that not only can they never truly be together but that he has most definitely got a wandering eye. To be fair to him, she also seeks solace elsewhere and for a while has an GI in tow, but ultimately she only has eyes for her “Tomioka”. With neither of them having any money most of the time, and him being the unreliable type, what chance they can make anything of this uniquely mistrusting and dysfunctional arrangement when he is offered a job as a ranger on a remote island? Now this is a slowly paced melodrama that does contrive to include just about every post-war scenario from homelessness, poverty, rape, pregnancy and betrayal into it’s two hours, but both lead actors bring a credible poignancy to their performances as they try to thrive against their own flawed characteristics in a nation in ruin and where women had little, if any, status. The photography, the never ending rain, and the prevailing sense of bleakness contribute strongly and the one thing you can be certain of is that their's is a journey unlikely to end in the light.