Films with: Wakao, Ayako

Akasen chitai Street of shame /

The final film of director Kenji Mizoguchi follows the lives of five prostitutes in the Yoshiwara region of Tokyo. Each has a different story and different plans, but they all share an uncertain future as they face the outlawing of their profession.

DVD 8604

Ukigusa

An aging actor returns to the town where his son lives, who has believed all these years that he is his uncle rather than his father.

DVD 8127

Ukigusa monogatari A story of floating weeds /

In 1959, Yasujiro Ozu remade his 1934 silent film: A Story of Floating Weeds in color and sound with the cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa (Rashomon, Ugetsu). Setting his later version in a seaside location, Ozu otherwise preserves the details of his elegantly simple plot wherein an aging actor returns to a small town with his troupe and reunities with his former lover and illegitimate son, a scenario that enrages his current mistress and results in heartbreak for all. A Story of Floating Weeds reveals Ozu in the midst of developing his mode of expression; Floating weeds reveals his distinct style at its pinnacle. In each, the director captures the joy and sadness in everyday life.

DVD 4584