The Cinematheque

“An excellent example of a Naruse film par excellence, straddling the full gamut of his usual preoccupations … Flowing departs from Mizoguchian mysticism and melodrama and instead focuses on the two prime Narusian motifs of postwar economic poverty and the representation of Japanese women.”

Adam Powell, Senses of Cinema

Featuring a trio of superb female actors in the leads, Flowing was much praised by Japanese critics for its evocation of the geisha world in decline. Tanaka Kinuyo plays meek Oharu, an aging housemaid who joins the employ of a struggling Tokyo geisha house. Yamada Isuzu (winner of the Kinema Junpo award for Best Actress) is middle-aged Otsuta, the proud, stubborn geisha who runs the establishment. Naruse regular Takamine Hideko is Katsuyo, Otsuta’s resentful daughter. Unfolding from Oharu’s clear-eyed perspective, the film recounts Otsuta’s difficult efforts to maintain traditional standards—and resist the temptation to resort to sex work—in the face of mounting financial pressures. An extended, elegiac coda has Naruse’s camera leave the geisha house and move slowly away, along the river, down to the sea, with only Oharu aware of the household’s impending doom.

In Japanese with English subtitles

“Brimful and elusive … Naruse sustained an open-ended relation to contemporary Japanese life, mercilessly clearsighted … A great film, not to be missed.”

Pat Graham, Chicago Reader