Floating Clouds (Film)

Ukigumo

Ukigumo is a post-war masterpiece directed by Naruse Mikiyo (1955).  This is the unsettling love story of Tomioka and Yukiko, who repatriated from Indochina after Japan's defeat in World War II. Naruse captures Japan's transitional state from post-war destruction, leaving the general tone in the film feeling "aimless," scattered, and drifting (like the clouds in the title). 

PLOT:

Tomioka (Masayuki Mori) and Yukiko (Hideko Takamine) meet in Indochina during the war at a Vietnam forestry mission. Although Tomioka has a sharp tongue and basically flirts through insults, Yukiko falls for his charm and with only some hesitation, receives Tomioka's gestures. The beginning of the movie is the only time Naruse shows "happier times" in which Yukiko and Tomioka are in love, aside from flashbacks that the two have when stuck in their post-war reality. The majority of the movie takes place in poverty-stricken Tokyo, with streets barren and remnants of broken buildings scattered along the ground. 

When she returns to Japan, Yukiko struggles to find her place. With little family to go to for help, she is put in a position where life has little to offer -- with the exception of Tomioka's love. But Tomioka is a womanizer, freely indulging himself with whoever he sees a connection, in spite of being unable to leave his wife. Yukiko comes back to him, creating an endless cycle of betrayal and disappointment. Despite her determination to win Tomioka's heart, she is independent, even selling her body to generate her own income. 

Unlike Yukiko, Tomioka struggles to find a job in tough economic times. The storyline grows more complex when the two take a trip to Ikaho Onsen as a couple and stay the night thanks to a lucky meeting with Seikichi, a man who takes a liking to him due to Tomioka's ties to the military. Seikichi's wife, Osei, immediately connects with Tomioka. The following day, Yukiko realizes they had spent the night with each other, but she does nothing and leaves Ikaho with him. 

Yukiko, who is now pregnant, visits Tomioka once again in the following scene. She discovers that he is living with Osei. Yukiko borrows money from her only distant relative, Iba (also her abuser), and decides to get an abortion despite Tomioka's expression of support. In her hospital bed, Yukiko learns that Osei was murdered by Seikichi. She returns to Iba and plays wife for some time before Tomioka returns to her to ask for money as well as announce the loss of his wife's battle to tuberculosis. 

In their final meeting, Yukiko learns that Tomioka will be moving to a faraway island. She leaves Iba with his money and joins Tomioka on his journey. Just when the possibility of a happy storybook ending is amidst, Yukiko falls deathly ill to tuberculosis and grows sicker on the trip to the island. Although they make it to the island, Yukiko ultimately dies alone while Tomioka is at work. Tomioka shows his only moment of vulnerability here as he cries with her in his arms, flashbacking to their first moments together in Indochina. 

AIMLESSNESS

According to Catherine Russell, the title Ukigumo itself is a common metaphor for an aimless life. Tomioka and Yukiko are the embodiment of what was expressed as the common "post-war" struggle, aimless, struggling to get back on track to live a "normal" life. 

The melodrama in this film is driven by the characters' attempts at dealing with struggles created by elements out of their control. As lovers, Yukiko and Tomioka are constantly on the move and unable to settle down, from Indochina, Tokyo, Ikaho, to the island in Kyushuu. According to Russell, the "relentless flow of the narration" creates a sense of a void. Yukiko must take on new jobs and roles in her life simply because it what she must do to survive. Tomioka struggles with finding any job at all and uses but makes up for his lack of control in his work life as a womanizer. 

By understanding the reasoning behind ties that bind the characters together, the story's melodrama is heightened. 

UTOPIA INDOCHINA VS DYSTOPIAN POST-WAR JAPAN

Peter Brooks characterizes melodramas through the conflict of "good and evil played out under the surface of things." In Ukigumo, there is a stark contrast between "happier days" during the war, when Tomioka and Yukiko live in Indochina and post-war Tokyo. The opening scenes look dreamlike and straight out of a storybook. The two work in an elegant mansion, are cared for by house servants and are dressed in all white. Almost in a kind of utopia, they embrace each other for the first time in the privacy of a grand rainforest.

When the couple is shown together in Japan, the streets are often crowded and barren. The two wear worn-out, dark clothing. Yukiko's hair is often in a messy ponytail, unlike her hair in Indochina, where it was styled prim and proper. 

When Yukiko falls to tuberculosis, she dies alone in an empty room, struggling to close a window that won't shut from the harshness of the rain. The cherry on top among the sad course of events: Tomioka is ultimately doomed to drift aimlessly, having lost the only remaining figure who can put him back on the course of a life that will attain happiness.