# A Story of Floating Weeds (浮草物語)
**A Story of Floating Weeds** (浮草物語, *Ukigusa monogatari*) is a 1934 Japanese silent drama directed by Yasujiro Ozu, produced by Shochiku at its Kamata (Ōfuna-era sources say Kamata) studio and released on November 22, 1934. It follows Kihachi, leader of an itinerant theater troupe, who returns to a provincial town where his former lover has raised their illegitimate son, a secret that provokes the jealousy of his current mistress, the troupe's leading lady.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/752) • [2](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/01688/) The film is one of Ozu's final silent works and is widely treated as the point where the hallmarks of his mature style first appear in full.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/752) • [3](https://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/floatingweeds.php)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / studio | Yasujiro Ozu; Shochiku Kinema (Kamata), released November 22, 1934[2](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/01688/) |
| Format | Silent, black and white, 86 minutes, 1.33:1[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/752) |
| Source | Script by Tadao Ikeda after the American film *The Barker* (1928, George Fitzmaurice); story credited to "James Maki", a pen name Ozu used for writing credits[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/752) • [4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/461289/a-story-of-floating-weeds) |
| Series | Second of Ozu's "Kihachi" films starring Takeshi Sakamoto, after *Passing Fancy* (1933)[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/461289/a-story-of-floating-weeds) |
| Setting | A mountain village on the Nakasendo (Narai), reached by train; the 1959 remake moved the story to a seaside town[5](https://nanaelibrary.jpn.org/movie/nihon/1934_n.html) |
| Recognition | First place in Kinema Junpo's 1934 Best Ten of Japanese films[5](https://nanaelibrary.jpn.org/movie/nihon/1934_n.html) |
| Remake | Ozu remade it himself in 1959 as *Floating Weeds* (*Ukigusa*), in color, with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa at Daiei[6](https://www.criterionchannel.com/directed-by-yasujiro-ozu/videos/a-story-of-floating-weeds) |
## Spoilers
### Story and cast
The troupe leader Kihachi (Takeshi Sakamoto) arrives with his company in a small town and visits Otsune (Choko Iida), a café-keeper with whom he had a son years earlier, Shinkichi (Koji, or Hideo, Mitsui). The boy believes his father is dead and takes Kihachi for an eccentric, fun-loving uncle; Kihachi and Otsune keep the truth from him so that he will not be ashamed of a father in a disreputable trade.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/461289/a-story-of-floating-weeds) When Otaka (Rieko Yagumo), the troupe's leading lady and Kihachi's current mistress, learns the secret, she schemes to have the young actress Otoki (Yoshiko Tsubouchi) seduce and abandon Shinkichi; the two instead fall genuinely in love, and the revelation breaks up Kihachi and Otaka.[5](https://nanaelibrary.jpn.org/movie/nihon/1934_n.html) The film ends with Kihachi and Otaka reconciled in a railway waiting room, a scene Japanese commentary has singled out as memorable.[5](https://nanaelibrary.jpn.org/movie/nihon/1934_n.html)
Comic relief comes from Tomibo, the small son of a company player, played by Tomio Aoki (credited as Tokkan Kozo), an Ozu regular; the boy is shoved into a dog costume and sent on stage, where he cannot stay in character.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/461289/a-story-of-floating-weeds)
## Place in Ozu's career
Ozu debuted for Shochiku in 1927 and worked in a more comedic, socially astute mode through the early 1930s, with films such as *I Was Born, But...* (1932) and *[Dragnet Girl](https://www.edgepedia.org/dragnet-girl)*. The success of *Passing Fancy* (1933), with Takeshi Sakamoto as the lovable ne'er-do-well Kihachi, turned him toward the world of common people's pathos in the films called "Kihachi-mono"; *A Story of Floating Weeds* (1934) and *[An Inn in Tokyo](https://www.edgepedia.org/an-inn-in-tokyo)* (1935) belong to this group.[7](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%B5%AE%E8%8D%89%E7%89%A9%E8%AA%9E-695956) While other directors at Shochiku's Ōfuna-era predecessor studios moved quickly to sound, Ozu stubbornly kept making complete silent films until this 1934 work, and did not enter the sound world until *The Only Son* (1936).[7](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%B5%AE%E8%8D%89%E7%89%A9%E8%AA%9E-695956)
**Style.** Most of the film is photographed from a static camera placed low to the ground, as if seen by someone seated cross-legged on a tatami mat, though Ozu still occasionally moves the camera in slow tracking shots, a practice he abandoned entirely in later films.[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/461289/a-story-of-floating-weeds) Film historian David Bordwell, author of *Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema* (BFI/Princeton, 1988), traced the logic of Ozu's camera and character placement to this film, noting that the discernment of the later films "is the same in A Story of Floating Weeds".[8](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/320-stories-of-floating-weeds) The opening sequence, in which the troupe arrives at the station, shows Ozu's elliptical storytelling: banners and a poster appear before their context is established, and the spectator is left to bridge the gaps the director deliberately leaves.[8](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/320-stories-of-floating-weeds) A quiet sequence of Kihachi and Shinkichi fishing side by side, filmed from just above the water with their separation in the frame communicating the emotional gulf between them, was reused by Ozu in *[There Was a Father](https://www.edgepedia.org/there-was-a-father)* (1942).[4](https://www.tcm.com/articles/461289/a-story-of-floating-weeds) • [9](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/a-story-of-floating-weeds-floating-weeds-two-films-by-yasujiro-ozu-blu-ray-review/)
## The 1959 remake
*A Story of Floating Weeds* was among Ozu's most successful films, critically and financially, and he sometimes mentioned an inclination to remake it. The chance came in 1959, when Daiei Studios asked him for a film; his Shochiku contract called for one film a year, but he had finished *Good Morning* in the spring, leaving the rest of the year free.[8](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/320-stories-of-floating-weeds) The remake, *[Floating Weeds](https://www.edgepedia.org/floating-weeds)* (*Ukigusa*), was shot in color ([Agfacolor](https://www.edgepedia.org/agfacolor), by one Japanese account) with the celebrated cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa, known for *Rashomon* and *Ugetsu*, and relocated the story to a small seaside port town.[6](https://www.criterionchannel.com/directed-by-yasujiro-ozu/videos/a-story-of-floating-weeds) • [10](https://nanaelibrary.jpn.org/movie/nihon/1959_n.html)
The two versions are closely matched. Donald Richie, the American-born critic and historian of Japanese film who wrote the [Criterion](https://www.edgepedia.org/criterion) essay on both films, observed that there are few major differences in plot, that the opening shots of the railway station and the port are almost identical, and that the dialogue differs mainly in whether characters complain of rain (1934) or heat (1959).[8](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/320-stories-of-floating-weeds) Koji (Hideo) Mitsui, who plays the son in 1934, appears in the 1959 film as one of the troupe, the only actor in both versions.[8](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/320-stories-of-floating-weeds) The Kihachi role became Komajuro, played by the Kabuki star Ganjiro Nakamura, with Haruko Sugimura as the former lover.[8](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/320-stories-of-floating-weeds) The main differences are of tone: the 1959 film is lighter, enlivened by color, and more forgiving of human weakness, while the silent original foregrounds the somber father-son relationship.[8](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/320-stories-of-floating-weeds) • [9](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/a-story-of-floating-weeds-floating-weeds-two-films-by-yasujiro-ozu-blu-ray-review/) The remake is one of the few films Ozu shot in color.[11](https://www.qnetwork.com/review/1295)
## Legacy and availability
For auteurist critics the 1934 film is considered the moment Ozu came into his own aesthetically and thematically, and it has been described as a turning point in his career, marking his move from comedies toward the restrained dramas that established his reputation.[11](https://www.qnetwork.com/review/1295) • [3](https://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/floatingweeds.php) It is the only one of his silent-era works he explicitly remade.[3](https://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/floatingweeds.php) The National Film Archive of Japan holds a 35mm silent print of 86 minutes.[12](https://nfad.nfaj.go.jp/det.php?data_id=223&mode=1) Criterion released the two films together on DVD in 2004 and on Blu-ray in May 2024, the silent film with an optional score by Donald Sosin and a commentary by Richie, the remake with a commentary by Roger Ebert.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/752) • [3](https://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/floatingweeds.php)
## References
1. [A Story of Floating Weeds (1934), The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/752)
2. [浮草物語, 松竹作品データベース (Shochiku film database)](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/01688/)
3. [DVD Verdict Review: A Story of Floating Weeds / Floating Weeds, Criterion Collection](https://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/floatingweeds.php)
4. [A Story of Floating Weeds, TCM article by Sean Axmaker](https://www.tcm.com/articles/461289/a-story-of-floating-weeds)
5. [日本映画レビュー──1934年: 浮草物語](https://nanaelibrary.jpn.org/movie/nihon/1934_n.html)
6. [A Story of Floating Weeds, The Criterion Channel](https://www.criterionchannel.com/directed-by-yasujiro-ozu/videos/a-story-of-floating-weeds)
7. [浮草物語, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 (Kotobank)](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%B5%AE%E8%8D%89%E7%89%A9%E8%AA%9E-695956)
8. [Donald Richie, "Stories of Floating Weeds", The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/320-stories-of-floating-weeds)
9. [Jake Cole, Review: Ozu Yasujirō's 'A Story of Floating Weeds' and 'Floating Weeds' on Criterion Blu-ray, Slant Magazine](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/a-story-of-floating-weeds-floating-weeds-two-films-by-yasujiro-ozu-blu-ray-review/)
10. [日本映画レビュー──1959年: 浮草](https://nanaelibrary.jpn.org/movie/nihon/1959_n.html)
11. [Floating Weeds / A Story of Floating Weeds review, QNetwork](https://www.qnetwork.com/review/1295)
12. [国立映画アーカイブ 所蔵映画フィルム検索システム: 浮草物語](https://nfad.nfaj.go.jp/det.php?data_id=223&mode=1)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Early and silent cinema › Silent feature films › Released 1927 to 2012*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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