FLOWING / HOUSE OF GEISHA (NAGARERU). Viewed on Streaming. Script = seven (7) stars; subtitles = seven (7) stars; restoration = three (3) stars; sound = two (2) stars. Director Mikio Naruse's depiction of modern female economic power-roles every way equivalent (for better or worse) to those of males. Naruse packs his business sub-cultural tale with just about every post-war A-List actress out there, or so it would seem (plus one Neko). This is an actress's showcase film, and the Director ensures that his cast delivers the goods big time! Acting-not-action and drama-not-melodrama drives the photo-play. For a De Facto backdrop, the Director employs a "standard-issue" geisha house (GH) that serves as a home and place of business for related/unrelated multiple generations of women (plus day-time trainees). The narrative grows out of a compounded "insider view" of small, every-day issues/concerns related to the operation and decline of a once prestigious, traditional (providing asexual male-client entertainment and good listening) GH in the midst of cultural change (the growing popularity of illegal prostitution--just about anything made illegal will increase demand!) and heightened economic competition (restaurant outsourcing to brothels, GH consolidation, etc.) not to mention a string of poor financial decisions made by its owner. Principal actresses lineup includes (but is not at all limited to): Natsuko Kahara as the mercenary older sister of the GH owner who holds the mortgage on the place and charges her sister interest; Chieko Nakakita who is the owner's younger sister, was abandoned by her husband, and has now moved back in with a small daughter (already undergoing geisha training); Haruko Sugimura as an almost-past-her-prime neighbor who is always around, always broke, always provides some humor, and supposed to be in charge of arranging bookings; Hideko Takamine playing a beautiful, but mysterious daughter of the GH owner, fully trained as a geisha, but wanting nothing more to do with the business; Kinuyo Tanaka who steals every scene she is in by playing a lower-class widowed housewife turned GH maid; and Isuzu Yamada as the almost-past-her-prime GH owner who has mortgaged her business to the hilt and is not above skimming the earnings of her geisha "sisters." (It is a tribute to such talented actresses--and, of course, Naruse--that the viewer can follow all that's going on without a score card!) Cinematography (narrow screen, gray & off-white--see below) seems okay, but some scenes are under-lit (even though all were shot on a sound stage). Restoration is very poor and troubling (if not down right insulting) for such an enduring film. (And this was streamed off the new FilmStruck/Criterion site no less!) The print is gray-fog city. Artifacts often appear where reels would seem to have been spliced together originally. Audio is mostly a disaster zone. Dialog readings sound like they were sent over an antique phone line! There is simply very little dynamic range resulting in voices coming across as harsh and unfriendly. Volume significantly varies from scene to scene. Age-based noise artifacts occur through the film. Subtitles are fine. So is the limited orchestral music (used mainly under the opening and closing credits). Highly recommended (especially if/when restored). WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.
Review of Flowing
