FLOATING CLOUDS
"Life and broken promises"
About Mikio Naruse's film
By Pascal-Alex Vincent
Floating Clouds is one of the most famous melodramas in the history of world cinema.
Produced in Japan in 1955 by the Tôhô company, it is the work of filmmaker Mikio Naruse.
To mark the 70th anniversary of this classic from the golden age of Japanese studios and its restoration, we revisit a timeless film, starring Hideko Takamine and Masayuki Mori, and showcasing the artistry of one of Japan's greatest directors. It's also an opportunity to remember the novelist Fumiko Hayashi, a contemporary of Naruse and a giant of Asian literature, who initiated the project.
Pascal-Alex Vincent teaches Japanese film history at Sorbonne Nouvelle University. He has also directed several documentaries and published Yasujirô Ozu: A Family Affair with La Martinière in 2023. His Dictionary of Japanese Cinema was reissued in 2025 by Carlotta Films in an expanded edition.