is a 1956 Japanese

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Mikio Naruse was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 89 films spanning the period 1930 to 1967. Naruse is known for imbuing his films with a bleak and pessimistic outlook. He made primarily Shoshimin-eiga, shōshimin-eiga ("common people drama") films with f ...

. It is based on the novel ''Nagareru'' by Aya Kōda.

Plot

Widow Rika starts working as a maid in the

okiya An is the lodging house/drinking establishment to which a or geisha is affiliated with during her career as a geisha. The is typically run by the "mother" () of the house, who handles a geisha's engagements, the development of her skills, and ...

(geisha lodging house) of geisha Otsuta, who lives with her daughter Katsuyo, her younger sister Yoneko and Yoneko's child, and geisha Nanako. Of the seven geisha who once worked for Otsuta, only Nanako and Someka are left; a third girl, Namie, has just run away, convinced that she has been tricked out of her share. Otsuta's older sister Otoyo tries to pressure Otsuta into finding a financially secured husband to pay back the loans on the house which the two of them mortgaged together. Ohama, a former geisha sister of Otsuta, tries to help by making contact between her and her nephew's employer Hanayama, a former patron of Otsuta. The situation tightens when Namie's uncle shows up, demanding the money which he thinks his niece is entitled to. Otsuta tries to compensate him with 50,000 yen, half of Hanayama's onetime donation, but he refuses and goes to the police instead, resulting in the questioning of Otsuta and Katsuyo. Eventually Ohama pays for Otsuta's mortgaged house, but only to move the Tsuta House out and open her own restaurant instead. She offers Rika an employment in her future business, but Rika declines. In the final scene, Rika, instructed not to tell anyone of Ohama's plans, watches the unknowing Otsuta giving music lessons to apprentices.

Cast

Kinuyo Tanaka was a Japanese actress and film director. She had a career lasting over 50 years with more than 250 acting credits, but was best known for her 15 films with director Kenji Mizoguchi, such as ''The Life of Oharu'' (1952) and ''Ugetsu'' (1953). W ...

as Rika, called Oharu *

Isuzu Yamada was a Japanese stage and screen actress whose career spanned seven decades. Biography Yamada was born in Osaka as Mitsu Yamada, the daughter of Kusudu Yamada, a shinpa actor specialising in onnagata roles, and Ritsu, a geisha. Under her mothe ...

as Otsuta *

Hideko Takamine was a Japanese actress who began as a child actress and maintained her fame in a career that spanned 50 years. She is particularly known for her collaborations with directors Mikio Naruse and Keisuke Kinoshita, with ''Twenty-Four Eyes'' (1954) a ...

as Katsuyo, Otsuta's daughter *

Mariko Okada is a Japanese stage and film actress who starred in films of directors Mikio Naruse, Yasujirō Ozu, Keisuke Kinoshita and others. She was married to film director Yoshishige Yoshida. Biography Okada was born the daughter of silent film actor To ...

as Nanako *

Haruko Sugimura was a Japanese Theatre, stage and film actor, actress, best known for her appearances in the films of Yasujirō Ozu and Mikio Naruse from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. Biography Sugimura was born in Nishi-ku, Hiroshima, Nishi-ku, Hiroshima. ...

as Someka * Sumiko Kurishima as Ohama * Chieko Nakakita as Yoneko, Otsuta's younger sister * Natsuko Kahara as Otoyo, Otsuta's older sister *

Seiji Miyaguchi was a Japanese stage and film actor who appeared in films of Akira Kurosawa, Yasujirō Ozu, Mikio Naruse, Keisuke Kinoshita, Tadashi Imai and many others. Biography Born in Tokyo and a graduate of Tokyo Municipal Junior High School, Miyaguchi w ...

as Namie's uncle *

Daisuke Katō was a Japanese actor. He appeared in over 200 films, including Akira Kurosawa's ''Seven Samurai'', ''Rashomon'', ''Yojimbo'', and ''Ikiru''. He also worked repeatedly for noted directors such as Yasujirō Ozu, Mikio Naruse and Kenji Mizoguchi. ...

as Yoneko's ex-husband * Chiyo Izumi as Namie *

Nobuo Nakamura was a Japanese stage and film actor, who appeared in many films by Akira Kurosawa, Yasujirō Ozu and Mikio Naruse. Biography A graduate from Tokyo Kaisei Junior High School, Nakamura studied at the Kawabata School of Painting. After the rejecti ...

as doctor * Noboru Nakaya as Saeki, Ohama's nephew

Book and film

Aya Kōda's novel, which had been published one year prior to the film's release, described the events mainly from the perspective of Rika/Oharu, an educated woman, other than the rather simple character portrayed by Kinuyo Tanaka in the film. Also, the film enlarged the role of Katsuyo, thereby presenting two outside views onto the geisha milieu. Again, the ending differs in book and film: In the book, Rika accepts the offer to manage Otsatu's former house once the women have been removed. For her book, Kōda had used her own experiences she had made while working as a maid in a geisha house in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

's Yanagibashi district in the early 1950s.

Release

''Flowing'' was released in Japan on 20 November 1956. An English subtitle version was released in the United States on 13 May 1978.

Legacy

''Flowing'' was screened at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

in 1985 and at the

Harvard Film Archive The Harvard Film Archive (HFA) is a film archive and cinema located in the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dedicated to the collection, preservation and exhibition of film, the HFA houses a c ...

in 2005 as part of their retrospectives on Mikio Naruse.

Awards

Isuzu Yamada received the 1956

Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actress The Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actress is as part of its annual Blue Ribbon Awards for Japanese film, to recognize a female actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role. The award was first given in 1954 for the films relea ...

, the 1956 Mainichi Film Concours For Best Actress (for ''Flowing'', ''

A Cat, Shozo, and Two Women , also titled ''Shozo, a Cat, and Two Women'', is a 1956 Japanese comedy film directed by Shirō Toyoda. It is based on Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's 1936 novella ''A Cat, a Man, and Two Women''. Plot Kitchenware salesman Shōzō shows more affection f ...

'' and ''Boshizō''), and the 1956 Kinema Junpo Award for Best Actress (for ''Flowing'' and ''A Cat, Shozo, and Two Women'').

References

External links

* {{Mikio Naruse 1956 films 1956 drama films Japanese drama films 1950s Japanese-language films Japanese black-and-white films Films based on Japanese novels Films directed by Mikio Naruse Toho films Films produced by Sanezumi Fujimoto Films scored by Ichirō Saitō 1950s Japanese films