Floating Clouds Blu-ray

'Floating Clouds' Director: Mikio Naruse (1955) BFI Blu-ray |  Staff Pick  | Japanese w/ English subtitles

A melancholy meditation on the hopeless side of love that quietly captures the devastation of a country in economic post-war ruin.

In French Indochina during the Second World War, a married Japanese man falls in love with a young typist, and promises to marry her when the war is over. Upon their return to Tokyo, however, their idyllic relationship crumbles - yet they cannot keep away from one another. Despite finding nothing but conflict and instability, they helplessly return to each other repeatedly as they attempt to rebuild their lives amid the ruins.

Starring Hideko Takamine (Twenty-Four Eyes, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, Yearning) and Masayuki Mori (Rashōmon, Ugetsu, The Bad Sleep Well).

Special features include:
- Audio commentary by writer and film critic Adrian Martin
- Mikio Naruse: Auteur as Salaryman (2016, 73 mins): Mikio Naruse expert Catherine Russell assesses the director's career at BFI Southbank
- Freda Freiberg and Paul Willemen on Floating Clouds