Flowing

Mikio Naruse's Nagareru (1956) is about a geisha house in Tokyo sinking under debt. Kinuyo Tanaka plays the maid newly arrived in the house, Isuzu Yamada its mistress, and Hideko Takamine the daughter who sees no future in her mother's trade. Haruko Sugimura and Mariko Okada are also in the cast. The film shows geisha life not as it appears before customers but during the day. Bills, creditors, rent, women wearing on each other. The profession here is not an aesthetic but a business closing down, and all of Naruse's attention goes to the daily detail of that closing. It was adapted from a novel by Aya Koda. Naruse does not raise the emotional register; even the arguments are conducted quietly and nobody states their situation outright. Gathering the strongest actresses of the period into one film is an event in itself. Who it's for: those who love everyday-life drama in Japanese cinema and Naruse's measured telling. Who it's not for: viewers waiting for incident and a climax; things worsen slowly across the film and nothing is resolved.