is a 1958 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. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

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 shomin-geki ("common people drama") films with female protagonists, ...

. It was Naruse's first film in colour and in widescreen format.

Plot

Journalist Okawa interviews farming woman Yae for his article on the present situation of farmers under the new constitution and after the agrarian reform. Yae tells of her hard labour life, financial worries, and her low status as a daughter-in-law and widow, which equals to "nothing" as long as her son is not married. At the same time, her older brother Wasuke, married already for the third time, tries to find a wife for his eldest son Hatsuji. When Yae tells Okawa of her brother's search for a daughter-in-law, he suggests a young woman who won a prize in an agricultural contest. During their travels to meet the young woman and her mother, Yae and the married Okawa start an affair. Hatsuji's marriage prospect, Michiko, turns out to be the stepchild of Wasuke's first wife Toyo, who had been thrown out by Wasuke's and Yae's patriarchal father for not showing enough fervour in the field work. Wasuke, insisting that the couple celebrates a traditional, lavish marriage, tries to borrow money for the ceremony against Yae's advice, who argues that traditions are not of the same importance to younger people. One after another, Wasuke's sons demand their independence in choosing their individual paths in life. Reluctant at first, Wasuke eventually sells the remaining parts of his lands to support his sons, while Yae sees her chance of finding happiness vanish when Okawa is transferred to Tokyo.

Cast

Chikage Awashima was a Japanese film and stage actress. Life A graduate from Takarazuka Music and Dance School and member of the Takarazuka Revue, Chikage Awashima entered the Shochiku film studios and made her film debut in 1950. She appeared in films of numero ...

as Yae *

Isao Kimura , also known as Kō Kimura, was a Japanese actor. He entered the Haiyūza theatre troupe in 1946. He appeared in several films directed by Akira Kurosawa, including '' Stray Dog'' (1949) as Yusa the criminal, and ''Seven Samurai'' (1954) as Kat ...

as Okawa * Ganjirō Nakamura as Wasuke * Nijiko Kiyokawa as Tane *

Keiju Kobayashi was a Japanese actor who appeared in 253 films in a career spanning 67 years. Born in Gunma Prefecture, he began acting at the Nikkatsu studio after dropping out of Nihon University and made his film debut in 1942. In 1956 he moved to Toho film ...

as Hatsuji * Hiroshi Tachikawa as Shinji * Kunio Otsuka as Junzo * Akemi Ueno as Minko * Michiko Fujii as Toshie * Takashi Itō as Shiro * Masao Oda as Daijiro * Natsuko Kahara as Yasue *

Kumi Mizuno is a Japanese actress best known for appearing in several Toho kaiju films of the 1960s and early 1970s. Early life Mizuno was born Maya Igarashi on 1 January 1937 in Sanjō Niigata prefecture, Japan. She was acquainted with Giant Baba, her jun ...

as Hamako * Chōko Iida as Hide * Ken Kubo as Tadashi *

Haruko Sugimura was a Japanese stage and film 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. After the death of her parents, sh ...

as Toyo *

Yōko Tsukasa is a Japanese actress. She won the award for best actress at the 17th Blue Ribbon Awards for '' Kinokawa''. She is professor at Tokyo University of Social Welfare and serves as the 2nd head of Nihon Taishōmura theme park. Life Yōko Shōji ...

as Michiko *

Michiyo Aratama was a Japanese film and stage actress. Biography After graduating from the Takarazuka Music and Dance School, Aratama joined the Takarazuka Revue in 1945. She gave her film debut in 1951, but it was not before 1955 that she left the Takarazuk ...

as Chie * Bontaro Miake as Shirase *

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 Inspector * Teruko Nagaoka as Landlady * Teruko Mita as Maid

Reception

Naruse biographer Catherine Russell saw in ''Summer Clouds'' an "extremely progressive" film for the time of its making, which "incorporates key elements of the woman's film", articulating its social critique through the main character Yae. Additionally, she pointed out Ganjiro Nakamura's performance as Wasuke as one of the film's "real strengths". Contrary to film historian Alexander Jacoby, who cited ''Summer Clouds'' as an example of the "structural elegance" of Naruse's work,

Dan Sallitt Dan Sallitt (born July 27, 1955) is an American filmmaker and film critic. He is known for his microbudget filmmaking and cinephile film criticism. Early life Sallitt was born on July 27, 1955 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He received a Bach ...

called the film "too well organized around its subject", but, like Russell, emphasised Nakamura's vivid and energising performance.

Awards

;

Mainichi Film Awards The are a series of annual film awards, sponsored by Mainichi Shinbun (毎日新聞), one of the largest newspaper companies in Japan, since 1946. It is the first film festival in Japan. History The origins of the contest date back to 1935, ...

* Best Screenplay Shinobu Hashimoto (for ''Summer Clouds'', ''

Stakeout Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as c ...

'' and ''

Night Drum is a 1958 Japanese historical drama film directed by Tadashi Imai. It was written by Kaneto Shindo and Shinobu Hashimoto, based on the 1706 play ''Horikawa nami no tsuzumi'' by Monzaemon Chikamatsu. Film historians regard ''Night Drum'' as one of ...

'') * Best Actress Chikage Awashima (for ''Summer Clouds'' and ''Hotarubi'') * Best Supporting Actor Ganjirō Nakamura (for ''Summer Clouds'' and ''

Enjō is a 1958 Japanese film directed by Kon Ichikawa and adapted from the Yukio Mishima novel '' The Temple of the Golden Pavilion''. Its English title is ''Conflagration''. Synopsis Told in an intricate flashback structure, ''Enjō'' dramatizes ...

'') ;

Blue Ribbon Awards The are film-specific prizes awarded solely by movie critics and writers in Tokyo, Japan. The awards were established in 1950 by which is composed of film correspondents from seven Tokyo-based sports newspapers. In 1961, the six major Japanes ...

* Best Screenplay Shinobu Hashimoto (for ''Summer Clouds'' and ''Stakeout'') * Best Supporting Actor Ganjirō Nakamura (for ''Summer Clouds'' and ''Enjō'')

References

Bibliography

External links

* * {{Mikio Naruse 1958 films 1958 drama films Japanese drama films Films based on Japanese novels Films directed by Mikio Naruse Films with screenplays by Shinobu Hashimoto Toho films 1950s Japanese films