A troupe of travelling players arrive at a small seaport in the south of Japan. Komajuro Arashi, the aging master of the troupe, goes to visit his old flame Oyoshi and their son Kiyoshi, even though Kiyoshi believes Komajuro is his uncle. The leading actress Sumiko is jealous and so, in order to humiliate the master, persuades the younger actress Kayo to seduce Kiyoshi.
I really have a newfound respect for director Yasujiro Ozu. This is the first and only time that I am aware of, where a director made a movie and later (25 years to be exact) remade the same movie. We're all familiar with other directors remaking classic films, but again, I've never seen a director remake his own work. It'd be like Martin Scorsese remaking AFTER HOURS or Robert Zemeckis remaking BACK TO THE FUTURE. And what I respect most about Ozu is he basically makes the same story but in ways, improves upon it as well. Basically the man had a second chance to make one of his films better and he succeeded. What a delightfully rare treat for a director. For any other fans of Japanese cinema (svsg and Capo most notably), I would highly suggest watching both A STORY OF FLOATING WEEDS followed by FLOATING WEEDS.
