This film's title is "Ukikusa" not "Ukigusa".
French style "Ou qui que ça" ? (so please read U-Ki-ku-sa. Not "Yu ki Gyu za" sort of...
See this too.
http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E6%B5%AE%E3%81%8D%E8%8 D%89&dtype=3&dname=2na&stype=0&pagenum=1&index=003 41400
and
http://www.nihon-eiga.com/program/detail/nh10000643_0001.html
Thanks, Umez. Whether it's a k or a g, can you tell me what it means?
Yu ki gyu za sounds like snow dumplings.
[deleted]
You are incorrect. Sorry.
It's Ukikusa.
Do you read Japanese or Japanese Dictionary?
Or Are you Japanese?
Don't write such a thing.
No need to explain about Japanese word to Japanese people like me.
[deleted]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemnaoideae
then click Japanse page.
If you knew hiragana or katakana or kanji
you could click this and search "Ukikusa" in Japanese (sorry, links included japanese and it doen't work).
http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/
And you could find answer.
And the page mention "Ukikusa" also means "A Travelling Entertainer". not only "Floating Weeds".
This film's title means "Traveling Entertainers" not "Floating Weeds" needless to say.
People of island said "Kabuki", so many Foreign viewer confused or believe, they are Kabuki troupe.
But he used word incorrectly (because he doesn't know sort of things well because company coming to island once a year event. It's a kind of joke. People who knew about Kabuki or living in big city could laugh a bit...). It's just a Travelling Theater Company including actress (Kabuki not included actress).
It's bit delicate and not easy for non-Japanese (but under 40 somthing people couldn't understand anything now, maybe).
Thank you for your very helpful background information.
One wonders how it came about that the name was mis-transliterated. (There are are also totally mis-translated Ozu film titles -- as well as ones that were unwisely re-named).
(I would note the kanji for this title ARE apparently rendered as "ukigusa" in one form of the compound word "ukigusakagyou" / precarious or itinerant trade --accordiong to Breen's online Japanese dictionary).
I would say that the film's title probably means _both_ the literal meaning (the aquatic plant) and the more figurative one (entertainers). (One should think of both simultaneously).
I have heard the Japanese name for the kind of traveling pseudo-kabuki troupes we find here (and in Naruse's Tabi yakusha), but have forgotten it. ;~}
MEK
Analyze only when necessary.
fortune cookie, 4-24-2010