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Bittersweet for its bowdlerization and its comedic depiction of labor exploitation, Traveling Actors was one of Naruse's personal favorites. Two kabuki actors (Takase Minoru and Fujiwara Kamatari) play the front and back ends of a horse as other men are drafted to fight on actual horseback. Naruse pairs physical comedy with the grim reality of precarious employment to convey the paradoxical nature of being an artist in wartime—to be luckier than a soldier, to be exploited for cheap by a broken system and to selfishly pursue perfection. According to Donald Richie, an entire section was removed from the film for "reasons of excessive levity." – Kelley Dong

Directed by Naruse Mikio.
With Fujiwara Kamatari, Yanagiya Kan, Takase Minoru.
Japan, 1940, 35mm, black & white, 71 min.
Japanese with English subtitles.
Print source: The Japan Foundation

Harvard Film Archive Floating Clouds... The Cinema of Naruse Mikio film series co-presented by the Japan Foundation and co-sponsored by the Reischauer Institute