NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: BFI Blu-ray (June 2024): BFI have transferred Mikio Naruse's Floating Clouds to Blu-ray. We reviewed BFI's Mikio Naruse Collection, with the film, on DVD HERE and have compared some captures below. The 1080P has the usual improvements over SD looking more detailed, slightly brighter through most, a shade more information in the frame and better grain support. This is described as a "Newly restored" and it doesn't have the marks and scratches visible on the DVD, also the subtitles are newly translated as our samples below show a slight difference in text.

NOTE: We have added 56 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, BFI use a linear PCM dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original Japanese language. Floating Clouds has no aggressive moments. The score was by Ichirô Saitô (Ugetsu Monogatori, The Life of Oharu, Execution in Autumn, The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice, and some of the Zatoichi series) sounding appropriately somber, sparse and supportive in the uncompressed transfer providing some impressive drama and contemplative pauses but grows to gains some intensity heightening the drama near the conclusion. It sounds quite clean and consistent in the lossless transfer. BFI offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'B'-locked Blu-ray.

The BFI Blu-ray offers a new commentary by writer and film critic Adrian Martin. He uses the director's name with Ozu, Mizoguchi and Kurosawa. Adrian discusses the frequent walking by characters in the film, the multiple angles used, the transition edits with flashbacks to the past, the impressive performances, the novel, Ukigumo by Japanese writer Fumiko Hayashi, and its differences from the film, nature as a paradox (Garden of Eden,) Japan after the war, citizens returning, people being 'lost' needing money, doubt, self-doubt, trust and relationships, and this society's imbalance between men and women. He talks about the character of Kengo being weak, being a lothario, he documents important plot points and much more. I loved this commentary enjoying the analysis, observations and, I wouldn't have thought it possible, but it made me appreciate the film even more than I already do. Fabulous stuff Adrian! You may also watch the film listening to Mikio Naruse: Auteur as Salaryman a 2016, 1 1/4 hour audio only piece with academic Catherine Russell (The Cinema of Naruse Mikio: Women and Japanese Modernity, Classical Japanese Cinema Revisited: A New Look at the Canon), an expert in the cinema of Naruse, assesses the director's career. Recorded at BFI Southbank. There is also a ten-minute interview with Japanese film expert Freda Freiberg from 2007 - that was on the previous DVD. She discusses Naruse's women’s melodramas an minimalism in terms of style. Also repeated from BFI's Mikio Naruse Collection are Paul Willemen (Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema) spending 7-minutes on Floating Clouds and a 11-minute commentary of a portion by Freiberg on a key scene from the film. For purchasers of the first printing of the BFI Blu-ray you get an illustrated booklet with new writing on the film by Catherine Russell, a previously published essay by Adrian Martin and credits.    

Mikio Naruse's Floating Clouds is an aesthetic masterpiece opening a painful voyeuristic window on a stagnated relationship in the cruelly post-war realities of life in Japan. There is strongly effecting minimalist economy of Floating Clouds that bonds us to the ongoing tragedy; one woman's struggle in the country's new modernity - living, loving, surviving. It's an incredible and memorable cinema portrait that should be cherished. Naruse made almost ninety films and is one of the most under-appreciated directors in cinema history. Having Floating Clouds come to Blu-ray is encouraging for When a Woman Ascends the Stairs and Late Chrysanthemums to deservedly come to 1080P or, dare say, 4K UHD. The BFI Blu-ray has the poignant and neglected masterwork of women's cinema - a satisfying HD presentation, a new commentary by one of our favorites, and more... including a booklet. Easily our very highest recommendation.

Gary Tooze