Masayuki Mori did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Kengo Tomioka in Floating Clouds.
Masayuki Mori is perhaps the enigmatic of the great Japanese actors of his period. When discussing the nature of presence as related to an actor Mori was one of the actors that came to my mind who almost seems to erase his given presence per film and starts over. This as watching this film I honestly had no memory of his bitter samurai from Rashomon, his hapless potter in Ugetsu or his heartless businessman from The Bad Sleep Well. He might as well be a whole different actor, well other than Mori has an innate ability to become whatever it is that his role is, and does so without a hint of fuss. That is the case here once again here as we meet him through the perspective of his lover, Yukiko Koda (Hideko Takamine), as her lover during the war. The two would later be paired in similarly tense circumstances in When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, also by Naruse, however again even there Mori seemed so different as the distant though intrigued wealthy man cheating on his wife. He is a man in an affair again, however his manner denotes a different kind of man then in that later performance.
Mori makes his Kengo kind of lost in himself in his ways about himself, there is a lack of certainty in his interactions so much, and portrays a man also lost who perhaps finds himself at times with Yukiko. The film looks upon this unique relationship through glimpses of different phases of both of their lives. Mori, while I would say is co-lead, he is in general the more distant of the two as we often see him through how Yukiko is seeing him. Mori's performance is one of shades in turn. Shades of the man which Mori portrays well in this kind of balance between giving some sense of love to her, while in the same moment seeming to drift more from her. The first romantic scene in a way summing up their relationship to a degree in the matter of fact and blunt way Mori projects his affection for her. This almost a matter of fact though just as he seems to struggle. As we see him throughout the man is shown as someone weighted by all things other than perhaps his most obvious choices in a way.
Mori in turn is a performance that is basically defined by a constant conflict. Mori bounces back from genuinely seeming to have compassion towards Yukiko and care for her, but as quickly he will show the shattered state of the man ripped apart in the other factors of his life that stop him from really any consistency. Mori's portrayal is granting a kind of knowable quality to the unknowable. This as much as Kengo seems all over the place, he never seems truly random rather he is what the world allows him to be in a way. This as in the moment he can be the lover, but in another he is the grieving husband. Where Yukiko is defined so much by the relationship, Mori shows a man who unfortunately defines himself by anything other than the relationship. The power of the performance is creating the logic of Kengo with this, and never making the character as random as his interactions often appear to be. Mori's performance is really tremendous at times by showing how much the man is going through in just the briefest silent interactions, and as hard to comprehend he is at times, Mori grants a difficult understanding to the man's complexities. Mori delivers a frustrating performance in the right way. This as much as Kengo never lets us in fully in an emotional sense, much as he does not for Yukiko, he does allow us to see the repressions of the man within his defenses and evasions in the name of duty, or just for himself. Mori's portrait of this man is appropriately difficult and near impenetrable, but not entirely impenetrable. This making the moments of the truth of the men particularly powerful, as subtle as they are, yet still so keenly felt, such as his surprisingly heartbreaking final reaction that is so simple yet so powerful. He reveals the complexities of the man even within this state, creating a fascinating and very atypical lead for a seemingly well worn tale of two star crossed lovers.
