Japan Synopsis
鰯雲
A war widow with a young boy manages a farm with her bossy mother-in-law. When a reporter comes to interview her, the two begin an affair. He turns out to be married and won't leave his wife. Her older brother tries to marry off his children and hang on to/ extend his farm through an advantageous marriage in the face of threatened land confiscation and the desire of his children to get comfortable urban jobs instead of the backbreaking work in the paddy fields under parental control.
Other Titles From TOHO
The 1957–1959 Japan Window
Summer Clouds holds position #9 of 32 Japan films in the 1957–1959 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 1950s Japan Landscape
1958 was the decade’s peak output year for Japan — 12 titles released, including Summer Clouds. Bars below show how the 1950s stacked up year by year (76 total).
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 11 other Japan films in 1958.
The 110th Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Audience Engagement
12 audience reviews — more than 16% of Japan films in our index.
Popularity sits at the 2th percentile among Japan films.
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on Summer Clouds, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- farm · 2
- mother-in-law · 1
- war widow · 1
- reporter · 14
- interview · 7
- based on novel or book · 288
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #1,315 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (71st percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.6 points above the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Drama productions specifically: #572 of 1,933 (top 30%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Japanese |
| Production Companies | TOHO |
| Runtime | 2h 8m |
| Release Date | September 2, 1958 |
| IMDb | tt0051791 |