A trio of Japan's finest actresses-Kinuyo Tanaka, Isuzu Yamada and Hideko Takamine-are featured in this revealing picture of traditional geishas facing the decline, in the mid-1950s, of their way of life and the spectre of prostitution. Through the eyes of a maid (Tanaka), who is possibly the only one in the establishment to fully comprehend the situation, Naruse charts the machinations of Tsutayakko (Yamada), the proud mistress of the house, as she goes about trying to save it from becoming either a restaurant or a brothel-all the while denying, as she plays her samisan, that the end is at hand. Audie Bock writes of the "condition of trapped awareness" in Naruse's women. Based on a book by Aya Koda, whose episodic narrative style is ideally suited to Naruse's plotless, anti-melodramatic approach, Flowing creates a marvelous atmosphere of togetherness among these women all living under one roof. But, as in Late Chrysanthemums, the security of camaraderie is illusory.