Yasujiro Ozu

  • Yasujirô Ozu – Tokkan kozô AKA A Straightforward Boy (1929)

    Yasujiro Ozu1921-1930ComedyJapanSilent
    Tokkan kozô (1929)
    Tokkan kozô (1929)

    Quote:
    One of the earliest surviving silent comedies by master filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu, A Straightforward Boy is a rambunctious, adorable kidnapping caper now screening in a new restoration that restores to it eight long-lost and recently rediscovered minutes. The short features one of the all-time great child actors, Tomio Aoki, at age six and in his first starring role as the titular boy all too happy to be abducted – so long as his petty-crook captors (Tatsuo Saitô and Takeshi Sakamoto) are willing to endure his company. Aoki’s extraordinary career would go on to include over 300 films, from Ozu’s 1932 I Was Born, But… to Seijun Suzuki’s 2001 Pistol Opera.Read More »

  • Yasujirô Ozu – Banshun AKA Late Spring (1949)

    Yasujiro Ozu1941-1950AsianDramaJapan
    Banshun (1949)
    Banshun (1949)

    Quote:
    Shukichi is a professor, a widower, absorbed in his work. His unmarried daughter, Noriko, runs his household for him. Both are perfectly content with this arrangement until the old man’s sister declares that her niece should get married. Noriko is, after all, in her mid-20s; in Japan in 1949, a single woman that old is approaching the end of her shelf life. His sister warns the professor that after his death Noriko will be left alone in the world; it is his duty to push her out of the nest and find a husband who can support her. The professor reluctantly agrees. When his daughter opposes any idea of marriage, he tells her he is also going to remarry. That is a lie, but he will sacrifice his own comfort for his daughter’s future. She marries.Read More »

  • Yasujirô Ozu – Tôkyô monogatari aka Tokyo story (1953)

    Yasujiro Ozu1951-1960ClassicsDramaJapan
    Tôkyô monogatari (1953)
    Tôkyô monogatari (1953)

    東京物語

    They one hot beautiful summer day joyfully left home
    She one hot sad day stumbled sideways
    He strangely found himself back home
    one of those so beautiful noisy hot summer days one saysRead More »

  • Yasujiro Ozu – Ohayô aka Good Morning (1959)

    Yasujiro Ozu1951-1960Amos Vogel: Film as a Subversive ArtComedyDramaJapan
    Ohayô (1959)
    Ohayô (1959)

    Quote:
    “Sooner or later, everyone who loves movies comes to Ozu. He is the quietest and gentlest of directors, the most humanistic, the most serene.” — Roger Ebert

    It took long enough, but I sampled my first Yasujiro Ozu film, Good Morning (Ohayo), and will soon indulge myself with as many of his works as I can locate. At one time, his films were thought to be “too Japanese” and weren’t available in the West, but if Good Morning is any indication of his craft and appeal, Ozu deserves a much wider audience. It’s a film that works at multiple levels, and only artistic geniuses like Shakespeare have been able to pull off such a universal work that works with both down to earth people and with the upper levels of critical audiences equally.Read More »

  • Yasujirô Ozu – Kaze no naka no mendori AKA A Hen in the Wind (1948)

    1941-1950AsianDramaJapanYasujiro Ozu

    A man returns from World War II to find his desperate wife had resorted to one night of prostitution to pay for their son’s hospital bills.Read More »

  • Yasujirô Ozu – Chichi ariki AKA There Was a Father (1942)

    1941-1950AsianDramaJapanYasujiro Ozu

    Quote:
    Yasujiro Ozu’s frequent leading man Chishu Ryu is riveting as Shuhei, a widowed high school teacher who finds that the more he tries to do what is best for his son’s future, the more they are separated. Though primarily a delicately wrought story of parental love, There Was a Father offers themes of sacrifice that were deemed appropriately patriotic by Japanese censors at the time of its release during World War II, making it a uniquely political film in Ozu’s body of work.Read More »

  • Yasujirô Ozu – Shukujo wa nani o wasureta ka AKA What Did the Lady Forget? (1937)

    1931-1940ClassicsComedyJapanYasujiro Ozu

    Synopsis:
    An affluent medical professor, Komiya, and his bossy wife, Tokio, are to look after Setsuko, their high-spirited niece from Osaka. Setsuko is a liberated woman who does what she wants, including smoking, even though she is a minor. On Saturday, the professor does not feel like going to his weekend golf game, but his wife packs him off anyway. So he leaves his bag at the apartment of his student Okada, and goes to a bar with a friend. Setsuko traces him there, and insists that he take her to a geisha house. When she gets rather tipsy, the professor calls Okada to take her home, while he sleeps at Okada’s. The wife becomes suspicious of Setsuko when she sees Okada bringing her home, and also of her husband when she discovers that he did not go golfing.Read More »

  • Yasujirô Ozu – Sôshun AKA Early Spring (1956)

    1951-1960ClassicsDramaJapanYasujiro Ozu

    Quote:
    A young man and his wife struggle within the confines of their passionless relationship while he has an extramarital romance.Read More »

  • Yasujirô Ozu – Rakudai wa shitakeredo aka I flunked but… (1930)

    1921-1930ComedyJapanYasujiro Ozu

    Yasujirô Ozu wrote:
    One could say this is the flip side of I Graduated, But… The student-protagonist scribbles his crib notes on his shirt sleeve, but the day of his graduation exam, the girl at his boarding house unwittingly takes the shirt to the launderette So naturally, he flunks. However, those who pass and graduate in high spirits cannot land any job, while the ones who flunked can continue to bum around living off their parent’s money. It’s a vignette. Although Ryu Chishu has appeared in my previous films, it was the first time I let him have a go at a more significant role.Read More »

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