Yasujiro Ozu

[Michael Kerpan]

I agree with you. But Wenders himself seems to have thought this was highly Ozu-related. ;~}

The interviews with Chishu Ryu and Yuharu Atsuta are priceless -- the rest is highly dispensable (for anyone other than Wenders completists).

[Steven H]

There are so many instances of someone singing in the background in Ozu's films. I wonder how often this is Chishu? Honestly, one of the top reasons I want to see many of the unavailable Ozus on DVD is for the better audio (not so much the improved image). Especially with films like Flavor of Green Tea, Record of a Tenement Gentleman, and Equinox Flower you have these aurally muddled moments of singing that could be so much more effective. Pants!

[zedz]

Another Monday, another Ozu.

Seems like a good excuse to comment on just how much Ozu's films gain from being seen in a cinema, with a large audience. These are films that work their audience beautifully, and, moreover, that seem to make an instant emotional connection with modern audiences. You hear regular chuckles, murmurs of recognition - a lot of viewers continue to experience these films as pure entertainment, regardless of their artistic stature or aesthetic audacity (and I can't help but think that this would thrill Ozu far more than any number of scholarly appreciations).

For all that it's fascinating and revealing to study how radically Ozu violates western editing norms, makes unusual, distinctive framing choices and modulates transitions so formally, these idiosyncracies seem to be invisible to unprepared viewers caught up in the drama / humour. (And actually, I find it hard to focus on those formal elements without getting sucked into the narrative, no matter how many times I've seen the film).

I once took two non-film-mad friends to a screening of Tokyo Story: they loved the film, but noticed nothing out of the ordinary about its style and their response was entirely framed in terms of the characters and storyline. Same thing happened with A Man Escaped, which was considered one of the most exciting films they'd ever seen. Austerity was the farthest thing from their minds - for them this film was competing with The Vanishing or Alien.

[King of Kong]

You have pinned it down beautifully - I love watching movies alone, but watching Ozu with an audience is a real pleasure.

[Michael Kerpan]

Definitely a different experience watching Ozu with an audience than without.

On the other hand, when our whole household watches, we HAVE an audience -- and this was how we watched our first Ozu films. ;~}

[King of Kong]

Saw Early Summer tonight. I don't think I can add any more to what has already been said about this gorgeous film, so I'll keep it short. Rich in drama, character and humour, the only other Ozu film (that I've seen) I think comes rivals Early Summer in terms of its sheer generosity is Tokyo Story, though I many favourites.

Saw Record of a Tenement Gentleman tonight. While it doesn't enter my Ozu Top 10, I must say I enjoyed it thoroughly. Alternately humorous and chokingly sad in typical Ozu fashion, with some great performances, especially from Chouko Iida (love her facial expressions) and old faithful Chishu Ryu (who does a nice bit of singing =D>). There are some memorable scenes, particularly the final few shots of the homeless boys by the statue - I couldn't think of a better way to end this sort of film.

What I admire most about the film was its economy: it was little over an hour long yet still felt complete. I could imagine it working quite well as a TV special (and that'd be some high quality television!), but it's good on celluloid anyway.

One quibble, though: I found the lead character's speech at the end to be unusually moralistic for Ozu. That penultimate scene with her and her neighbours would've been more effective had the dialogue been at a minimum. Still. no big deal

[Michael Kerpan]

The concluding speech of "Nagaya shinshiroku" is unique in Ozu. One wonders whether it was mandated by US Occupation censors -- or whether Ozu simply considered the issue of post-war neglect of homeless children so important that he needed to break his normal rule against editorializing. This took me aback on first watching, but I've grown to actually like Iida's final speech.

I call this "Nagaya shinshiroku" because the American title "Record of a Tenement Gentleman" is a botched translation. Apparently the America title translator did not realize that "nagaya shinshiroku" was a two word title that meant "a who's who of the tenement". Instead, they read the name as three words -- "nagaya shinshi roku" (which yielded the incorrect American name).

The first American writers on this film also completely mis-read it. Both Donald Richie and Audie Bock claimed that Iida was planning to start an orphanage on her own (rather than adopting one "lost boy") -- and Richie dismissed the film's ending for being ridiculously unrealistic for this erroneous reason. (Anderson and Richie's even earlier book didn't make _this_ error -- but misdescribed the film even more thoroughly).

[King of Kong]

I call this "Nagaya shinshiroku" because the American title "Record of a Tenement Gentleman" is a botched translation. Apparently the America title translator did not realize that "nagaya shinshiroku" was a two word title that meant "a who's who of the tenement". Instead, they read the name as three words -- "nagaya shinshi roku" (which yielded the incorrect American name).

Yep - I kept wondering, during the film, just who the "gentleman" of the title was. Who's Who of the Tenement would be a more accurate title, sure - but "Record of a Tenement Gentleman" has this urbane-romantic ring to it... Has Richie revised his early analysis?

[Michael Kerpan]

In his latest book on Japanese cinema, Richie has a much kinder assessment of "Nagaya shinshiroku". Bordwell led the charge (I think) in re-assessing the value of this film upward -- saying (in his "Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema") that if this were the ONLY Ozu film to have survived, it would still be sufficient to show he was one of the greatest film makers of all time. (Note: Bordwell didn't claim this was Ozu's best film). I would tend to agree with Bordwell on this point. ;~}

I am virtually certain that Kitano was familiar with this film when he made his own "Kikujiro" -- there are quite a few parallels.

[zedz]

'Record of a Tenement Gentleman' is an amazingly dumb mistranslation. Did whoever came up with that one actually see the film (whose central figures are a woman and a child)? 'Who's Who of the Tenement' is pretty poor as well, so let's practice saying Nagaya shinshiroku.

I really enjoyed the film, but the tone does clunk badly with that concluding speech, which certainly does look imposed. It's not just uncharacteristic for Ozu, but it seems way out of character for Tane. For me, it had the effect of removing the whole film from the real world into Hollywood.

Harking back to an earlier Ozu discussion, in recently reseeing I Was Born, But. . . I was constantly surprised by the flamboyance of the camera movements. Not only was the film grammar far more 'western' (this I recalled from my first viewing way, way back), but more than once there was a gorgeous, unmotivated camera movement where the camera would track left to right past a static figure while panning right to left to keep them in the centre of the frame. It's a lovely, operatic effect (the action stops while the world spins around the characters) which reminded me of a characteristic (but much more elaborate, 360 degree) tracking shot often used by Fassbinder. I can understand why Ozu would later shun the spectacular artificiality of such shots, but it has a wonderfully strange effect in such a down-to-earth, demotic comedy, and I can imagine it could have developed into a completely different, equally distinctive kind of cinema had Ozu pursued that kind of technique.

[Michael Kerpan]

As to "Todas" -- think about the "epilogue". After all Shin Saburi's posturings about duty etc. -- when his mother and sister set up a marriage meeting for him, he runs away like a child -- and shows no courtesy whatsoever. Surely Ozu meant something subversive by showing the supposed "hero" to have feet of clay!

The early Ozu films have all sorts of wonderful cinematographic gameplaying. This quality is probably strongest in "Walk Cheerfully" (even moreso than in "Dragnet Girl"). The story in WC may be slight, but the style more than makes up for it.

[iangj]

Personally. I'm pretty unconvinced by the uncovering of "subversive" elements in Ozu's work. (Brad Stevens' DVD review in a recent Sight & Sound review is a characteristic if wrongheaded example of this.) Ozu's worldview is a conservative one, never really at variance with his society, and changing over the years in line with his society - all of which is irrelevant to his status as one of the greatest directors ever.

As for TODA FAMILY, I can't agree with Amateurist that the hectoring scene is badly shot/has an unconvincing quality; our discomfort with the scene is an ideological one. I think any discomfort Ozu may have felt would have been aesthetic and not ideological, over the lack of humour in most of the film - hence, the bizarre final minutes of the film when it collapses into an off-key arranged marriage comedy. There's a similar situation with PASSING FANCY where the sombre implications of the story dissolve into comedy as Kihachi jumps ship into the water to return to his son.

What TODA really needs is an Edward Said-type interpretation (a la Mansfield Park) - what on earth is Shojiro up to in China?

[Gregory]

Ozu's worldview is a conservative one, never really at variance with his society, and changing over the years in line with his society - all of which is irrelevant to his status as one of the greatest directors ever.

"Conservative" needs quite a bit of qualification. Anyway, I don't see how one can try to dismiss with such hand-waving such a broad category of attempts to interpret the man's films or social components of the films, such as their tendency to stultify patriarchal figures and to examine the machinations of rigid customs and values.

With Brothers and Sisters of the Toda family, I certainly felt Ozu was prompting us to question the wise brother's preaching. His critique of his siblings extends well beyond the boundaries of the family -- and it does have a degree of truth in it -- but his actions show that he lacks the requisite maturity to espouse social values. Although he is young, he in some ways bears the markings of another of Ozu's patriarchal blowhards.

[Michael Kerpan]

Although it is possible to view Ozu as a "conservative" based on his films, I think that such a view is terribly simplistic -- and finds meager support if the films are looked at carefully. I think it is safer to say that he was not terribly political, but was a humanist who was troubled both by the strictures of traditional behaviors and by modernization's tendency to roll over even the good aspects of older ways.

He was a (mild) liberal in the 20s -- and he never saw any strong reason to change his values thereafter. He may have been old-fashioned by the 50s, but was hardly a conservative traditionalist.

[Gregory]

Another point I wanted to make was that insight into Ozu's own politics may provide an interesting point of departure for a social/political criticism of his films, but it should never bring an end to the discussion. Well beyond a director's own attitudes, one can pursue the ideological extensions of the subjects explored -- in the social/political/cultural context in which they're explored. Ozu wasn't trying to put his ideology into his films, but there's nevertheless a lot to explore ideologically by virtue of the films' rich subjects and contexts.

[Michael Kerpan]

I agree with Gregory. Ozu's film making is FAR more sophisticated than his political viewpoint (whatever it might have been). He tends to "play fair" with his characters, and even the less loveable major characters tend to be well-rounded (and have some good characteristics -- or at least semi-legitimate excuses). I think Ozu wanted to in provoke thought about basic human problems -- and had little (if any) interest in converting viewers to any particular political position.

[DDillaman]

I guess king of kong missed this week, as the usual update's missing and i didn't see him there (good meeting you last week, by the way), but i did make it to AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON. Even more than normal, I felt like Ozu did a superb job at sublimating the plot of the film in the everyday conversations - I really didn't know where it was going for quite a while, and it was only in retrospect that everything was necessary.

I did notice some of the editing (motion matching, et al) was quite awkward, more than I've noticed on his other films (although being older prints, I may have forgiven them more). Does anyone know how involved Ozu was in editing, and with this being his last film, if he was as involved with it or not?

[Michael Kerpan]

As to "Autumn Afternoon" -- I think Shochiku probably rushed their work on the new prints of this film. There seem to be some missing frames and other oddities, especially in the first reel or so. The out of print French DVD seemed to have been based on a print that was less problematic.

Ozu did not do his own editing, but gave very explicit instructions to his editor, Yoshiyasu Hamamura (who worked with him on virtually all his Shochiku films, starting in the 40s). If Atsuta (his cinematographer) was Ozu's right arm, Hamamura was his left.

[King of Kong]

Last night's screeing of I Was Born But... marked the end of our Ozu retrospective down here in Auckland. A Japanese professor from the University (apparently a former newsreader in Japan) was commissioned to provide a Benshi narration for the film - and while I'm sure most of the audience didn't have a word of Japanese, it added to the atmosphere.

The film itself was great. Although it represents Ozu in the early stages of his craft, it contained the distinctive Ozu elements and was overall a pleasure to sit through. Despite being a silent film, it seemed fresh in much the same way as A Story of Floating Weeds (the only other Ozu silent I've seen) does - the story could very well have taken place yesterday. As well as being a sensitive portrayal of childhood, it was also damn funny.
One reviewer on the net noted that these kids will most likely be drafted into the Japanese army in a few years, and possibly killed - a fact which lends a sort of unintentional poignancy to the film.

[Michael Kerpan]

One reviewer on the net noted that these kids will most likely be drafted into the Japanese army in a few years, and possibly killed - a fact which lends a sort of unintentional poignancy to the film.

The real star of the film, Tomio Aoki (who played the younger brother) not only survived the war, but made his last movies only a few years ago. Sadly, he did die last year.

The older brother, Hideo Sugawara, disappears from the Japanese movie scene in 1940. Probably an ominous sign -- as he had an active career up until then.

Seichi Kato, the boss's son, survived the war -- and appeared in at least one film in the 50s.

Shoichi Kojifuta, the beer delivery boy, also appeared in one post-war film.

According to the JMDB, none of the other kids appear in any post-war films -- but several showed up (in a sad reunion) in 1940, as part of the cast of Yoshimura's "The Story of Tank Commander Nishizumi". (Note, some didn't make many -- or any -- appearances after IWBB, so they just may not have stayed in the movies).

On the issue of war and loss --

Kinoishita's (war-time) "Army" portrays the pain (to a mother) of a drafted child. His (post-war) "24 Eyes" shows just how ravaged the ranks of one school class was by the war.

[King of Kong]

I meant the characters more than the boys who acted them.

Some good background, though...

[Michael Kerpan]

I figure the real fates of the boys who played the characters and the possible fates of the fictional characters are pretty much one and the same -- in this instance.

I believe the war-time flashbacks in Shinozaki's "Not Forgotten" drew (in part) from Tomio Aoki's experiences during WW2. It really is too bad this very nice film has never showed up with subtitles.

[zedz]

I recently saw An Autumn Afternoon and would like to nominate it for Best Ozu Transition (surely a hotly contested award). I love the boldness of the cut on sound in Early Summer involving the radio broadcast, and I thought this kind of transition was unique in Ozu's later work, but the one in An Autumn Afternoon is even more unusual, in my opinion.

Chishu Ryu is chatting with his friend at his office. His friend explains that he can't go drinking because he has tickets to the big baseball game that night.
CUT TO: Two shots of the lights of the stadium shining on the baseball game, accompanied by the noise of the game and the crowd.
CUT TO: A small TV screen televising the baseball game (with sound continuing on from the previous shots)
CUT TO: Guys at a bar watching the baseball game on the small TV
CUT TO: A view from down the hall of the same guys watching tha same game
CUT TO: Chishu Ryu and his friend (and their mutual friend) drinking at a table in an adjacent room, while the sound of the game (which has progressively become less distinct with each cut) continues in the background. Ryu's friend makes a comment to the effect of "I missed the big game for this?"

Brilliant, witty confounding of narrative expectations (one of several times in the film that Ozu fakes out his audience - or his characters) and a masterful play of sound and space to boot. A lot of Ozu's characteristic transitions seem to me like they're drawing a direct line through the landscape from one location to another, but here he slyly bounces us into virtual space (the TV broadcast) halfway through the transition and sends us off in an unexpected direction.

[Michael Kerpan]

While "I Was Born But" is one of the best of Ozu's silents, I was astonished at just how wonderful almost all of these are. Even his first surviving film "Days of Youth" is remarkably accomplished (and quite funny).

(IWBB was the first Ozu silent I saw -- and a great introduction)

[zedz]

I can't think of many other films from the 30s (let alone silents) that deal with such recognisable, contemporary human behaviour. A modern audience instantly understands what drives these characters and can recognise the relationship dynamics from their everyday lives. That's a rare enough gift in contemporary cinema; it's uncanny that such a sense of modernity can be maintained for seventy years, regardless of cultural boundaries.

But of course, that quality in Ozu is not restricted to I Was Born, But. . .