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Also Like Life's Tribute to the Films of Yasujiro Ozu

Yasujiro Ozu was born on December 12, 1903, and died December 12, 1963. In between those symmetrical dates he produced one of the most astonishing visions in the history of filmmaking.

I first encountered Ozu's vision in college. I had heard about how an obscure Japanese movie called TOKYO STORY had somehow vaulted to the #3 spot among the all-time greatest movies in a revered international critics' poll. I went to the college library to check it out in a tiny video booth with bad sound. Despite the inauspicious conditions, somehow I was moved -- no, devastated -- by this quiet little film as no film has ever affected me. Somehow watching this movie about a Japanese family in the 50s in the midst of ever-so-casually falling to pieces, I recognized a way of looking at families, at people, at life, that had always been a part of me but that I could never describe or express. I cried like mad inside that little library carrel.

Since that day, I didn't see many other Ozu movies -- they aren't terribly easy to find -- but that one film was enough to cement his status as one of my all-time favorite filmmakers. It's not everyday that you come across someone whose way of looking at the world manages to be both soothingly placid yet sharply observant and reflective -- someone who keeps showing you the world as if it were a secret held between a child's hands.

During October 2003 I had the rare opportunity to watch every Ozu movie still in existence, at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Ozu retrospective on his100th birthday -- you better believe I took advantage of it! Going into the event, I had seen about 12 of Ozu's movies, and by the time I was through that number had tripled. It was both exhilarating and exhausting, being exposed to so much of one man's vision within such a concentrated period -- I doubt I'll ever do it again. But it was amazing to gather piecemeal the steady evolution of this man's art over four decades of steady work: from the boisterous silent-era schoolboy comedies and gangster pictures to the placid late films about marriage and death.

But it wasn't until the last film of the festival that my Ozu binge came to a moment of personal understanding. The movie wasn't even directed by Ozu -- it was a documentary by Wim Wenders about Ozu's legacy. At the end of the film he interviewed Ozu's camera assistant Yuharu Atsuta, who worked with Ozu for nearly all of Ozu's career. Atsuta breaks down crying, and declines to continue the interview -- in his own way that says it all about Ozu's artistry: communicating things beyond mere words -- gestures, expressions, environments and moods. Here was a man who came into the world, who presented us ever so quietly with an odd, unassuming and completely original way of seeing what's around us. He is gone, but for those who have loved his films, our lives have never quite been the same since.

Later I will post links to various Ozu resources, but for now I'd like to give special thanks to Derek Lam (www.camerastylo.com) who built a wonderful Ozu site for the Lincoln Center retrospective: http://filmlinc.com/nyff/ozu.htm; Nick Wrigley's beautiful site www.ozuyasujiro.com, and Acquarello's study of Ozu films (www.filmref.com/directors/dirpages/ozu.html). These are some highlights among the many invaluable Ozu resources that can be found on the web.

Below are (rather subjective) descriptions of each of Yasujiro Ozu's films (except for THE ONLY SON and LATE SPRING, which rank among Ozu's best, though I haven't written anything about them as of yet).

DAYS OF YOUTH <<Wakaki hi>> (1929) 103m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0020563/

This breezy student comedy about the misadventures of two slacker collegians (Ichiro Yuki and Tatsuo Saito, who does a great riff on Harold Lloyd) is Ozu's earliest existing film. The narrative is as incidental as ever but eventually locks into an extended sequence capturing the foibles of a romantic triangle that develops during an extended skiing sequence -- which in itself is a wonder as it's probably the longest exterior sequence Ozu ever filmed. Ozu's filmmaking is more "mainstream" than what he's known for, utilizing dissolves, handheld camerawork and clever point of view shots to capture the thrills and spills of the ski slopes. Ozu's characteristically lovely moments of human intimacy are in evidence, but they have yet to be as sharply composed, pared down to the graphic simplicity that is his hallmark. It seems evident that a younger, more carefree Ozu directed this -- it's relatively slight but extremely affable depiction of youth -- one wonders what wonders Ozu would have done with AMERICAN PIE.

I GRADUATED, BUT... <<Daigaku wa deta keredo>> (1929) 11m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0019796/

A college graduate is unable to find a job but tries to hide his unemployment from his wife and fiancee. Though only 11 minutes of fragments is all that remains of Ozu's initial entry in the "I Verbed, But..." series, it still plays rather coherently.

A STRAIGHTFORWARD BOY <<Tokkan kozo>> (1929) 38m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0020509/

Takeshi Sakamoto and Tatsuo Saito are two bumbling child kidnappers (Sakamoto carries a butterfly net if that gives you an idea of his skill level) who abduct a boy (Tomio Aoki, Japan's Dennis the Menace) who turns out to be more than they bargained for. Pieces of this slapstick crime caper based on O. Henry's "The Ransom of Red Chief" are missing throughout, but it still plays coherently and has its share of hilarious moments.

WALK CHEERFULLY <<Hogaraka ni ayume>> (1930) 100m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0020980/

A genuine rarity, an Ozu gangster movie, in which a conman falls for one of his targets, achieving redemption through love in a way that is highly reminiscent of Frank Borzage's tales of romantic salvation. Ozu achieves a variety of moods, from the playful hand signals and spontaneous dance routines that gangsters use to greet each other, to the passion of not only romantic love but fraternal devotion between the conman and his best buddy, resulting in one of his most macho movies as well as one of his most tender. Incidentally, Ozu gives a lot of visual time in this film to close-up shots of people's feet, a motif I don't quite understand in its relation to the movie but is certainly striking.

I FLUNKED, BUT... <<Rakudai wa shita kerodo...>> (1930) 94m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0021283/

Ozu's follow-up to I GRADUATED, BUT... actually plays somewhat like a prequel: a student fails when the shirt on which he wrote his exam cheat sheet gets mistakenly sent to the laundry. The student contemplates his outcast fate as his graduating dorm-mates all face the working world. The film is loaded with clever shifts in perspective (such as when a boy, misunderstanding the meaning of 'flunk' declares that he wants to flunk just like his big brother), and the film becomes a hilarious and touching reflection on college life and what it means to leave it.

THAT NIGHT'S WIFE <<Sono Yo no tsuma>> (1930) 65m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0021406/

Ozu makes the best of what appears to be an uncharacteristic potboiler assignment involving a man (Tokihiko Okada) driven to crime to help his wife and ailing daughter, chased down by a cop (Fuyuki Yamamoto who looks like a Japanese Charles Bronson) who suddenly faces a moral dilemma. The characters are clearly played for genre type, but great performances make it special -- especially by Emiko Yagumo as the fiercely protective wife -- and Ozu achieves a feeling of moral resolve and atonement through personal sacrifice similar to what he did in WALK CHEERFULLY.

THE LADY AND THE BEARD <<Shukujo to Hige>> (1931) 97m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0022048/

This eccentric comedy of manners follows a love quadrangle centered on a kendo master (Tokihiko Okada), whose chauvinistic upholding of Japanese culture screeches to a halt when he falls for a progressive (but not too progressive) office worker. He shaves his beard (after protesting memorably that "all great men have beards!" including Lincoln, Darwin and Marx), puts on a suit and learns the Western ways of wooing a woman, attracting a haughty aristocrat and a gangster floozy in the process. The three very different women seem to be presented as three feminine responses to the Western modernization of Japan, with the office girl being the ideal (conversant in Western ways while wrapped fetchingly in a kimono). Ozu's often hilarious depictions of Okada's romantic entanglements owe a good deal to Lubitsch, but his sensitivity to cultural disparity is uniquely his.

TOKYO CHORUS <<Tokyo no Gassho>> (1931) 90m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0022485/

A well-to-do employee of an insurance firm gets a handsome bonus only to get fired for standing up for a laid-off co-worker; his stay-at-home wife, son and daughter (a very young but no less adorable Hideko Takamine) all must contend with the effects of his unemployment. This could very well be re-titled I WORKED, BUT... as it has the same eclectic mix of tones found in that "trilogy", this time ranging from the wistfully ruminative to the starkly violent to the hilariously scatalogical. The film also continues the major theme that preoccupied Ozu at this time, employment as a determinant of social status and self-esteem, while also pointing to the dichotomy of home life vs. office life and how children view their parents which would be explored further in I WAS BORN BUT... It is wonderful to witness the sheer range of devices Ozu employs, from tracking shots to keyhole iris shots, generous helpings of physical slapstick and odd assorted throwaway moments that reveal characters in quirky, intimate ways. With its freewheeling technique examining the foibles and fissures of Japanese society from all angles, this is a major example of the young, robust Ozu at his best.

I WAS BORN, BUT... <<Umarete Wa mita keredo...>> (1932) 91m

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023634/

Put in simple terms, this is one of the greatest silent movies ever made. Though the film was intended to be screened with live voice-over by a benshi narrator, this masterpiece works stunningly well without sound, because Ozu's unparalleled sense of visual rhythm, choreographed movement, and humor keep one's eyes dancing in delight. The story concerns two boys who fight their way to gain status and respect among the local bullies, only to realize that their father is a bottom-feeder among the adults. As such it's loaded with acute observations of Japanese society, and not without Ozu's penchant for subtle but potent criticism. For people who are used to the "slow" Ozu of the 50s, this film will be a revelation, inspiring speculation as to how and why he changed a style that already was exceptional.

WHERE NOW ARE THE DREAMS OF YOUTH? <<Seishun no Yume Ima Izuko>> (1932) 90m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0023450/

Ozu revisits the dichotomy between schoolboy idealism and working world realities, this time focusing on four college friends, one of whom (Tatsuo Saito) happens to be the son of a corporate executive; the son takes over upon his father's death, and his friends come seeking employment. Their friendship clearly isn't the same under this new working relationship, the subordinates become yes-men to the point that one of them says nothing when Saito casts his eye on his fiance. This leads to a climax even more violent than those of A HEN IN THE WIND or THE MUNEKATA SISTERS, a minute-long beating served by one friend to another that is all the more stunning in that the other two friends passively look on. Startlingly raw and deeply unresolved, this is perhaps Ozu's most disturbing exploration of social inequality and the damage it unleashes even among the most loyal friends.

WOMAN OF TOKYO <<Tokyo no onna>> (1933) 47m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0024676/

Seeing this a second time in a healthy restored print, I still can't say I'm entirely won over by this early melodrama involving a woman who is scandalized when her brother's girlfriend learns of her prostitution to help cover his student expenses. The chief interest of this film lies in its unusual structure: as J. Hoberman notes, the film is "a subtle riot of discordant formal devices -- two-character crosscutting is complicated by weird eye-line matches and bizarre special jumps, inexplicable interpolations, and exreme close-ups." (There's also some interesting non-matching of dialogue intertitles with the characters speaking them, which David Bordwell discusses in his study on Ozu.) Hoberman concludes that "inadvertant or not, it's a masterpiece," though I think one would have to appraise the film on strictly formalist experimental grounds to come to that evaluation (Hoberman was probably thinking of his favorite cut-and-paste classic ROSE HOBART as he wrote this). There certainly is plenty to baffle over, such as the sudden wild digression to two journalists bantering happily at the end of the film, which seems to suggest Ozu's contempt at public indifference to a private tragedy, a theme that gets a real workout in the much later masterpiece TOKYO TWILIGHT.

DRAGNET GIRL <<Hijosen no onna>> (1933) 100m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0024120/

Josef von Sternberg doesn't get as much mention as Frank Borzage or Ernst Lubitsch as an early Ozu influence, but those familiar with the dense arrangement of objects onscreen in Sternberg films may see the resemblance in both early and late Ozu films. This moody, expressionist pre-noir potboiler exhibits plenty of inspired clutter (most memorably the RCA Victor dog) and stylistic fluorishes (tracking shots, pull shots, and memorable use of shadow) as it tells the story of a gangster and his good-girl-gone-bad moll (Kinuyo Tanaka) as they experience an spiritual awakening through the good graces of an innocent girl. Redemption seems to be a recurring motif in Ozu's gangster movies (WALK CHEEFULLY, THAT NIGHT'S WIFE), and one wonders if bad guy heroes turning themselves in is a convention of the genre or indicative of Ozu's feelings about the criminal life he was assigned to depict. Whatever the case, the climax (involving the single gunshot fired in the entire existing Ozu canon) is as suspenseful and emotionally powerful as anything Ozu filmed.

PASSING FANCY <<Dekigokoro>> (1933) 100m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0023937/

Takeshi Sakamoto and Tokan Kozzo team up memorably yet again as an unemployed illiterate drunk and his resentful son, in this sentimental study of working class father-son relationships. As in I WAS BORN BUT... and TOKYO CHORUS, Ozu explores how children measure their self-esteem in their parents.

A MOTHER SHOULD BE LOVED <<Haha O kowazuya>> (1934) 72m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0025214/

Sadly, the first and last reels are missing from this story of the turbulent relationship between a single mother and her two sons, one of whom is deeply jealous of the attention lavished on his brother by their mother, which in turn causes the other brother to resent his mother as well. The missing ending is supposed to present a happy resolution, but what still exists in print is a bizarre quasi-Oedipal melodrama that strongly hints at psycho-sexual tensions between family members, something I've never seen anywhere else among Ozu's numerous family studies. Several scenes take place in a brothel, a "home away from home" for the brothers, further adding to the weirdness. But perhaps most beguiling of all is a German poster celebrating the tricentennial of a passion play that hangs prominently in the family's living room. All in all, a most bizarre entry in the Ozu canon.

A STORY OF FLOATING WEEDS <<Ukigusa Monogatari>> (1934) 86m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0025929/

Remakably similar in structure yet different in tonal effect to Ozu's more famous 1959 remake, this story of a travelling troupe's last days in a seaside village was one of Ozu's first forays into a quiet, rural background, though it still feels brisk compared to the more staid and sumptuous remake. The depictions of stage life are more slapstick-oriented than in the remake (most notably in Tokkan Kozo's hilarious turn in a full-sized dog costume), but are counterbalanced by sensitive portrayals of all the characters, especially the great, dignified lead performance by Takeshi Sakamoto. The romantic interludes are as powerful as in the remake, though without employing the overt sensuality of on-screen kissing; instead there appears to be the use of a filter or gauze to give the scenes between the young couple an otherworldly effect, which gives more emphasis of the idea of the actress employed to seduce the troupe leader's son enacting a "performance", an idea that I would have like to have seen developed even further. Even so, this is a marvellous work with a set of wonders distinguishable from that of the remake.

AN INN IN TOKYO <<Tokyo No yado>> (1935) 80m

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0027118

This early great work from The Master is a sobering melodrama honed squarely on a single unemployed, homeless father struggling to feed and shelter his two sons. Ozu does a fine job capturing the dynamic between the two boys by themselves and with their father, but the film really gets interesting when two women enter the story: a young single mother, also homeless, and an old friend who finds the father a job. The maudlin climax seems to anticipate Ford's GRAPES OF WRATH and DeSican melodrama -- though in the wrong ways -- but prior to that Ozu comes up with an quirky expressionist sequence to reflect the father's unraveling moral state.

KAGAMIJISHI (1936) 19m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0345476/

This short documentary by Ozu was intended to present the artistry of kabuki dancer Kikugoro Onoe IV to both Japanese and foreign audiences. A voice-over narration introduces Kikugoro as well as the dance he performs in the film's second half, in which a young girl is transformed into a resplendent lion (the imagery of which apparently inspired Jean Cocteau as he conceived his own BEAUTY AND THE BEAST). Watching Kikugoro imitate the gestures of a demure maiden you see how he deserved his fame. Ozu shoots the performance in three simple set-ups: a roving frontal shot of the performers on stage, an angled shot from the side of the stage, and an angled longshot that acknowledges the presence of the audience in a way that is unmistakably Ozu.

WHAT DID THE LADY FORGET? <<Shukujo wa Nani o Wasuretaka>> (1937) 73m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0029557/

One of Ozu's most delightful comedies involves the minor household upheaval caused by a freewheeling Japanese debutante's visit to her henpecked professor uncle and his fussy wife. This film is blessed with a surfeit of small, droll gestures that amply demonstrate both the whimsicality and the sharpness of Ozu's observations of human behavior: the clucking communion of housewives, clever games played by singing schoolboys and the subtle, playful banter of relatives who know each others' foibles all too well. The schoolgirl character is of particular interest as a prototypical "liberated woman" who gets her uncle to take her to a geisha house and isn't afraid of letting her leg show under her skirt (here I wonder how much of this was influenced by the '30s Hollywood screwball comedies Ozu loved, or if it was truly indicative of emerging behavioral trends among Japanese women). Things come to a head though as the girl and her uncle conspire for a night away from her aunt, only to be confronted for their deception, leading to an unsettling moment when the aunt gets slapped. I'm not entirely satisfied with how Ozu's characters later shrug off this instance of domestic abuse as just another quirky behavior that can be turned on its ear. Nonetheless the film stands as a provocative exploration of male-female relationships amidst the shifting mores of modern society.

BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF THE TODA FAMILY <<Toda-ke no Kyodai>> (1941) 105m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0034298

Ozu enters William Wyler terrain with a somber upscale family drama about a mother and daughter who are shuttled in unwelcome fashion from one family member's home to another following the death of the family patriarch. The thematic elements of displacement within a family unit anticipate TOKYO STORY -- there's even a bedtime scene between the mother and daughter that echoes one in the later film. There's a startling lack of music in this film, esp. during Ozu's normally music-filled transitional shots, that contribute to an overall sense of tense unease that touches on what might have been the general wartime state of mind among Japanese at that time. The war makes a subtle appearance in the form of the youngest son who offers to take the unwanted family members with him to settle in China -- a moment which might be aligned with Imperialist propaganda, though in a fascinating way: the Chinese "frontier" seems presented as a place where Japanese society can escape its social hypocrisies and begin anew.

THERE WAS A FATHER <<Chichi Ariki>> (1942) 87m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0034591/

Another sober wartime drama, this time a sort of reworking of THE ONLY SON as a widower schoolteacher decides to send his boy to a boarding school to give him the best education possible and seek a higher paying position to afford tuition. The film takes a sudden leap forward in time as the grown son desires to take care of his aging father, but the father forbids the son to compromise his own career. The war is barely mentioned but the film can easily be read as a propagandistic statement about self-sacrifice and devotion to duty, even at the cost of family unity. However, the pensive, tentative mood Ozu captures at the end, embodied in the son's distant, troubled look as he thinks about his father, hints at Ozu's own reservations with the moral message being issued. The scenes of father and son together in both halves of the story have a gentle perfection that gives the film all the beauty it requires, thanks to great performances by Shuji Sano as the grown son and Chishyu Ryo as the father. Amazingly, Ryu was only 38 when he gave this totally believable performance as an aging patriarch -- in fact he barely looks any different than he does in AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON twenty years later!

RECORD OF A TENEMENT GENTLEMAN <<Nagaya Shinshi Roku>> (1947) 72m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0039651/

Ozu's first film after the War is a moving and highly effective piece whose plea on behalf of the underprivileged feels remarkably akin to what the Italian Neo-Realists were doing contemporaneously. Choko Iida gives a marvelous performance as a dour widow who finds herself in custody of a stoic orphan boy with a nasty bedwetting habit. For much of this film Ozu is at his best, when narrative concerns take a back seat to the unbridled joy of witnessing the rhythms of human interaction with all its quirky mannerisms: you're no longer following a story, you're watching life unfold before your eyes. Towards the end, the social agenda upsets this rhythm somewhat, but the last shot of numerous orphans lying about in a playground has a deeply troubling quality that lingers in the memory.

A HEN IN THE WIND <<Kaze no Naka no Mendori>> (1948) 90m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0040505

A sensitive and powerful examination of the moral compromises made during World War II and the toll they take on families. Kinuyo Tanaka gives another of her sensitive and compelling performances as a woman forced into prostitution to care for her sick child, and is unable to keep her secret when her husband returns from the front. Ozu takes on the topic of prostitution while steering well clear of its potential for sordidness (something I find both a virtue and a limitation... in some ways it's *too* tactful). The scenes between the two exceptional leads contribute to a film blessed with some of the most uncomortable scenes Ozu has filmed, delving deep into raw unresolved emotions of guilt, honor and devotion.

THE MUNEKATA SISTERS <<Munekata Kyoudai>> (1950) 112m

From what I've heard, this is one of the least revered Ozu films, but after first glance I find it to be one of the most fascinating. A naive but zealous girl (Hideko Takamine) proposes marriage to a man who is in love with her sister (Kinuyo Tanaka) who is trapped in a loveless marriage; this is the girl's way of showing concern for her sister, by keeping the man she really loves but cannot have close at hand. It's an odd mix of high comedy and stark social commentary on the social boundaries that define women's roles, and for me it shows as much tonal range as anything I've seen in other Ozu films -- frivolous flirtatious interludes, sincere and tender romantic exchanges, and stark moments of violent rage are held in precarious balance thanks to Ozu's rock solid powers of observation. It's worth seeing this film as Ozu playing as self-consciously and inventively with genres as he did in the 30s -- the girl in some scenes narrates the action like a benshi. I definitely see this as a reworking of WHAT DID THE LADY FORGET?, revisiting the setup of the liberated meddling gamine overturning the fragile co-existence between a hapless housewife and the helpless husband; this time the scene of domestic violence is given the full measure of subtext and consequence that was lacking in the earlier film, adding resonance to what otherwise might be misjudged as straight melodrama. A difficult film to pin down, but no less alluring for it.

EARLY SUMMER <<Bakushu>> (1951) 124m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0043313/

I can attest that not only are no two Ozu movies the same, but that each marks a notable development along the continuum of one of the most formidable artistic visions in film. This mid-career masterpiece is no exception -- its unique qualities lie partly in its assiduous exploration of interior space in an ingenious opening sequence, beautifully capturing the rhythms and choreography of a family household as they go about their morning routine. It's no wonder that this is the favorite Ozu movie of formalist film scholar than David Bordwell -- Ozu frames and re-frames his compositions, reinventing spaces with each cut and shot, turning an ordinary house into a cinematic funhouse -- only PLAYTIME, IVAN THE TERRIBLE and LAST YEAR IN MARIENBAD have offered similar wonders as far as I'm concerned. Neither is this style for style's sake: as we follow the story of how this family is pressured by social convention to marry off their daughter, the inevitable disintegration of this family makes the synchronicity and synergy of that marvelous opening sequence all the more poignant. In between, there is a rich variety of interactions between three generations of families and friends as they meet their fates, individually and collectively, one exquisite, fleeting moment at a time.

FLAVOR OF GREEN TEA OVER RICE <<Ochazuke no Aji>> (1952) 115m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0044982

An unassuming husband finds the nerve to employ non-violent resistance against his contemptuous wife after hanging out for an evening with a rebellious niece who skipped her own interview with an arranged fiance. I really could have cared less about the story as the characters were so lovingly drawn and their interactions were a joy to listen to, and that's really where the action is in Ozu movies, the sounds and spaces between people as they repeatedly bump into each other and modify each other's state of mind in ways both large and small. Masterful as is almost always the case with Ozu, the film only let me down at the end when it seemed to side firmly with the henpecked husband, as if this were a wimp's rendition of TAMING OF THE SHREW.

TOKYO STORY <<Tokyo Monogatari>> (1953) 136m

Each of the three times I've seen this film I wonder more if there is a more perfect film out there. My latest viewing once again filled me with a dual apprehension: that this film in its two hour span states everything on my mind that I would want to say in a movie, so that there's nothing for me to say, my job has been done; and that I still need to say something anyway, but it will have to be in a way that stands apart from this flawless work of human beauty. No one can use the word derivative to describe director Yasujiro Ozu's style. His way of assembling a slowly unraveling series of carefully selected, unmoving camera shots explores film space in a subtle but powerful way that brings attention to the spaces between people and comments on the physical nature of human interactions. He sets a lofty standard for original, meaningful filmmaking.

The plot reads like simple melodrama: an aging couple living in rural Japan makes a weeklong journey to Tokyo to see their grown-up children one last time. It is a week full of disappointments as the children are more intent on their daily affairs than on caring for their parents. Their son, a doctor, is busy making housecalls. Their daughter, a hairdresser, simply can't be bothered, always worrying how much money it will cost to entertain her parents. They even send their parents to a resort (a cheap one, the daughter insists) just to get them out of their hair, completely ignoring the fact that the purpose of the parents' visit was to see how their children were doing.

Ozu takes this plot and fills it with such significance, as if it speaks for all parents and children, and the abyss of misunderstanding and disappointment lying in wait between them. Instead of making an invective against a generation of materialistic Japanese who neglect their families, he gives the story space to breathe and expand, to take in all sides, giving the viewer time to meditate and leaving him with a profound sense of the sad ways of fate.

Ozu accomplishes his unique effects with various techniques. Not only are his camera shots static, they take in the scene from a relatively low perspective, as if seen from the eyes of someone kneeling on the tatami mat spread upon the floor. Indeed, this camera angle is known as the "tatami shot" since Ozu used it almost exclusively for his interiors. He also violates the 180 degree line repeatedly, shooting two figures from opposing angles in such a way that their relative positions aren't linearly connected, as you would find in a typical Hollywood movie. The result is a more open feeling of interior space, a jarring effect that makes one more alert to the relationship between people and their surroundings.

The story is wonderfully textured as well, its dialogue peppered with casual allusions to the family's past, that open up our perspective of a sad present. The parents, now so subdued and gentle, had their own issues back when the family was one unit. He often quarreled with the children, stayed out drinking and often came home late to his hapless wife. These accounts seem improbable in the face of such a wizened old man, but they lend a lot of insight into why the family relationships are in such an estranged state.

He also has his actors play the soft notes on the emotional scale, always smiling and speaking politely while keeping their true feelings suppressed behind a mask of Japanese good manners. This effect sustains a feeling of tension throughout the narrative, as the children are uncomfortable having their parents around while the parents pretend not to notice. When emotions do come out, the effects on the viewer are devastating, such as the grandmother's confession to her dead son's widow. Out of politeness, the daughter-in-law tells her it's time to sleep and shuts out the light; she has the consideration not to watch her mother weeping.

The widowed daughter-in-law is played by Setsuko Hara, considered in her time as the quintessential Japanese woman. Her character is easily the most interesting of the film. She is not even a blood relative, and yet she is the only one who takes the parents out on a day trip and gladly welcomes them into her shabby one room apartment for dinner and a bottle of sake (borrowed from her neighbor). The parents notice the shrine to their son, killed in the war, and offer their condolences. They also mention what a reckless young man he had been, often going out to get drunk. The daughter merely shakes her head and smiles.

On the surface, this film seems to bend towards conservatism, tradition and nostalgia, with Setsuko Hara the poster girl for such values. But each time I see this film I get a greater sense of being stuck between a present that charges relentlessly forward and a past that seems sweet only in retrospect. What the parents witness in the city is a nightmarish inversion of everything traditional. Their son is a hapless doctor struggling to make ends meet, while their daughter is the real go-getter, materialistic and frugal, bending both her husband and brother to her will. Here one can see the ills of modern Japanese society: the son as salary man trapped in his career, the daughter symbolizing a traditionalist's nightmare vision of the modern woman, running the show, ambitious yet hopelessly self-centered. One could argue that modern Japan was built on the heedless drive of people like her, but through Ozu's eyes we come to hate her profoundly for most of the movie.

However, our conservative sentiments are disrupted when the daughter-in-law confesses that she doesn't miss her late husband much at all, and is far more worried about whether she will remain a widow forever. She doesn't like herself for her selfish thoughts, but they're there anyway, and she will never lose them. She will not be like the mother, silently standing in the shadow of her husband forever. Her confession has the effect of an earthquake, shaking the moral foundation by which we condemned the other children who neglected the parents. It's as if self-centeredness was a disease that had just claimed another victim of the post-war generation of Japanese.

But it is more than that. It is an honest statement on the modern human condition, endemic to all societies that have undergone the struggle to develop themselves to compete in the global economy. This is not just the story of one fragmented Japanese family, but of my own -- of post-war Asia, and all of the industrialized world. The children go to the city to find a better living for themselves, only to be sucked into a lifestyle of constant labor, struggle and anxiety. The father admits in private that he had thought his son was a rich doctor, but it turns out he is a common practitioner. And of course the son would sense his father's disappointment -- and this may be the real reason why he can't bear to spend any real time with his parents. Perhaps, more than anything, it is our dreams for a better life that have made us strangers to our own families.

There is moment towards the end when a young woman is infuriated by her own sister's cruelty to her; she asks Setsuko Hara if life is always going to be so disappointing. She replies, "Yes I'm afraid it is," and even supposes that as she gets older, she will also become more cruel to others.Ê She says all of this with a sweet, heartbreaking smile that means so many things: consolation, neurosis, courage. It is a quiet, subtle expression, but it seems to carry with it all the wisdom of the 20th century.

EARLY SPRING <<Soshun>> (1956) 144m

http://www.imdb.com/Title?0049784

Ozu's longest feature is a tricky one to read, and quite possibly one of his best works. The running time would indicate some kind of epic statement being made, and Ozu is certainly aiming high by offering a comprehensive examination of how the corporate salaryman mentality has deeply affected the lives of ordinary Japanese people. The film, which centers around a frustrated salaryman, his failing marriage, his dalliance with a younger co-worker and his co-workers increasing concerns, is often solemn and staid but not humorless in the least; in fact I can think of few Ozu films that do a better job of capturing communal ritual in all its highs and lows, which the 2 1/2 hour running time accomodates splendidly. Typical of Ozu, the story moves in a ritualistic pattern through interactions between friends and family, in homes, offices, bars and group outings. There is the recurring instance of a group getting together to eat dinner, often breaking out into song as they celebrate each other's company -- these scenes for me are clearly a highlight of the entire Ozu oeuvre, they shine with spontaneity.

TOKYO TWILIGHT <<Tokyo Boshoku>> (1957) 141m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0051093/

A deeply, uncharacteristically dark film, even among other "dark" Ozu films (i.e. A HEN IN THE WIND, EARLY SPRING) that may require a theatrical setting for the viewer to be fully absorbed in the strange, dark textures of the world Ozu presents. I myself was pretty alienated for the first 1/2 hour or so until the wintry chill of the mise-en-scene (brilliantly suggested in the slightly hunched-over postures of the characters) found its way into me instead of keeping me at arm's length. And from there this story builds in unwavering intensity as it follows a family on a slow slide into dissolution: a passive, judgmental patriarch (played by Chisyu Ryu, subverting his gently accepting persona in a way that is shocking), his elder daughter, a divorcee with a single child (Setsuko Hara, playing brilliantly against type -- who'd have thought the sweetest lady in '50s Japan had such an evil scowl?), and his younger daughter (Ineko Arima, a revelation), secretly pregnant and searching for her boyfriend, get a major shakeup when their absent mother, who the father had told them was long dead, re-enters their lives. Ozu's vision of post-war Japan and how the sins of one generation get passed on to the next, illustrated brilliantly by a series of parallels drawn sensitively between characters, manages to be both compassionate and scathing -- even a seemingly cop-out happy denouement is embedded with a poison pill. A masterpiece, without question, one that throws all of Ozu's depictions of modern society in a beautifully devastating new light.

EQUINOX FLOWER <<Higanbana>> (1958) 118m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0051720/

Ozu's first color feature, following the harsh, pessimistic black-and-white worlds of EARLY SPRING and TOKYO TWILIGHT, returns to the more whimsical disappointments of domestic life, and the use of color adds to the film's soothing quality and delight in everyday details vibrantly observed, qualities that Ozu would continue to develop in his remaining color films. A father butts heads with his oldest daughter when she refuses to comply with his wish to arrange her marriage. Another quality to this film that Ozu would develop to better effect in his later works is a movement away from overt narrative -- things happen in this film in a static, almost incidental manner, which seems to reflect the experience of the father, insisting on things being the same as always, and yet perceiving gradual shifts almost in spite of himself. There's one beautiful sequence, the father's college reunion party, where Chisyu Ryu sings a patriotic song from their youth that is something of a epiphany, where youthful idealism and traditional values finally merge in a manner that is poignant, tragic, and truly sublime.

GOOD MORNING <<Ohayo>> (1959) 94m

The story, which at times feels incidental, centers around two boys who refuse to speak when their parents refuse to buy a television set. What appears at first to be a lightweight effort is actually a remarkable meditation on human communication in all its forms: the "good mornings" of the title, insidious gossip, fart jokes, hand signals and awkward romantic conversation all figure into the cavalcade of brilliantly rendered interactions between parents, children and nosy neighbors.

FLOATING WEEDS <<Ukigusa>> (1959) 119m

http://www.imdb.com/Title?0053390

Late period Ozu at his most resplendent. A travelling theater troupe sets up on a coastal village, where the troupe's leader's old flame lives with their son, who doesn't know his father's identity. The leader's current mistress (the ever-alluring Machiko Kyo) learns his secret and in a jealous fit conspires with a fellow actress (Ayako Wakao, painfully gorgeous) to seduce his son. As always, Ozu's late period wisdom lies in his ability to depict the varying degrees and ways in which people refuse, consciously or otherwise, to be bound by role-playing constraints, even if it leads to irreconcilable rifts between loved ones. Filmed in gorgeous color, all of this plays so naturally, so effortlessly, that for long stretches one forgets that they're watching a movie and are simply witnessing the casual unfolding of life in all its quiet ritualistic joys, sudden excitements and inexorable disappointments. It may very well be the most sensual of Ozu's films, with at least a couple of scenes filled with breathtaking romantic passion, and many other scenes that vividly capture the numberless beautiful details of people, of places, of life.

LATE AUTUMN <<Akibiyori>> (1960) 128m

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0053579/

A trio of old buddies intervenes in the affairs of their old college crush, now a recent widow, and her daughter. The daughter won't marry, afraid to leave her mother alone; the guys attempt to arrange a marriage between one of them and the mother, with near-disastrous results. Ozu's attentiveness to the pleasure of small moments shared between good friends is at its peak of perfection -- as in all his best films, one forgets that they're following a story and is just "hanging out" with the people onscreen. However, there's much more to this film than a matchmaking lark -- the pleasure that the viewer gets as a fellow matchmaker conspiring among the men gives way to the quiet pain of mother and daughter as they face imminent separation, leading to an ending every bit as heartbreaking as that of LATE SPRING.

END OF SUMMER <<Kohayagawa-ke no Aki>> (1961) 103m

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055052/

Quite unlike any other Ozu film, this chronicle of a wealthy patriarch's last days seems to float dreamlike as if conjured up within the dying man's subconscious: playing hide-and-seek with his grandchild, leaving his family to visit the house of an old flame. The uncharacterisitc score by Toshiro Mayazumi, with its use of chamber music and wind instruments, adds to the surreal quality, as do appearances made by white American boys (the only appearances made by non-Japanese actors in all of Ozu's oeuvre, I believe). As is typical of late period Ozu, there's not much apparent conflict driving the narrative, merely a weaving of isolated moments between several characters, but what gives this film its indelible effect is the succession of astounding images: a girl getting ready for a date while standing next to a dead man, a funeral procession of people dressed in black matched with a flock of ravens. A film about mortality devoid of pathos, it is a deeply disturbing work.

AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON <<Samma no Aji>> (1962) 118m

http://www.imdb.com/Title?0056444

Yasujiro Ozu's last film, about a middle aged man who gives in to his friends' urgings to marry off his daughter, has me making associations with, of all people, Howard Hawks. Not only is the theme of individual desire subjected to communal duty typical of both directors, but this film delights in the nuances of human interactions much in the way of Hawks' late masterpiece RIO BRAVO; both films seem to treat narrative as an afterthought for the sake of exploring and celebrating the ritualized behavior that blossoms when old acquaintances come together. The story seems whimsical, almost jazz-like, in how it follows various side characters before returning repeatedly to the stoic father (Chisyu Ryu, in perhaps his most affecting of all his performances with Ozu). And yet, all these various sides reflect on the whole in an ingenious narrative pattern. The virtues of Ozu's artistry may not be appreciated by most people ¨¢ and even those who do have trouble explaining his significance. It remains one of the great mysteries of the movies that Ozu's seemingly light, commercial entertainments can contain such an abundance of human experience, enhanced by an assiduously developed style that demands extended contemplation.