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I Was Born But… is the funniest of the three, with its Little Rascals like attention to the child's point of view. It opens with a shot of car wheels spinning in mud, since Mr. Yoshii (Tatsuo Saito) has just moved his family from suburban Azabu to Tokyo. As Yoshii slaves to improve his employment status, comedic scenes focus on his two sons, Ryoichi (Hideo Sugawara) and Keiji (Tomio Aoki), who continuously ward off local bullies while trying to please their dad. When the boys ditch class to avoid getting beat up, the younger remembers that he was "supposed to get an E in calligraphy today." Lying in a meadow, he does his lesson and recruits a passerby to forge a good grade on his paper. Later, after classmates swallow raw sparrow eggs to impress each other, the two stars feed their eggs to the family dog, accidentally sickening him. Scenes become funnier as tensions build between the parents and their rebellious sons. It is amazing how much Ozu can achieve with so little dialogue, which crops up sparingly printed on cards. One may wonder if sound these days even improves our film viewing experience. In the least, Silent Ozu recalls quieter times, when perhaps just as much narrative was expressed. --Trinie Dalton
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Ozu began his career as a cameraman, and with hard work and determination he finally ascended the ladder to director. Once his position was earned, Ozu poured his creativity onto film with unmatched diligence, producing nearly half of his 50+ films in the first five years of his career. Sadly, many of these films are now lost, which adds to the enjoyment of these extraordinary, previously unreleased films from Criterion.
As the title suggests, the films in this collection were released during a portion of Ozu's silent career, ranging from 1931-1933. Ozu, along with the majority of the Japanese film industry, was somewhat hesitant about entering into talkies based upon the belief that emotions could be best conveyed with movements, expressions, and atmosphere, not dialogue. Ozu's first talkie was not released until 1936, the same year as Chaplin's final silent masterpiece, Modern Times. This period of his career marked Ozu's transition into social criticism as he both subtly and blatantly expresses his discontent with the culture of pre-WWII Japan.
Included films:
Tokyo Chorus (1931) - A man is fired from his job for reasons that would normally be viewed as commendable. The film from here follows his social and financial downfall as he does anything he possibly can to support his family. As in the other films in this collection, the plot of Tokyo Chorus sounds very dramatic but Ozu has a certain way of shedding a positive light onto each situation.
I Was Born, But... (1932) - A story of the hardships of childhood and the ways in which children view their parents in unappreciative and misconstrued ways. A comedy with some serious overtones.
Passing Fancy (1933) - The final film in this collection is about the unstable relationship of a widower and his son. It focuses on a child's attempts to help an alcoholic parent while also being resentful of the unstoppable forces of change.
And just in case anyone needs to know I'll post the technical aspects of the films as well.
Black and White
1.33:1
Dolby Digital Mono 1.0
Not Anamorphic
Japanese
The film tells the story of a family who relocate to suburban Tokyo. The two sons conflict with the local bullies - one of which is their father's boss's son. The boys deal with the local bullies only to 'lose face' over their father acting like a clown. What arises from this becomes a motif for Ozu - the estranged relationship between children and parents. For Ozu this is part of everyday life and is somewhat auto-biographical in thought as his own relationship with his father was also estranged. Further exemplified, is Ozu's motif of spatial violation and parallel action.
Ozu is the anti-thesis of the Hollywood blockbuster and he possesses a narrow choice of camera positions. Nowhere is the expression "less is more" more appropriate than here. While there is a rare use of a tracking shot, Ozu tends to prefer the static camera and usually shoots from the tatami mat. This sense of mimimalism seems entirely appropriate given that the film spends much time observing the boys everyday encounters.
This great filmmaker has a knack for expressing the tender beauty of everyday life and minimal expression. However, the sense of observation one feels is always pervaded with subtle touches of humour and emotional resonance - that it is impossible to become bored with it. I bless my lucky stars for the offerings that Ozu brought to the world of filmmaking.
I also love his simple stories that everyone can relate to, his people are just like our friends, neighbors and families, some of them are sweet, some are stinkers, and many are just doing their best to cope with every day's challenges in life.
But a silent Ozu? I was a little wary, but I did put it on my wishlist, and I'm so glad I did and that one of my sweet relations gave it to me for my birthday, because it is one of Ozu's best! Ozu's films are always full of gentle and sometimes silly fun and this one did not disappoint. The two brothers are real characters and along with the kids they meet up with in their new neighborhood, it really was like watching a Japanese version of the Little Rascals. Did you know eating raw sparrow's eggs will make you strong?
It soon appears that they get their sense of humour from their father, though as usually happens, they are not as appreciative of it in him. And as with all Ozu films, we are left with the feeling that we are all pretty much the same no matter where we come from or even when we lived and we find a good deal of comfort in knowing that as the world changes we can still appreciate the things that never do. You'll hate yourself if you don't see it!
