Yasujiro Ozu

[jake]

Yasujiro Ozu (1903-1963)



A magnificent director, always overshadowed in the most famous Japanese directors canon by Kurosawa. His complete rejection of extravagant, virtuoso camera movements or visual tricks in favour of static compositions, could be considered theatrical but Ozu was never about the technological inventiveness which Eisenstein, Welles, Hitchcock Etc. were lauded for; Being a Buddhist, his films have a serene simplicity and are deeply humane. Reoccurring themes include old age, the passing of the torch from one generation to the next, conflicts and reconciliation inside the family structure, the affect of post-war Japan on society and death.

He handles these issues with such grace and an admirable nonjudgemental gaze, which are the qualities that make the films so poingant.

1. Tokyo monogatari (1953)
2. Kohayagawa-ke no aki (1962)
3. Ukigusa (1959)
4. Bakushû (1951)

Desperately need to see more.

[RNL]

I've been meaning to see some of his films for years.

To be perfectly honest, I'm dreading them, precisely for the theatrical, subdued humanism you mentioned, which seldom sits well with me.

I'll do it out of duty, and I hope I'm proven wrong.

[Capo]

There are now three boxsets of his out, too, which is nine films altogether available...I think.

[RNL]

(In response to a deleted post):

Oh alright.

I'll go rent the two movies they have at my local video store, which I believe are The End of Summer and his talkie version of Floating Weeds. How do rate those?

I'm not saying you are one of those who prefer such characters

I'm not, but characters aren't what interest me the most anyway. I don't think any of my favourite films are favoured because I relate to the protagonists - primarily, anyway. There are characters I like and characters I dislike, of course.

Rather, what I'm worried about with Ozu is that narratively, formally and thematically there's going to be a scarcity of substance. Mizoguchi, for instance, is, from what little I've seen, formally impressive, occasionally even stunning (Story of O-Haru in particular), but thematically a bit dull (though I loved Tales of Ugetsu).

[Michael]

(In response to a deleted post):

kino said:

jake said:

Yasujiro Ozu (1903-1963)
A magnificent director, always overshadowed in the most famous Japanese directors canon by Kurosawa. His complete rejection of extravagant, virtuoso camera movements or visual tricks in favour of static compositions, could be considered theatrical but Ozu was never about the technological inventiveness which Eisenstein, Welles, Hitchcock Etc. were lauded for;

I agree that he is a magnificent director and is overshadowed by Kurosawa, but I disagree with the notion that Ozu's cinema could be considered theatrical. His style is undoubtedly cinematic because of his heavy dependence on editing and rigorous attention to graphic and pictorial composition.

Without a doubt, Ozu is much an "experimenter" and innovator as Welles, Hitch, Eisenstein, Godard, Dreyer, Mizoguchi, Antonioni, Bresson, Tati, Griffith etc. He probably is the greatest of them all. He like Godard, Dreyer, Bresson, and Tati innovated a unique style that no one really has been able to reproduce or build upon. No one employs a 360 degree filmic space like the extent to which Ozu did.

Unfortunately, his experimentation gets lost by many spectators because of his minimalism. Ozu like Bresson and Dreyer only employed a certain amount of techqniques, but they used them exhaustively and creatively. So, on the surface, it looks like there is nothing there, but if you pay close attention there is as much complexity and ingenuity as a baroque Welles film.



There is the popular notion that Ozu was extremely conservative and traditional (the most Japanese of the Japanese directors), which isn't true. In terms of content, Ozu was extremely modern and made films about the changing social notion of family just as they were happening! A great example would be the family and marital content of "Late Spring."

His sense of humor is probably the most undermentioned aspect of his body of work. Ozu is usually lumped with Bresson, Dreyer, and Tarkovsky as spritiually transcendent mysterious filmmakers, but he has humor and playfulness that the others don't have.

That is not to say he is a crude juvenille filmmaker. My point is that he worked in comedy and dramatic genres. He had the ability to be subtle, socially critical, insightful, humane, serious, graceful, bawdy, and funny.

He handles these issues with such grace and an admirable nonjudgemental gaze, which are the qualities that make the films so poingant.

Agreed.

He is one of the giants of cinema, period.

I like you.

I haven't seen an Ozu film, but I heard his style is similar to that of Robert Bresson, someone whose technique is as close as one can get to "pure cinema." (if such a thing exists)

Diary of a Country Priest is about as purely cinematic as a film can get. And when I say "purely cinematic" I'm talking in terms of the level of difficulty in applying it to another medium. I haven't read the book, but I'm sure it's probably very different from the film. Have you seen it?

[RNL]

(In response to a deleted post):

kino said:

Just curious. What gave you that idea?

Reading what exactly it is he gets praise for, and looking at screenshots: almost everything I've read states that he makes "deceptively simple", staid, minimalist dramas about the nuances of familial relationships, and also that pretty much all of his films are shot with a static camera that sits perpetually three feet above the floor and six feet away from its subjects. That sounds to me like he took a reactionary stance against formalism by reducing its myriad possibilities to one.

I hope I'm wrong, but we'll see...

Interesting point on Mizoguchi. What was it about Ugetsu that you find dull? I found it to be an engrossing treatment of desire, illusion, and war.

Well, no, Tales of Ugetsu was the one I didn't find thematically dull. The other two, and reportedly a sizable body of Mizoguchi's work, concern the trials and travails of Japanese womenfolk through various eras, which is, to put it generously, of absolutely no interest to me.

By far the best part of The Life of O-Haru was the title character running downstairs from her room, while the camera tracks rapidly backwards through several doorways, lifts up over the second-floor bannister, drops down into the courtyard, meeting her as she runs from the porch, and tracks her about a hundred yards into the forest, weaving between the trees. That had my jaw on the floor. Actually, thinking about it now, I have no idea how they achieved that in 1952.

[RNL]

(In response to a deleted post):

Thanks for that, Kino. You've piqued my interest.

[RNL]

1. Kohayagawa-ke no aki 1961

[RNL]

Well, well. My dread has subsided.

I loved The End of Summer, and if it's at all representative of Ozu's style, then I also love Ozu's style. Jarmusch obviously owes him a lot, and you're quite right, Kino, about his reputation for theatricality being undeserved.

The film is so intimate and serene it feels cleansing, but then there emerges in its final scenes a vaguely ominous undercurrent, something weird settles over it and the intensely subtle contrast is unsettling.

It's great.

[Boz]

Per Capo's request:

I didn't like Tokyo Story for the same exact reasons a short essay in the DVD booklet commended it; no camera movement, basic shot framing, long mundane conversational scenes, and a stifling, beat a dead horse method of conveying the overall message and theme of generational differences. I personally don't see what's so fascinating about arbitrary conversations all filmed from the same, again supposedly fascinating, low angle. And perhaps I just couldn't relate to Japanese cultural customs from half a century ago, but it seemed to me that Ozu couldn't keep most of his characters emotional states very consistent, with random moments of lightheardedness in the middle of supposedly tense conflict scenes. The film was just so slow paced, so plain, overly long, and seemed to present a fairly mixed emotional message. Yes, the "MTV generation" point of view has perhaps distorted my level of patience in film viewing, especially for older foreign films such as this, but I just could not find anything remotely interesting here.

[Capo]

Thank ya, sir.

[Boz]

(In response to a deleted post):

I don't have much to say point for point, but I enjoyed your arguments.

Just to let you know, I watched Battleship Potemkin today for the first time, and kept thinking to myself, "Now THIS is what a quality historical foreign film is supposed to be like." Just to give you some sort of visual and narrative idea what I was looking for.

[svsg]

(In response to a deleted post):

kino said:

Ozu is not the only master filmmaker to use comic relief (e.g. Scorsese among countless others) or to deflate tension.

I am yet to see any of Ozu's movies, but I hate the idea of comic relief. As though the audience cannot handle the tension? I find that insulting.

[Anasazie]

1. Tokyo Story (1953) 10/10
2. An Autumn Afternoon (1964) 9.5/10
3. The Only Son (1936) 9/10
4. Early Summer (1951) 9/10
5. Late Spring (1949) 9/10
6. Passing Fancy (1933) 9/10
7. Late Autumn (1973) 8/10
8. Early Spring (1956) 8/10
9. The Record of a Tenement Gentleman (1947) 8/10
10. The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family (1941) 7/10
11. Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice (1952) 7/10
12. Dragnet Girl (1933) 7/10

[pimppanda]

1. Tokyo Story
2. Early Spring
3. The End of Summer
4. An Autumn Afternoon
5. Late Spring
6. Floating Weeds
7. Equinox Flower
8. Late Autumn
9. Tokyo Twilight
10. Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice

[quentincompson]

1.Late Spring(1949) 10/10
2.Tokyo Story(1953) 9/10
3.Early Summer(1951) 9/10
4.Early Spring(1956) 9/10
5.A Story of Floating Weeds(1934) 9/10
6.I Was Born But...(1932) 8/10
7.Days of Youth(1929) 8/10
8.An Autumn Afternoon(1962) 8/10
9.Floating Weeds(1959) 8/10
10.Tokyo Twilight(1957) 7/10
11.Dragnet Girl(1933) 7/10
12.The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice(1952) 7/10
13.An Inn In Tokyo(1935) 7/10
14.Good Morning (1959) 7/10
15.Equinox Flower(1958) 6/10
16.Woman Of Tokyo(1933) 6/10
17.A Mother Should Be Loved(1934) 6/10

[theundergroundman]

1. An Autumn Afternoon (1962) - [blue]10/10[/blue]
2. Tokyo Story (1953) - [blue]10/10[/blue]
3. Passing Fancy (1933) - [blue]9/10[/blue]
4. Early Summer (1951) - [blue]9/10[/blue]
5. Tokyo Chorus (1931) - [blue]8/10[/blue]
6. I Was Born But... (1932) - [blue]8/10[/blue]
7. Floating Weeds (1959) - [blue]8/10[/blue]
8. A Story of Floating Weeds (1934) - [blue]8/10[/blue]
9. Good Morning (1959) - [blue]7/10[/blue]
10. Equinox Flower (1958) - [blue]7/10[/blue]

[quentincompson]

Kino do you think you could post a list or at least private message me one?

I don't have much access to films at the moment but can purchase up to 15 Ozu's I haven't seen, but of course I'm not really able to affored them all, so I want the best.


Oh and RNL what's holding you back mate?

[Kino]

Sept 17, 2009 12:31:32 GMT quentincompson said:

Kino do you think you could post a list or at least private message me one?

I don't have much access to films at the moment but can purchase up to 15 Ozu's I haven't seen, but of course I'm not really able to affored them all, so I want the best.

Of those that you haven't seen:

The Only Son - masterpiece
Record of a Tenement Gentleman - masterpiece
Dragnet Girl - great; Ozu gangster film!
There Was a Father - great
Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family - great

And to put my recommendations in perspective, I rank Ozu's masterworks in order as:

1. Late Spring
2. Early Spring
3. Tokyo Twilight
4. Early Summer
5. Tokyo Story
6. The Only Son
7. Record of a Tenement Gentleman
8. An Autumn Afternoon

It's redundant when I say this, but I worship the man's work.

[Capo]

Probably the 'one' I want to get into most.