There Was a Father (1942)

 Yasujiro Ozu's "There Was a Father"

Now that I have accustomed myself to the rhythms and styles of a Yasujiro Ozu film, I am growing more and more fond of him with every film I watch. Even his more minor films have an emotional impact. His 1942 film, "There Was a Father" similarly has an emotional standard that only Ozu can pull off. 

"There Was a Father" centers on a widowed father with his son. The father must forgo his job as a teacher and move to a small town to find work. Because he doesn't have much money, he must send his son to a junior high boarding school that he can only visit once a week. After a while, the father tells his son that he must move to Tokyo to continue financially supporting his education. As the father continues to attempt to make sacrifices for his son's education and future, the more they are separated. Once the son is grown, all he wants to do is live with his father, since he was never able to do that as a child. However, the father tells him that it is duty to continue working. Although the boy sees his father every so often, he is able to block out an entire week to spend with his father. After the end of the week, the father dies and the son says that he is grateful to have had that week with his father.

For one thing, it is interesting to see the way Ozu had the father and son constantly mirroring each other, whether that's showing them fishing in synchronicity or sitting parallel to each other on the floor. It made me think of my father and the way I slowly became just like him over the years, even mirroring his mannerisms. I thought about how the things our fathers instill within us allow us to become a version of them as we get older. 

What's also interesting about the film are the themes of sacrifice that the Japanese censors approved of during the ongoing war. The father instills in his son a sense of self-sacrifice for duty. The father himself sacrifices time spent with his son to make sure he gets educated and tells his son that he must sacrifice their time together to make sure he is doing his duty for his job and career. The Japanese censors felt that these themes were close enough to being patriotic that they let Ozu release his film. There was even a scene where the father and son celebrate the son passing his physical for the draft, as well. 

Overall, I found great emotional engagement with this film. It was a very typical Ozu film, both in the way it was shot and its pace. But, a typical Ozu film usually signifies excellence, of which this film also achieves.