Yasujiro Ozu
Yasujiro Ozu
RANKED:
16. Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family (1941)
After taking a three year hiatus from filmmaking, Yasujiro Ozu returned in 1941 with his film "Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family." The film centers on the Toda extended family. After their patriarch father passes away at age 69, the widowed mother slowly begins to realize that her children are selfish and don't wish to take care of her any longer, as she is viewed as nothing but a burden to them. The film, like all of Ozu's films, packs an emotional punch that most viewers can come away from connecting to their own domestic life and family.
15. A Hen in the Wind (1948)
Often described as Yasujiro Ozu's darkest film, 1948's "A Hen in the Wind" borrows themes and ideas from the works of Ozu's contemporary, Kenji Mizoguchi. The film centers on a wife awaiting the return of her husband from war. The only problem is that she must confess to him that she prostituted herself in order to obtain money to care for their sick child. What follows is an uncomfortable watch of shame, guilt, and blame as the couple can't seem to reconcile the hard truths. The film details the compromising positions women in Japan are forced into, as well as the coming to terms with the traumatic realities brought about by the war.
14. The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice (1952)
With his 1952 film "The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice," Yasujiro Ozu continued with storylines around arranged marriages, something he had been doing recently in his late 1940s, early 1950s films. With this particular iteration of this subject matter, Ozu uses the interpersonal relationships surrounding the couples of arranged marriages for a broader topic regarding how we lack proper compromise and communication with the people in our lives. "The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice" not only explores the dissatisfaction and frustration with this time-honored cultural Japanese touchstone, but ponders the very nature of human relationships in a modern, contemporary societal landscape.
13. Equinox Flower (1958)
1958's "Equinox Flower" marked the first time Yasujiro Ozu ever filmed in color. Despite this stark change to the visual rendering, one forgets completely due to Ozu's signature direction, framing, and pacing. The film centers on a stubborn father who must accept his daughter's choice to marry on her own. The type of family drama is typical for Ozu and illustrates the continuing generational divides occurring throughout Japanese family life in the post-war years. "Equinox Flower" demonstrates how an aging master like Ozu can adapt to the changing landscape of cinema through its evolution to color and still maintain its artistic purity of individual storytelling.
12. Good Morning (1959)
Although it is not an carbon copy adaption, Yasujiro Osu's 1959 film "Good Morning" loosely adapts his 1932 silent film "I Was Born, But..." This 1959 version, however, is far more thematically complex, given Ozu's decades of mastery over the film medium since. Following two young boys who silently protest against all adults after their parents refuse purchasing a new television, "Good Morning" takes Ozu's classic intimate direction and family drama and simply inhabits the complicated machinations of a neighborhood. Through the exploration of adults and all their shortcomings and miscommunications, the film illustrates just how much the socio-economics of the world at large can play major roles in the domesticity of modern living.
11. Early Summer (1951)
At a time when Japan was exploding onto the global film scene with the most creative output the country had ever seen before, Yasujiro Ozu was perfecting his emotional family drama that he had come to be known by over the last 20 years. Striking a familiar resemblance to Ozu's 1949 film "Late Spring," his 1951 film "Early Summer" also centers on a young family surrounded by a family that is desperate to arrange a marriage. However, her resistance creates tension and drama amongst the members. Through this drama, we uncover new generational gaps in the modern Japanese domestic lifestyles emerging in the post-war ear. The misunderstandings, stemming from different characters wanting different things out of the family, create a palette of existentialism that only Ozu could weave so well tightly together with domestic drama.
10. Record of a Tenement Gentleman (1947)
Yasujiro Ozu's first film after the devastation of World War II and the U.S.'s bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, 1947's "Record of a Tenement Gentleman," chronicles an old widow's newfound relationship with a young orphan boy. Despite being contemptuous at first, the woman's heart softens by the film's conclusion. The films themes deal with community, selflessness, and unity. At the time of the film's release in 1947, these themes seemed imminently important to a Japan that was now economically abandoned, culturally disparate, and a national temperament that was at an all time low. It is a heartwarming film by Ozu, who takes his typical family dynamics and injects them into a story of total strangers.
9. There Was a Father (1942)
In typical Yasujiro Ozu fashion, his 1942 film "There Was a Father" is a slow, contemplative family drama that packs an emotional gut-punch by the end. Centering on a widowed father and son, the film demonstrates themes of parental love and sacrifice. As the film continues attempting to do what's best for his son's future, the more they are separated. It's a heart wrenching experience, although the film can arguably be described as Ozu's most patriotic film, as the Japanese censors felt that the themes of sacrifice for duty were a great utility during the ongoing global crisis at the time. "There Was a Father" remains a staple of Ozu's filmography, regardless.
8. The Only Son (1936)
In his first ever sound production, 1936's "The Only Son," Yasujiro Ozu continued to hone in his signature style of filmmaking. Despite being the first sound film he ever made, it was not too different from his previous silent efforts. It is still a relatively quiet film that manages to sneak up on you and provides an emotional gut-punch. The film centers on a rural widowed mother who works hard to provide for her only son. After sending him off to middle school in Tokyo, his promise to become a successful man ends up falling short when she discovers him to be a night school teacher 13 years later. Ozu brilliantly paints the picture of the emotional struggle between a parent's compromise for their child's success and the guilt the child feels from not having lived up to their expectations. "The Only Son" is able to take such complex emotional dynamics and boil them down to a bare, succinct simplicity.
7. A Story of Floating Weeds (1934)
In one of the last silent films he would ever make, Yasujiro Ozu crafted a tangled web of family secrets, class consciousness, and tragic heartbreak with his 1934 film "A Story of Floating Weeds." All of the characters in the film are adrift and attempting very desperately to connect with each other. However, honor, class, and other societal factors get in the way of this unity. Ozu, as he always does, instills his film with humanity, soul, and grace. "A Story of Floating Weeds" will leave you both full of love and heartbroken at the same time.
6. I Was Born, But... (1932)
Yasujiro Ozu is well know amongst film historians as a master director in post-war Japanese cinema. However, his career spans well before that. In the early 1930s when most of the globe was transitioning to sound, Japan was still in a silent era of cinema. Ozu's 1932 film "I Was Born, But..." is one of the most notable works of Japanese silent cinema. Telling the story of two young boys who learn that their father isn't as important as they thought he was, this coming-of-age film is simple, yet packs a punch. The existential realization that life doesn't always work out the way you dream is something everyone can relate to.
5. Early Spring (1956)
After taking a three year hiatus after the release of his globally acclaimed masterpiece "Tokyo Story," Yasujiro Ozu was under pressure to deliver something significant. Although nothing can top "Tokyo Story," it is safe to say that 1956's "Early Spring" is as emotionally significant as Ozu can get. On the surface, its story is about a childless couple whose marriage fractures after the husband has an affair with one of his coworkers. However, the themes of the story center on the modern malaise and existential emptiness of white-collar living. Despite having a good salaried job, our central male figure walks aimlessly through life, passive to everything around him. "Early Spring" is Ozu's attempt to criticizing modernity, demonstrating the disillusionment of post-war citizens in a capitalist utopia that is void of any sense of meaning. Although "Tokyo Story" stands tall as Ozu's masterpiece, "Early Spring" is a marker for the next phase of Ozu's final period in his career, one that would prove why he is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.
4. Floating Weeds (1959)
"Floating Weeds" was Yasujiro Ozu's second attempt in 1959 to modernize one of his earlier works. After adapting his 1932 film "I Was Born, but..." into "Good Morning," he adapted 1934's "A Story of Floating Weeds" into "Floating Weeds." While changing up the story on the former, he was strictly adherent to the consistencies of the latter. "Floating Weeds" tells the story of a travelling theater troupe leader trying to re-enter his estranged son's life. However, the stubbornness of the characters and their inability to get beyond their own personal hangups create an inherent fracture. Like with typical Ozu, the film is full of friends and families adrift from one another, unable to connect in the way they desire. In the end, everyone ends up bitter and alone, adrift through an empty and heartbreaking life and they float through its endless stream like weeds.
3. Tokyo Twilight (1957)
With his 1957 film "Tokyo Twilight," Yasujiro Ozu made his darkest, bleakest, most existential film in his entire filmography. It was the very last black-and-white film he would ever make and is perhaps the best shot black-and-white film he's ever done. The attention to detail in its black-and-white cinematography, which aids in the darkness of the story, mimics the type of black-and-white imagery one would see from a existential French piece or an American Film Noir. Mikio Naruse's 1955 film "Floating Clouds" also seems like an ardant influence with its palpably empty and bleak tone. Aside from the particular tragedies within the plot, the true despair from the film is the space between its characters. The film is a tapestry of broken people with broken relationships that emotionally cripple them their entire life. Love is a desired trait, not an automatic foundation and human connection left a long time ago. It is this painfully empty and desolate atmosphere that makes "Tokyo Twilight" such a beautifully dark gift from the master of emotional filmmaking.
2. Late Spring (1949)
By 1949, Yasujiro Ozu was a well-established master in Japanese cinema. So, it's really saying something that his 1949 film "Late Spring" was the first film of his most celebrated and creatively qualitative period. "Late Spring" centers on a young woman in the 'late spring' in her life, as her widowed father and concerned aunt attempt to arrange a marriage for her, much to the young woman's chagrin. The film takes Ozu's typical themes of life cycles and how those change the dynamics of domestic relationships and synthesizes them into a complex and rich post-war film that reflects the changing nature of culture happening in Japan in 1949. Although the censorship of Japanese cinema by the Allied occupation at the time couldn't reflect any direct implication by the Allied forces, Ozu found ways to imply the changes by presenting subtle changes in Japanese culture. With these implications, "Late Spring" becomes more than a film about a girl struggling with leaving her widowed father to become an obedient housewife. It instead becomes an examination of the changing attitudes of modern Japanese and the dynamics between the more traditionalist Eastern culture and values and the new, emerging Western culture and values.
1. Tokyo Story (1953)
Although it wasn't released internationally until many years later out of fear of audiences feeling it was "too Japanese," Yasujiro Ozu's 1953 masterpiece "Tokyo Story" would be so monumental in the scope of worldwide cinema that it would become considered one of the greatest films of all time unanimously by audiences, critics, and film scholars alike. By the time Ozu received unanimous praise for this work, he was already a master of Japanese cinema, having made films in his home country for more than 25 years. "Tokyo Story" is perhaps his monolith. Telling the story of an elderly couple travelling to Tokyo to visit their adult children, the film details how out of place they are with the new, post-war Westernized Japan and how much of a burden they've become to their own family. With Ozu's typical domestic aesthetic, aided by his personal and intimate shots and blocking, he crafts a deeply intimate story that is universal in nature. It's a film that melancholically bemuses the natural occurrences of relationships crumbling, communication breaking down, and loved ones drifting apart. It's an emotionally complex experience that hits right at the heart of existence itself and echoes through the soul of whomever sits down to experience its quiet mourning.
Comments
Post a Comment