FILMS OF YASUJIRO OZU
\nThe Criterion Collection<\/p>\n
Reviewed by Lyle Sylvander<\/p>\n
(Spring 2005)<\/p>\n <\/span>Despite his popularity in Japan, the filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu remained unknown in the West during his lifetime.\u00a0 Unlike other directors Stylistically, Ozu works against many of the conventions of popular cinema by reducing his craft to the bare minimum.\u00a0 There is little to The earliest of the three films, Early Summer, meticulously observes the lives of some 19 characters who are poised between the Tokyo Story, considered to be Ozu\u2019s masterpiece, is a sad, simple story of generational conflict where an elderly couple’s visit to their Good Morning differs from the other two films as it is in color, has a quirky comedic pacing to it, and is seen through the eyes of There is an overwhelming sensibility running through all of Ozu films that is hard to define.\u00a0 Donald Richie, in his commentary on Early FILMS OF YASUJIRO OZU The Criterion Collection Reviewed by Lyle Sylvander (Spring 2005) Despite his popularity in Japan, the filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu remained unknown in the West during his lifetime.\u00a0 Unlike other directors from Japan\u2019s Golden Age, such as Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi, Ozu, who was dubbed \u201cthe most Japanese of all filmmakers\u201d, was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":59,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-368","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PkZ7m-5W","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":660,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/368\/revisions\/660"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/59"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nfrom Japan\u2019s Golden Age, such as Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi, Ozu, who was dubbed \u201cthe most Japanese of all filmmakers\u201d,
\nwas considered unfit for export.\u00a0 His minamalist style and unconcern for plot turned off foreign distributors until the growth of the art
\nhouse movement in the 1960s made more formalist schools of filmmaking acceptable.\u00a0 Ozu\u2019s stature has grown among film students
\nand scholars and his influence can be seen in the work of such contemporary directors as Wim Wenders and Jim Jarmusch.\u00a0 The
\nCriterion Collection has recently released three Ozu films on DVD that serve as a great introduction to his work: Early Summer
\n(Bakushu) ((1951), Tokyo Story (Tokyo Monogatari) (1953) and Good Morning (Ohayo) (1959).\u00a0 All three DVDs contain voice over
\nnarration, which provides the necessary aesthetic and historical context needed to truly understand the films.<\/p>\n
\nno camera movement and absolutely no transition effects, such as fades, wipes, and dissolves; only straight cuts remain.\u00a0 He also
\ndisregards the \u201c180 degree\u201d rule, wherein the camera remains on one side of an imaginary axis drawn between two characters, and
\nreplaces it with a technique in which actors speak directly to the camera.\u00a0 Ozu also places the camera at a low angle, as if the viewer
\nwere sitting crosslegged on a tatami mat.\u00a0 This idiosyncratic style complements Ozu\u2019s barebone narratives, which focus on the effects
\nof modernization on the traditional family structure in postwar Japan.<\/p>\n
\nprewar years and the new world they now inhabit.\u00a0 Compassionate and characteristically reserved, Ozu chronicles the disintegration
\nof the traditional extended family as a young woman rebels against the wishes of her family by choosing her own husband.\u00a0 Ozu\u2019s
\nsignature camera strikes a delicate, harmonious balance in Early Summer, and echoes the dichotomy of contemporary Japan:
\ntradition versus modernization, selfishness versus altruism, respect for elders versus independence.\u00a0 It is a theme that characterizes
\nOzu\u2019s work as a whole but is especially poignant in this early film.<\/p>\n
\nbusy, self-absorbed cosmopolitan offspring is met with indifference. This ingratitude only serves to reveal permanent emotional
\ndifferences, which the parents gracefully accept and then return home. The contrast between the elders, contemplative and at
\nleisure, and the younger generation, overworked and impatient, reflect the differing attitudes towards life and work among
\ngenerations.\u00a0 Throughout the film, there are modern appurtenances, such as telephone wires and ticking clocks that disrupt the
\nsymmetrically ordered Japanese homes.\u00a0 The Tokyo landscape is littered with automobiles, steamboats and trains that obscure the
\nnatural landscape.\u00a0 The visual contrast between the traditionally clothed and out of place elder couple is heartbreaking to watch as
\nthey eventually recognize the inability to coexist with modernity.<\/p>\n
\nchildren.\u00a0 The plot concerns two brothers who take a vow of silence in protest of their parents\u2019 unwillingness to buy them a television
\nset.\u00a0 Through the children’s perspective, polite conversation becomes a meaningless exercise in civility and the importance of
\nowning material objects (or goods) is of utmost importance.\u00a0 Ozu takes a whimsical and comic, yet socially astute, commentary on the
\ngrowing consumerism and suburbanization of Japan.<\/p>\n
\nSummer, refers to it as mono no aware –\u00a0 \u201ca point of view of sympathetic sadness\u201d.\u00a0 Mono no aware is the perspective of a \u201ctired,
\nrelaxed, even disappointed observer, perhaps someone sagely approaching death.\u201d\u00a0 Ozu captures this aesthetic concept as none of
\nhis fellow filmmakers could.\u00a0 As a result, Ozu\u2019s\u00a0 films sadly recognize the postwar dissolution of traditional cultural and familial values.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"