George Benlian on movies, books and few other things

Yasujiro Ozu the Matchmaker

       

"Tokyo Stories" by Yasujiro Ozu made me a loyal follower of this director works. My collection of his movies is getting larger and additional information through DVD bonuses is always welcomed. Lately i have been watching a cycle of his movies having as common theme family portraits. Ozu was obsessed with the consequences of relationship between a father and his daughter ("Late Spring" and "An Autumn Afternoon"), and a mother and her daughter  ("Late autumn") after a marriage.

If i have called Ozu the Matchmaker, it is because the idea of marrying the twenty four years old daughter is in the centre of the above named movies. Middle aged male friends are all too keen to find a suitable husband for the young woman. It makes me smile when the age of the daughter who must get married is always twenty four. Similarities in the theme reinforces Ozu's obsession with the family portraits. In "Early Summer' made before "Tokyo stories", the whole family is behind the target of marrying Noriko to a suitable man except our young lady has her final word to say. This is an interesting situation as considering the context of the period - early fifties - independence in choice remains powerful. "The end of summer" made before his last movie in the early sixties has a considerable variation in the family portraits theme as this time, it is the father who has few surprises to reveal. I really liked the scene where the three sisters are at their father's deathbed finding out about his other life with another woman from whom he has a daughter.

Life and death are indissociable. Ozu has strong attachement to the cycle of life. All the movies i noted above are honest observation of life changes. Death may be the end however life continues on with the next generation. Funny and poignant scenes bring happiness and a touch of sadness. It is a balanced outcome that is so meaningful in our normal lives.

 

If the stories have similarities, what makes the whole experience more memorable is the use of the same faces. Setsuko Hara is the girl to marry who in the early sixties becomes suddenly a mother with a daughter to marry. Chisu Ryu is always around playing the father who will face a lonely life. Other familiar faces are all part of the extended cinematic family of Yasujiro Ozu, a man who was never married and never had children of his own.

Next time, i will be writing on other themes explored by Ozu specialy in the early part of his career in the thirties and the forties.

The mysterious Yasujiro Ozu

Back in October last year, i discovered "Tokyo stories" a Japanese cinematic masterpiece directed by Yasujiro Ozu. I wrote about it in my blog and promised myself to watch more movies from this master of Japanese cinema. Five months later, i have seen half a dozen of his works and i will be writing further in the near future.

Today, my intention is to write about the mysterious simplicity of Ozu. First his name is simple yet mysterious; just a "Z" and two vowels; "O" and "U". He was born December 12 1903 and died on December 12 1963. He was a bachelor who lived with his mother for sixty years and died just three months after she passed away. He made fifty four films, all but three for the same producer. He didn't make his first talking picture until 1936, six years after everyone else. His first color film was made in 1958 later than all his colleagues. So it's a sort of refusal to budge, a stability and equilibrium. That's the first thing that strikes us about Ozu. There is also his style. After 1940, he always refused to move his camera keeping it stationary and just a few centimetres off the ground where daily Japanese life takes place.

His films titles all seem alike. They can be easily confused; "Early Spring", "Early Summer", "Late Autumn", "An Autumn Afternoon". It's as if he kept making the same film always about the Japanese family, marital relationships, the old and the young, work and family. It's all very intriguing and also utterly simple. It's not difficult to enter in Ozu's world. Maybe at first it may appear a bit slow and the lack of camera movements may cause a certain passivity however relationships can be universal and familiar to all of us. Ozu's reflection on Zen philosophy about the non-existence of the future because it's unreal and untouchable nor the past because it's over brings the present as the crucial moment of intensity and fullness. 

Tokyo Story by Yasujiro Ozu - A Japanese masterpiece

I have been a movie buff for twenty years and will soon be reaching 4000 titles watched during these two decades. What is great about being a movie buff is you never know when you will be discovering a new director; in this instance the Japanese Yasujiro Ozu who died 45 years ago having made over 50 movies.

Tokyo Story (Tokyo monogatari)is perhaps his most popular movie outside Japan. Made in 1953, it had a modest career on the international circuit until 1972 when it opened in New York coinciding with a book on Ozu written by Paul Schrader and called TRANSCENDENTAL STYLE IN FILM. Almost ten years after his passing, critics from all over the world began gradually to appreciate a truly talented filmmaker and definitely one of the best representative of Japanese cinema from the twenties through to early sixties. Sight and Sound magazine's International critics poll ranked Tokyo Story as one of the ten greatest film ever made.

"Through the evolution of parents and children, i wanted to show how the Japanese family values were in risk of disintegration" said Ozu. This touching story of an elderly couple visiting their grown up children in Tokyo relates on how high expectations can be destroyed by the indifference of loved ones yet keeping a positive view to these happenings. The father and the mother have no severe judgements to make. They are too discrete for that. Or Ozu achieves a balance by showing how things have changed in the post war Tokyo and the resignation of the parents with lucidity.

However, it is heart-warming to see how much their daughter in law who has been a widow for eight years is genuine in their regard. Her character is a key element on how a non blood related person can actually give more that blood related ones.

The family reunion at the end of the movie happens only because of a tragedy being the sudden death of the mother. The dinner scene is the illustration of what Ozu had to say about the evolution of parents and children. It's beautiful yet sarcastic.

Not only i discovered an important movie director but also admired Chishu Ryu and Chieko Higashiyama as two regular Ozu actors playing the father and the mother respectively. I love watching various movies made at various dates by the same director. This will be the case with Yasujiro Ozu as i am planning to watch majority of his post war movies over the coming weeks. So there will be more about his movies in the near future.

Finally a special mention to the CRITERION COLLECTION, without doubt the World's best publisher of important classic and contemporary films on DVD. Tokyo Story comes in double disc and includes two documentaries, an essay by David Bordwell and audio commentary by Ozu-film scholar David Desser. For more info on CRITERION, check the following link.  www.criterion.com .

You can also read the following article written by Derek Malcolm in 2000.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2000/may/04/artsfeatures1