Watch Ozu with Me (plus the films of his muse, Setsuko Hara)

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I didn't know that Days of Youth was on YT, but I'll try to watch with you guys so I can give my thoughts on Day of Youth once I complete it.



Gave Days Of Youth a spin this morning. Overall I found it a reasonably enjoyable watch that's well enough acted and directed but it's also a fairly generic one (obviously influenced by Western slapstick) and the whole is overly long. I'd give it a
+.



Gave Days Of Youth a spin this morning. Overall I found it a reasonably enjoyable watch that's well enough acted and directed but it's also a fairly generic one (obviously influenced by Western slapstick) and the whole is overly long. I'd give it a
+.

Yeah I mostly agree with this. I will post my review tomorrow but I give it the same rating.



In the middle of filming Student Romance: Days of Youth, Ozu was ordered to direct one more B-picture. It was finished in less than a week.

Treasure Mountain (Ozu, 1929) -- lost film



A melodramatic romantic comedy in which a man is caught in a love triangle between a traditional young geisha and a more modern girl.

Ozu's thoughts:

My memory of this film was that it was churned out in a hurry. Working day and night, I didn't sleep for five consecutive days. In spite of that, we didn't feel too tired. We even played baseball on the morning of the sixth day. I could still visualize that ball now. We were young after all. I wouldn't be able to sustain that later in life. It would take me much longer time to recuperate.
At this point Ozu was still being handed scripts by the studio and told to direct pictures on demand.

After his debut in 1927, he made five movies in 1928, six movies in 1929, and seven in 1930. For most of these (forgettable?) films, no extant negative, prints, or scripts have ever been found.



Movie of the Week #1:

Student Romance: Days of Youth (Ozu, 1929)



Starring: Ichiro Yuki, Tatsuo Saitō, Junko Matsui
Written by: Akira Fushimi
Cinematography by: Hideo Shigehara

Silent, Black and White, 1 hour 43 minutes. Comedy

Review:

Slice of life student comedy. Two friends meet up with a girl on a ski vacation and compete for her affection.

Ozu's thoughts:

This work is a student comedy with ski scenes. The protagonist squats in a lodging by taking down the "Room to Let" sign. Whenever a prospective tenant comes along, he will put him off with nasty words, or lie about having already rented the place. However, if a pretty girl knocks on the door, he would "sacrifice himself" and let her have the room.
In those days, Fushimi Akira and I were always making up stories like that. Many of my work of that period were collaborations with Fushimi. When dusk falls, we would walk around Ginza, drink and have dinner, then talk about our script as we made our way to my home in Fukagawa. Then, we would chat, listen to music and brew some English tea. We'd stay up all night like this, and by the crack of dawn, we'd have the outlines of the story. Somehow, we always managed to come up with a script in one night. Looking back, it really amazes me.
This is Ozu's earliest surviving film, and really it just serves as a baseline for where his career began.

The first half starts out slow and lacks narrative focus. I did think one sequence involving a hand and some wet paint was funny, but otherwise the movie is a chore to get through until the youths go on their lovely little ski vacation.





After that, Days of Youth is a pleasant enough romantic and buddy comedy from the silent film era. Mostly, it's remembered for the ski scenes. The family of Ozu's cameraman owned the resort, and the Shochiku crew would often vacation there during winter. There are some cool helmet-cam shots, maybe the first in cinematic history.


Rating:



Overall, a very un-Ozu like film if you are familiar with his later masterpieces. Ozu has often been described as "the most Japanese" of directors, but his earlier films are remarkably American. In the late 1920s and 1930s, his colleagues considered him to be the most western director in all of Japan.



Also I agree with Chypmunk, the ending goes on 10 minutes too long. I've found this was a common problem with Ozu's earliest surviving films, at least until 1931. It felt like there were several opportunities to end the movie and hit fade out, but it just kept going and going. As we move forward though, I think you'll see how Ozu slowly started to refine his films. They pretty much keep getting better and better until the end they are nearly perfect.



Fighting Friends, Japanese-Style (Ozu, 1929) -- 14 minute fragment only



Strange premise. Two friends / roommates run over a homeless woman on their way to work one day. They offer her a place to stay and she moves into their apartment. Once cleaned up, she looks beautiful. The friends fight over her but she falls in love with another man.

Ozu's thoughts:

Noda thought up this story, about two men who fall in love with the same woman. It was such old hat we had to package it by adding 'Japanese-style' to the title.
Fighting Friends is essentially a lost film. This 14-minute fragment is an edited summary that was assembled by the British Pathe news service and found many decades later. I don't think it's fair to assign a rating, but overall it seems to have been a salaryman version of Student Romance: Days of Youth ... nonsense comedy that only slowly comes together into some kind of plot; one that involves a love triangle and heavily emphasizes friendship, rivalry, and reconciliation.

In the last scene, the friends drive their speeding car alongside a train and wave goodbye to the girl, who departs with her new man.



I Graduated, But ... (Ozu, 1929) -- 10 minute fragment only



A man graduates from college, but he cannot get a job that he likes. He refuses work that he feels is beneath him. Meanwhile, his wife gets a job at a bar because the couple needs money. The man becomes furious, telling her she has "too much makeup on".

Eventually, he decides to accept a job as a receptionist that he previously turned down. When he accepts the position, the employers tell him it was all just a test, and they actually give him a better job.

Ozu's thoughts:

I had made a good number of student films, but when it came to filming young actors, it was hard to go beyond the old themes of salarymen or college life. However, in those days, the images of white-collar types were limited. As for students, they were of course a different breed from the ones nowadays, who get into fights with the police. They were all very carefree (back then), and comparatively easy fodder for jokes in nonsense comedies.
Shimizu Hiroshi originally wanted to direct this film, but somehow, the script fell into my lap. I thought, if I was determined to be a director, then I must come to grips with any genre and make every film as well as I could. It's all very well for the so-called film-auteur to have artistic ideas but one also needs the professional flair for handling all the different aspects of filmmaking. Admittedly, excessive professionalism could spell trouble, but I was nonetheless extremely grateful for the chance to develop my professionalism through making these kinds of films.
I don't think it's fair to rate a 10-minute fragment from the middle of an otherwise lost film, but this still feels like beginner Ozu to me. The compositions in the last scene were really nice, though.








Well that's it for Week #1.

Some things to notice so far with Ozu's early career: first, he started out with nonsense youth comedies. Harold Lloyd and Ernst Lubtisch were his primary influences. Ozu's contribution to the genre was a little more pathos and realistic plots as time went by. Thus, his stories might start out scatter-brained and full of gags, but eventually some kind of focused narrative begins to develop. His later films are also known for starting out slow, albeit with more focus on calm and serenity as opposed to laughter. I wonder if that slow-starting trait doesn't trace back to the very beginning of his filmmaking career.

From here, the studio wanted him to branch out into more family comedies. Ozu would also begin to push the boundaries of Japanese cinema circa 1930, with a particular interest in stylish crime dramas influenced by American and German expressionist films.

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Schedule for Week #2:

Movie of the Week: Walk Cheerfully (Ozu, 1930)

Also:
A Straightforward Boy (Ozu, 1929) -- short film

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This was so much easier when Filmstruck was still a thing, and later this year there will be The Criterion Channel's streaming service, which should have all Ozu titles, but for right now Walk Cheerfully is available via the Eclipse Ozu "Three Crime Dramas" box-set.

Looking forward to it!



The Life of an Office Worker (Ozu, 1929) -- lost film



A salaryman looks forward to a year-end bonus for his family, but instead he gets fired because of the economic depression. He looks for a job, but fails to find one. Eventually, he gets hired by his friends.

This film was not too dissimilar from I Graduated, But ... and would foreshadow Ozu's later Tokyo Chorus. Economic Depression affected Japan long before the crash on Wall Street. Only 40% of recent college graduates could find employment in Japan in 1929.

Ozu's thoughts:

A forerunner of the salaryman genre, I deliberately wove scenes with a more realistic touch into comedy. I also made the exception of using overlapping shots, using a dissolve to conjure up the atmosphere of dawn in one scene. I only ever did it once, I didn't think much of it. I don't deny that some people use the dissolve to brilliant effect, but most of the time it only serves as a gimmick. I have a distaste for those kinds of overlapping shots.
Zhang Yimou is a director who used the dissolve brilliantly. I'm thinking of the editing sequence at end of Raise the Red Lantern, where all of the lanterns, both real and imagined, circle around Songlian as the walls close in around her. Maybe my favorite editing sequence ever. What would Ozu have thought?



I'll see if I can fit in a viewing of Walk Cheerfully next week, there appears to be a copy available online with English subs.



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
Maybe he will come back.


So, my wife (that is, Setsuko Hara, for all oblivious peeps around here) told me there is some ballyhoo hoolla-ba-loo about her and Ozu here, and that I have to make haste and check it out. Quite afraid that @Arigatō-san might be using this thread to slander one of my favourite directors (you can slander Hara, she's sitting next to me and saying that's okay, because she's so much perfection that if you slander her, her Shield of Virginity will reflect all your profanity and hit you back twice as hard).

It's quite sad to see how many Ozu films went lost, but seeing how many silent films went lost in total, and how many Japanese silent films (more than a half!), it'd be hard to expect anything else. Ozu films are pretty easy to get by, but getting obscure Setsuko Hara films might be very hard to literally impossible.

I have some obscure Hara films - some so obscure she herself didn't remember she starred in them. I even played a trick on her and pretended we're watching a film with her, but it was a film with my old sweetheart Hideko Takamine. Setsuko got really mad at me for that little trick I played, not because I got her, but because it was Hideko, her friend, but also worthy opponent in the inhuman super race to beguile me and steal my scanty heart.

But let's start from the beginning. Hideko and Setsuko were long-time friends, off- and on-screen. The entire thing with me began with Kita no san-nin AKA Three Women of the North (1945) (a film Setsuko still didn't allow me to watch, but one that has English subtitles available), when they met me. Now, they've known themselves long before they met me. They starred in i.e. Ahen senso AKA The Opium War (1943) (another flick I haven't seen, and sadly one that doesn't have English subtitles yet - Setsuko will have to translate live for me). Here's a proof they were in it together:



Anyway, I first met Hideko, and only then she introduced me to Hara. In 1945 I was invited by the founder of Toho. Ichizō Kobayashi, who knew me for my exquisite reviews of Japanese films (it was me who first introduced Ozu to the West as early as in the 40s. Sadly it was a failed introduction, because of the raging war and rise of anti-Japanese moods among Westerners). Long story short, I was supposed to see how films are being made, and also interview some of the biggest stars. Back then I had already known Hideko from the screen, but I never even dreamed of meeting her in real life, but one fine morning I did! I got a call that said the shoot of Three Women of the North has started, and I am to be on the set in an hour. When I got there, Hideko was there already. She was wearing an air traffic controller outfit, and smiling at me cheerfully. I was immediately struck by her lack of pretense and openness. It didn't take us long to decide we're quite alike, and I asked her for a date.



On a date, a very unexpected thing happened. A beautiful girl approached Hideko, and they started talking. It was Setsuko Hara. Let me cut out a lot here, because I don't have time to tell you about everything, but let's just say I was introduced to Setsuko, and before I knew it I had a date with her in a week. When Setsuko left, Hideko said she loves me, but that's okay, if I don't share her feelings. She said she will settle for a hot bomber pilot, and I'm not even Japanese, so why bother. Here's a picture of the pilot. Behind him sits the sad, broken-hearted Hideko.



When talking to Hideko, I picked up her saying that Setsuko Hara's not too keen on leftists. Well, I use my left hand to write, so I got really concerned, because it's no secret Setsuko...



Right. But I knew that true love conquers all, and that lingual (we'd used Google Translate before we both learnt Okinawian to be able to talk to each other freely), cultural and even political differences are nothing when juxtaposed to the power of love. When the day came, I fell in love with her on the moment I saw her. She did fall in love with me, too. We decided to go to a Japanese restaurant. Finding one was easy, because every restaurant there was Japanese.

I learnt how to eat using chopsticks, and then I looked at her. The most beautiful person I've ever seen. The lights are off. Just the candlelight illuminating her face. Her smile. The enthralling beauty of her body. The candlelight on her pale skin. This entire odious world that surrounded me and that dreary emptiness within... it's gone. Complete silence and death of all senses. Yet there's a lustrous beam of light illuminating a face before me. Even if it was the Apocalypse, and all creatures around sung a dirge for the end of the world, in this nocturnal hour, I'd still feel happy, for I would've found a meaning of life at its very end.

That was it. Hideko lost. Setsuko won. Here's a historic photo of Hideko congratulating Setsuko on winning my heart:



Of course, they were still friends after this, but sometimes Setsuko reacts harshly when I mention Hideko. I think she's still quite unsure about that one time when Hideko stayed overnight at our place when Setsuko was out shooting Tokyo Story. But this is a completely different story.

Have you ever wondered why Hara gave up acting? Right. That was for me.

There are other stories. Will be others, but that's it for now, folks. End of story. Isn't life disappointing? I mean, I'm still gone. Just wanted to say - a great thread. Oh, sorry. I have to leave you again. Nurse Ratched says it's medicine time.
__________________
Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.



Hello Mr Minio, welcome to the thread! I look forward to reading your posts in the future. Right now, I just returned home and I've not slept in 2 days, so all I can do is muster the energy to say that. I'm sure we will have some good discussions about Ozu and Setsuko Hara films. Thanks again for your entertaining post!



Ozu made one last film in 1929, a short comedy, and it's our warm-up this week before the main picture.

A Straightforward Boy (Ozu, 1929)



Starring: Tomio Aoki (a.k.a. Tokkankozô), Tatsuo Saitô, Takeshi Sakamoto
Written by: Tadao Ikeda
Cinematography by: Kô Nomura

Silent, Black and White, 14 minutes (extant). Comedy

Two kidnappers kidnap a boy, who turns out to be more than they can handle. After the kid terrorizes them, the men try to return him, but they get chased around by a band of children instead.

Ozu's thoughts:

There was a child star in The Life of an Officer Worker (my previous film) named Aoki Tomio, who sometimes dozed off in the middle of a shoot. He was so much fun that I decided to make him the leading role in my next film.
If I remember correctly, shooting was completed in 3 days.

Review:

The synopsis sounds better than the actual portion of the film that survives. It turns out there are some missing sections. As is, I thought A Straightforward Boy was unfunny and uncomfortable to watch.




OK, that was funny! That's the very beginning of the film, which did make me laugh because it was so unexpected. But I don't think I laughed any other time. There were several uncomfortable scenes where one of the men (comedically?) lures the boy into abduction, and it's only after the kidnappers get him back to their house to do who knows what, that he terrorizes them and shoots toy arrows at them instead.

I guess there's a fine line whenever dark humor is involved, but I just didn't agree with the setup here. Major negative review for me.

Rating:


Nevertheless, the film went viral and was a huge hit in Japan. The movie was so popular in fact that Tomio Aoki permanently changed his name to Tokkankozô, the Japanese title of the film.



I Graduated, But ... (Ozu, 1929) -- 10 minute fragment only



A man graduates from college, but he cannot get a job that he likes. He refuses work that he feels is beneath him. Meanwhile, his wife gets a job at a bar because the couple needs money. The man becomes furious, telling her she has "too much makeup on".

Eventually, he decides to accept a job as a receptionist that he previously turned down. When he accepts the position, the employers tell him it was all just a test, and they actually give him a better job.

Ozu's thoughts:

I don't think it's fair to rate a 10-minute fragment from the middle of an otherwise lost film, but this still feels like beginner Ozu to me. The compositions in the last scene were really nice, though.





I watched this. Now this set of fragments counts as my 10th Ozu movie watched.

One thing about those super old movies is that they provide a perspective on Japanese society in the 1920's when the country was still transitioning from a feudal agricultural society to a modern urbanized industrialized society.



I watched this. Now this set of fragments counts as my 10th Ozu movie watched.

One thing about those super old movies is that they provide a perspective on Japanese society in the 1920's when the country was still transitioning from a feudal agricultural society to a modern urbanized industrialized society.

Hey Guaporense, glad you are in the double digit Ozu club now
Any particular favorites?

I would be careful to not consider the worlds within Ozu's early films to be authentic reflections of contemporary Japanese life, however. This would change as he got older, but in his younger days it's said that he was the most western director in Japan. You might call it an Americanized version of Japanese, but I will comment more on this in my review for Walk Cheerfully.

Of course, his films are not completely divorced from Japanese society in the 1920s either.

There are some cool videos on Youtube though that show historical footage like you describe.

Tokyo 1913-1915



I really like that video. I think they have some nice ones from New York City and other places too.



Managed to squeeze a viewing of Walk Cheerfully in this afternoon, it's heavily influenced by American movies (most of the characters are Westernised), contains some rather eclectic moments and is initially rather fragmented in terms of narrative but thankfully when the story proper kicks in it generally becomes far more focused (what was with the car used for the picnic segment though - starts off as RHD but switches to LHD for the return ) and is a quite enjoyable gangster/romance (emphasis on the romance) from thereon in. I'd give it a
+ overall which isn't bad as the first third is more like a meandering
+.

The copy on YT is from Italian tv but perfectly watchable and has been transcribed firstly into Spanish and from there into English but the subs convey the meaning adequately.