Eclipse Series 10: Silent Ozu - Three Family Comedies (1931-1933) [The Criterion Collection] [Repost]

In the late twenties and early thirties, Yasujiro Ozu was working steadily for Shochiku studios, honing his craft on dozens of silent films in various genres, from romantic melodramas to college comedies to gangster pictures—and, of course, movies about families. In these three droll domestic films—Tokyo Chorus, I Was Born, But … , and Passing Fancy, presented here with all-new scores by renowned silent-film composer Donald Sosin—Ozu movingly and humorously depicts middle-class struggles and the resentments between children and parents, establishing the emotional and aesthetic delicacy with which he would transform the landscape of cinema.

Criterion
DVDBeaver
DVDTalk

Legend has it that when sound came to Japanese cinema, storied filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu completely shunned the new technology. His reasons seemed simple at the time: Why enter into a new expression of the medium when he was so close to perfecting the silent film? Indeed, over the course of several features, the director found solace and grace in the genre types that defined his industry—the family saga, the college yarn, the class struggle among workers, the complicated lives of children. Eventually, he would embrace sound and, with it, a desire to move away from that obstacles that came with a love of early Hollywood. Throughout the rest of his career, Ozu would reduce his technique, removing unnecessary panache and purposeless flash to become a minimalist in the most magnificent sense. He could illustrate the most awesome of universal truths within an unassuming, modest narrative.
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How people pay for things in these three films is also something that's inherently intriguing. Since debt is considered a blow to dignity and pride, no one wants to owe anyone, and they will go to extremes to avoid such a personal pecuniary stance. Kihachi wants to pawn his possessions to pay the hospital bill, yet soon realizes he owns nothing of value. Similarly, when the young girl he fancies offers her help, he is repulsed. Not because of the implication over how she will earn it, but that it would cause his family to lose face. Yet he's willing to abandon those whom he loves to travel hundreds of miles away for the promise of work—and the cash to make things right. It's a strange dynamic, one that is used rather well in all three Ozu films.

There are also a couple of ancillary issues that need to be addressed here. The Japanese were unlike the Americans in that the acting in their silent films resembles the work of many post-modern auteurs. There is no bulging eyes, no hair-ripping ridiculousness. Even the kids, when fussing and fighting, do so in a very naturalistic and recognizable manner. It could be part of the restrained nature within their society, but these performers seem light years removed from the Kabuki-like outrageousness that many associate with silent movies. Also, Ozu is not beyond his own directorial tricks. In Fancy, he shoots every dressing scene in the exact same manner—from the perspective of a person's feet. Whenever someone is about to get dressed, the editor cuts to the actor's lower half. It becomes something of a laugh. Finally, don't let the packaging title trick you. These are not laugh-out-loud satires. Instead, they are a more subtle form of funny business, especially when you consider the heartwrenching aspects of each.

Excerpt from Review on DVD Verdict

Combining three prevalent genres of the day—the student comedy, the salaryman film, and the domestic drama—Ozu created this warmhearted family comedy, and demonstrated that he was truly coming into his own as a cinema craftsman. The setup is simple: Low wage–earning dad Okajima is depending on his bonus, and so are his wife and children, yet payday doesn’t exactly go as planned. Exquisite and economical, Ozu’s film alternates between brilliantly mounted comic sequences and heartrending working-class realities.

IMDB









One of Ozu’s most popular films, I Was Born, But . . . is a blithe portrait of the financial and psychological toils of one family, as told from the rascally point of view of a couple of stubborn little boys. For two brothers, the daily struggles of bullies and mean teachers is nothing next to the mortification they feel when they realize their good-natured father’s low-rung social status. Reworked decades later as Ozu’s Technicolor comedy Good Morning, it’s a poignant evocation of the tumult of childhood, as well as a showcase for Ozu’s expertly timed comedy editing.

IMDB









The first of many films featuring the endearing single-dad Kihachi (played wonderfully by Takeshi Sakamoto), Passing Fancy is a humorous and heartfelt study of a close, if fraught, father-son relationship. With an ever more sophisticated visual style and understanding of fragile human relationships, Ozu seamlessly weaves rib-tickling comedy and weighty family drama for this distinguished precursor to a brilliant career.

IMDB

Highly Recommended. Part of the fun of studying cinema history is to look back over a career and see the building blocks that allowed great directors to put together their signature style. Working in his second decade as a filmmaker and holding off transitioning to talkies until he got silent movies just right, the Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu found his most commonly traveled ground in three bittersweet, good-hearted family stories. Made from 1931 to 1933, the trio that makes up Silent Ozu: Three Family Comedies - Eclipse Series 10 serves as a welcome introduction to the great artist's work. Full of comedy and pathos, these wonderful stories of generational gaps and social struggles remind us that good drama and honest writing supercedes any technological advancement as the most essential tools in filmmaking.

Excerpt from Jamie S. Rich's Review on DVDTalk

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