Yasujiro Ozu
Encyclopedia
was a prominent Japanese
film director
and (sometimes under the name James Maki) script writer
. He is known for his distinctive technical style, developed during the silent era. Marriage and family, especially the relationships between the generations, are among the most persistent themes in his body of work. His outstanding works include Early Summer
(1951), Tokyo Story
(1953), and Floating Weeds
(1959).
Ozu's reputation outside his native Japan has grown steadily since his death. Influential monograph
s by Donald Richie
, Paul Schrader
and David Bordwell
have ensured a wider appreciation of Ozu's style, aesthetics and themes in the West.
. At the age of ten, he and his siblings were sent by his father to live in his father's home town of Matsuzaka
, Mie Prefecture
, where he spent most of his youth. He was educated at a boarding school but spent much of his time in the local cinema rather than a classroom.
He worked briefly as a teacher before returning to Tokyo in 1923 to join the Shochiku Film Company
.
Ozu was well known for his drinking. In fact, he and his fellow screenwriter Kogo Noda used to measure the progression of their scripts by how many bottles of sake they had drunk. Occasionally visitors to his grave pay their respects by leaving cans and bottles of alcoholic drink. Ozu remained single and childless all of his life and stayed alone with his mother who died less than two years before his own death.
Ozu died in 1963 of cancer
on his 60th birthday. His grave at Engaku-ji
in Kamakura
bears no name—just the character mu
("nothingness").
within three years, and directed his first film, Zange no Yaiba (The Sword of Penitence, now lost), in 1927. He went on to make a further fifty-three films: twenty-six in his first five years as a director, and all but three for Shochiku. Ozu first made a number of short comedies, before turning to more serious themes in the 1930s. His Umarete wa mita keredo (I Was Born, But...
, 1932), a comedy with serious overtones on adolescence, not only marks the beginning of this transition, but was also received by movie critics as the first notable work of social criticism
in Japanese cinema, winning Ozu wide acclaim.
In 1935 Ozu made a short documentary with soundtrack: Kagami Shishi, in which Kokiguro VI performed Kabuki
dance of the same title. This was made as per a request by the Ministry of Education. Like the rest of Japan's cinema industry, Ozu was slow to switch to the production of talkies: his first film with a dialogue sound-track was Hitori Musuko (The Only Son) in 1936, five years after Japan's first talking film, Heinosuke Gosho
's The Neighbor's Wife and Mine.
In July 1937, at a time when Shochiku was unhappy about Ozu's lack of box-office success (despite the praise and awards he received from critics), the thirty-four-year-old Ozu was conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army
, and he served for two years in China
as an infantry
corporal in the Second Chinese-Japanese War
. The first film Ozu made on his return was the critically and commercially successful Toda-ke no Kyodai (Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family
, 1941). He followed this with an autobiographical
theme: Chichi Ariki (There Was a Father, 1942), describing the strong bonds of affection between a father and son despite years of separation. In 1943, Ozu was again drafted into the army to make a propaganda
film in Burma. However, he was sent to Singapore
instead.
Ozu's films were most favorably received from the late 1940s, with works such as Banshun (Late Spring
, 1949), Tokyo Monogatari (Tokyo Story
, 1953)—considered to be his masterpiece—Ochazuke no Aji (The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice, 1952), Soshun (Early Spring
, 1956), Higanbana (Equinox Flower
, 1958, his first film in colour), Ukigusa (Floating Weeds
, 1959) and Akibiyori (Late Autumn
, 1960). Ozu often worked with screenwriter Kogo Noda
; other regular collaborators included camera man Yuharu Atsuta and the actors Chishu Ryu
, Setsuko Hara
, and Haruko Sugimura
.
As a director, Ozu was eccentric and a notorious perfectionist. His films were typically infused with the concept of mono no aware
, an awareness of the impermanence of things. He was seen as one of the "most Japanese" of film makers, and his work was only rarely shown overseas before the 1960s. Ozu's last film was Sanma no aji (An Autumn Afternoon
) in 1962.
He once served as president of the Directors Guild of Japan
.
conventions, most notably the 180 degree rule
. Also, rather than using the typical over-the-shoulder shots in his dialogue scenes, the camera gazes on the actors directly, which has the effect of placing the viewer in the middle of the scene. Ozu did not use typical transitions between scenes, either. In between scenes he would show shots of certain static objects as transitions, or use direct cuts, rather than fades or dissolves. Most often the static objects would be buildings, where the next indoor scene would take place. It was during these transitions that he would use music, which might begin at the end of one scene, progress through the static transition, and fade into the new scene. He rarely used non-diegetic music in any scenes other than in the transitions. Ozu moved the camera less and less as his career progressed, and ceased using tracking shots altogether in his color films.
He invented the "tatami shot", in which the camera is placed at a low height, supposedly at the eye level of a person kneeling on a tatami
mat. Actually, Ozu's camera is often even lower than that, only one or two feet off the ground. He used this low height even when there were no sitting scenes, such as when his characters walked down hallways.
Ozu also eschewed the traditional rules of filmic storytelling, most notably eyelines
. In his review of Floating Weeds
, film critic Roger Ebert
recounts
In narrative structure, Ozu was also an innovator in his use of ellipses
, in which many major events are left out, leaving only the space between them. For example, in An Autumn Afternoon
a wedding is mentioned in one scene, and then in the next, a reference is made to the wedding that has already occurred. The wedding, however, never occurs on screen. This is typical of Ozu's films. Usually Ozu elides moments that Hollywood films use to stir an emotional reaction from the audience, thus eschewing melodrama.
Ozu's films also featured more varied female roles. Most notably in the Noriko trilogy (Late Spring
, Early Summer
, and Tokyo Story
), his female characters exhibited an independence and assertiveness that was a departure from more traditional Japanese views of women.
Ozu's work anticipated some techniques used by later art-film directors: infrequent use of non-diegetic music, a distinctive visual style, minimalist storytelling, and a character-driven emphasis on quiet and intelligent conversation.
Ozu's influence on the modern art film
has been tremendous. Jim Jarmusch
, Wim Wenders
, Mike Leigh
, Deepa Mehta
, Aki Kaurismaki
and Pedro Costa
have all proclaimed to having been profoundly influenced by his films. Paul Schrader
had a high opinion of him as well, and in his book Transcendental Styles in Film relates Ozu to Robert Bresson
and Carl Theodor Dreyer
.
Ozu had some famous detractors. Japanese "New-Wave" filmmakers Shohei Imamura
and Nagisa Oshima
were completely uninterested in Ozu's style of film making. Akira Kurosawa
's more gentle criticism was that Ozu's work was too rarefied; he wrote in his autobiography that he disliked their "dignified severity".
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
and (sometimes under the name James Maki) script writer
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
. He is known for his distinctive technical style, developed during the silent era. Marriage and family, especially the relationships between the generations, are among the most persistent themes in his body of work. His outstanding works include Early Summer
Early Summer
is a 1951 film by Yasujiro Ozu. Like most of Ozu's post-war films, Early Summer deals with many issues ranging from communication problems between generations and the rising role of women in post-war Japan....
(1951), Tokyo Story
Tokyo Story
is a 1953 Japanese film directed by Yasujirō Ozu. It tells the story of an aging couple who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children. The film contrasts the behavior of their biological children, who are too busy to pay them much attention, and their daughter-in-law, who treats them with...
(1953), and Floating Weeds
Floating Weeds
is a 1959 film by Yasujiro Ozu and shot in colour by Kazuo Miyagawa, one of Japan's most highly regarded cinematographers. It is a remake of Ozu's own black-and-white silent film A Story of Floating Weeds ....
(1959).
Ozu's reputation outside his native Japan has grown steadily since his death. Influential monograph
Monograph
A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author.It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book or journal article. It is by definition a single document that forms a complete text in itself...
s by Donald Richie
Donald Richie
Donald Richie is an American-born author who has written about the Japanese people and Japanese cinema. Although he considers himself only a writer, Richie has directed many experimental films, the first when he was 17...
, Paul Schrader
Paul Schrader
Paul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter, film director, and former film critic. Apart from his credentials as a director, Schrader is most notably known for his screenplays for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Raging Bull....
and David Bordwell
David Bordwell
David Bordwell is an American film theorist and film historian. Since receiving his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1974, he has written more than fifteen volumes on the subject of cinema including Narration in the Fiction Film , Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema , Making Meaning , and On the...
have ensured a wider appreciation of Ozu's style, aesthetics and themes in the West.
Biography
Ozu was born in the Fukagawa district of TokyoTokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
. At the age of ten, he and his siblings were sent by his father to live in his father's home town of Matsuzaka
Matsusaka, Mie
, sometimes called Matsuzaka, is a city located in central Mie Prefecture, on the island of Honshū, Japan. The city is famous for its beef.-Founding:...
, Mie Prefecture
Mie Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan which is part of the Kansai regions on Honshū island. The capital is the city of Tsu.- History :Until the Meiji Restoration, Mie prefecture was known as Ise Province and Iga Province....
, where he spent most of his youth. He was educated at a boarding school but spent much of his time in the local cinema rather than a classroom.
He worked briefly as a teacher before returning to Tokyo in 1923 to join the Shochiku Film Company
Shochiku
is a Japanese movie studio and production company for kabuki. It also produces and distributes anime films. Its best remembered directors include Yasujirō Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Keisuke Kinoshita and Yōji Yamada...
.
Ozu was well known for his drinking. In fact, he and his fellow screenwriter Kogo Noda used to measure the progression of their scripts by how many bottles of sake they had drunk. Occasionally visitors to his grave pay their respects by leaving cans and bottles of alcoholic drink. Ozu remained single and childless all of his life and stayed alone with his mother who died less than two years before his own death.
Ozu died in 1963 of cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
on his 60th birthday. His grave at Engaku-ji
Engaku-ji
right|thumb|A stone carvingNot to be confused with Enryaku-ji in Kyoto., or Engaku-ji , is one of the most important Zen Buddhist temple complexes in Japan and is ranked second among Kamakura's Five Mountains. It is situated in the city of Kamakura, in Kanagawa prefecture to the south of Tokyo...
in Kamakura
Kamakura, Kanagawa
is a city located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, about south-south-west of Tokyo. It used to be also called .Although Kamakura proper is today rather small, it is often described in history books as a former de facto capital of Japan as the seat of the Shogunate and of the Regency during the...
bears no name—just the character mu
Mu (negative)
or Wu , is a word which has been translated variously as "not", "nothing", "without", "nothingness", "non existent", "non being", or evocatively simply as "no thing"...
("nothingness").
Career
Ozu was initially hired as an assistant cameraman. He became an assistant directorAssistant director
The role of an Assistant director include tracking daily progress against the filming production schedule, arranging logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking cast and crew, maintaining order on the set. They also have to take care of health and safety of the crew...
within three years, and directed his first film, Zange no Yaiba (The Sword of Penitence, now lost), in 1927. He went on to make a further fifty-three films: twenty-six in his first five years as a director, and all but three for Shochiku. Ozu first made a number of short comedies, before turning to more serious themes in the 1930s. His Umarete wa mita keredo (I Was Born, But...
I Was Born, But...
is a 1932 black-and-white Japanese silent film directed by Yasujiro Ozu. It became the first of six Ozu films to win the Kinema Junpō Critics' Prize...
, 1932), a comedy with serious overtones on adolescence, not only marks the beginning of this transition, but was also received by movie critics as the first notable work of social criticism
Social criticism
The term social criticism locates the reasons for malicious conditions of the society in flawed social structures. People adhering to a social critics aim at practical solutions by specific measures, often consensual reform but sometimes also by powerful revolution.- European roots :Religious...
in Japanese cinema, winning Ozu wide acclaim.
In 1935 Ozu made a short documentary with soundtrack: Kagami Shishi, in which Kokiguro VI performed Kabuki
Kabuki
is classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.The individual kanji characters, from left to right, mean sing , dance , and skill...
dance of the same title. This was made as per a request by the Ministry of Education. Like the rest of Japan's cinema industry, Ozu was slow to switch to the production of talkies: his first film with a dialogue sound-track was Hitori Musuko (The Only Son) in 1936, five years after Japan's first talking film, Heinosuke Gosho
Heinosuke Gosho
was a Japanese film director who directed Japan's first talkie, The Neighbor's Wife and Mine, in 1931. He once served as president of the Directors Guild of Japan.- Selected filmography :* Aiyoku no ki...
's The Neighbor's Wife and Mine.
Imperial Japanese Army
-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...
, and he served for two years in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
as an infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
corporal in the Second Chinese-Japanese War
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...
. The first film Ozu made on his return was the critically and commercially successful Toda-ke no Kyodai (Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family
Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family
is a 1941 Japanese film directed by Yasujirō Ozu.-Plot:The upper-class Toda family celebrates the 69th birthday of their father with a commemorative photoshoot at their outdoor garden. Unfortunately, shortly after the photo session, the father, Shintaro Toda , suffers a fatal heart attack...
, 1941). He followed this with an autobiographical
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
theme: Chichi Ariki (There Was a Father, 1942), describing the strong bonds of affection between a father and son despite years of separation. In 1943, Ozu was again drafted into the army to make a propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
film in Burma. However, he was sent to Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
instead.
Ozu's films were most favorably received from the late 1940s, with works such as Banshun (Late Spring
Late Spring
is a critically acclaimed black-and-white Japanese film drama, directed by Yasujirō Ozu , first released in Japan in September 1949. Based on the novel Father and Daughter by Kazuo Hirotsu, the story concerns a young woman who lives happily in Kamakura with her kindly professor father, a widower...
, 1949), Tokyo Monogatari (Tokyo Story
Tokyo Story
is a 1953 Japanese film directed by Yasujirō Ozu. It tells the story of an aging couple who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children. The film contrasts the behavior of their biological children, who are too busy to pay them much attention, and their daughter-in-law, who treats them with...
, 1953)—considered to be his masterpiece—Ochazuke no Aji (The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice, 1952), Soshun (Early Spring
Early Spring
is a 1956 film by Yasujiro Ozu about a married office worker who has a fling with a typist, a fellow commuter, and the fallout that ensues with his friends and wife...
, 1956), Higanbana (Equinox Flower
Equinox Flower
is a 1958 color Japanese film directed by Yasujiro Ozu. It is Yasujiro Ozu's first film in color while Japan's first color film, Keisuke Kinoshita's Carmen Comes Home, had been released in 1951. The film is based on a novel by Ton Satomi...
, 1958, his first film in colour), Ukigusa (Floating Weeds
Floating Weeds
is a 1959 film by Yasujiro Ozu and shot in colour by Kazuo Miyagawa, one of Japan's most highly regarded cinematographers. It is a remake of Ozu's own black-and-white silent film A Story of Floating Weeds ....
, 1959) and Akibiyori (Late Autumn
Late Autumn
is a 1960 drama film directed by Yasujiro Ozu. It stars many of his favourite actors including Setsuko Hara and Chishu Ryu. It is based on a story by Ton Satomi....
, 1960). Ozu often worked with screenwriter Kogo Noda
Kogo Noda
was a Japanese screenwriter most famous for collaborating with Yasujirō Ozu on many of the director's films.Born in Hakodate, Noda was the son of the head of the local tax bureau and younger brother to Kyūho, a Nihonga painter. He moved to Nagoya after completing elementary school and later went to...
; other regular collaborators included camera man Yuharu Atsuta and the actors Chishu Ryu
Chishu Ryu
was a famous Japanese film actor, a favourite of the director Yasujiro Ozu. From 1928 to 1992 he appeared in at least 155 films, including Ozu's Tokyo Story and Yoshitaro Nomura's Castle of Sand...
, Setsuko Hara
Setsuko Hara
is a Japanese actress who appeared in six of Yasujirō Ozu's films, most notably as Noriko in the 'Noriko Trilogy': Late Spring , Early Summer and Tokyo Story . Her other films for Ozu were Tokyo Twilight , Late Autumn and finally The End of Summer in 1961.She was born 会田 昌江 Masae Aida in...
, and Haruko Sugimura
Haruko Sugimura
was a Japanese stage and film actress, best known for her appearances in the movies of Yasujiro Ozu and Mikio Naruse from the late 1940s to the early 1960s...
.
As a director, Ozu was eccentric and a notorious perfectionist. His films were typically infused with the concept of mono no aware
Mono no aware
, literally "the pathos of things", also translated as "an empathy toward things", or "a sensitivity to ephemera", is a Japanese term used to describe the awareness of , or the transience of things, and a gentle sadness at their passing.-Origins:...
, an awareness of the impermanence of things. He was seen as one of the "most Japanese" of film makers, and his work was only rarely shown overseas before the 1960s. Ozu's last film was Sanma no aji (An Autumn Afternoon
An Autumn Afternoon
is a 1962 Japanese drama film directed by Yasujirō Ozu. It stars Ozu regular Chishu Ryu as the patriarch of the Hirayama family who oversees the wedding of his daughter, played by Shima Iwashita. It was Ozu's last film; he died in the following year...
) in 1962.
He once served as president of the Directors Guild of Japan
Directors Guild of Japan
The is a trade union created to represent the interests of film directors in the film industry in Japan. It was founded in 1936, with Minoru Murata serving as the first president, and has continued to this day apart from a period between 1943 and 1949 when it was disbanded at first on orders from...
.
Legacy and style
Ozu is probably as well known for the technical style and innovation of his films as for the narrative content. The style of his films is most distinctive in his later films, a style he had not fully developed until his post-war talkies. He did not conform to most HollywoodCinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
conventions, most notably the 180 degree rule
180 degree rule
In filmmaking, the 180° rule is a basic guideline that states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line...
. Also, rather than using the typical over-the-shoulder shots in his dialogue scenes, the camera gazes on the actors directly, which has the effect of placing the viewer in the middle of the scene. Ozu did not use typical transitions between scenes, either. In between scenes he would show shots of certain static objects as transitions, or use direct cuts, rather than fades or dissolves. Most often the static objects would be buildings, where the next indoor scene would take place. It was during these transitions that he would use music, which might begin at the end of one scene, progress through the static transition, and fade into the new scene. He rarely used non-diegetic music in any scenes other than in the transitions. Ozu moved the camera less and less as his career progressed, and ceased using tracking shots altogether in his color films.
He invented the "tatami shot", in which the camera is placed at a low height, supposedly at the eye level of a person kneeling on a tatami
Tatami
A is a type of mat used as a flooring material in traditional Japanese-style rooms. Traditionally made of rice straw to form the core , with a covering of woven soft rush straw, tatami are made in standard sizes, with the length exactly twice the width...
mat. Actually, Ozu's camera is often even lower than that, only one or two feet off the ground. He used this low height even when there were no sitting scenes, such as when his characters walked down hallways.
Ozu also eschewed the traditional rules of filmic storytelling, most notably eyelines
Eyeline match
An eyeline match is a film editing technique associated with the continuity editing system. It is based on the premise that the audience will want to see what the character on-screen is seeing. The eyeline match begins with a character looking at something off-screen, there will then be a cut to...
. In his review of Floating Weeds
Floating Weeds
is a 1959 film by Yasujiro Ozu and shot in colour by Kazuo Miyagawa, one of Japan's most highly regarded cinematographers. It is a remake of Ozu's own black-and-white silent film A Story of Floating Weeds ....
, film critic Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
recounts
[Ozu] once had a young assistant who suggested that perhaps he should shoot conversations so that it seemed to the audience that the characters were looking at one another. Ozu agreed to a test. They shot a scene both ways, and compared them. "You see?" Ozu said. "No difference!"
In narrative structure, Ozu was also an innovator in his use of ellipses
Ellipsis (narrative device)
Ellipsis is the narrative device of omitting a portion of the sequence of events, allowing the reader to fill in the narrative gaps.An ellipsis in narrative leaves out a portion of the story. This can be used to condense time, or as a stylistic method to allow the reader to fill in the missing...
, in which many major events are left out, leaving only the space between them. For example, in An Autumn Afternoon
An Autumn Afternoon
is a 1962 Japanese drama film directed by Yasujirō Ozu. It stars Ozu regular Chishu Ryu as the patriarch of the Hirayama family who oversees the wedding of his daughter, played by Shima Iwashita. It was Ozu's last film; he died in the following year...
a wedding is mentioned in one scene, and then in the next, a reference is made to the wedding that has already occurred. The wedding, however, never occurs on screen. This is typical of Ozu's films. Usually Ozu elides moments that Hollywood films use to stir an emotional reaction from the audience, thus eschewing melodrama.
Ozu's films also featured more varied female roles. Most notably in the Noriko trilogy (Late Spring
Late Spring
is a critically acclaimed black-and-white Japanese film drama, directed by Yasujirō Ozu , first released in Japan in September 1949. Based on the novel Father and Daughter by Kazuo Hirotsu, the story concerns a young woman who lives happily in Kamakura with her kindly professor father, a widower...
, Early Summer
Early Summer
is a 1951 film by Yasujiro Ozu. Like most of Ozu's post-war films, Early Summer deals with many issues ranging from communication problems between generations and the rising role of women in post-war Japan....
, and Tokyo Story
Tokyo Story
is a 1953 Japanese film directed by Yasujirō Ozu. It tells the story of an aging couple who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children. The film contrasts the behavior of their biological children, who are too busy to pay them much attention, and their daughter-in-law, who treats them with...
), his female characters exhibited an independence and assertiveness that was a departure from more traditional Japanese views of women.
Ozu's work anticipated some techniques used by later art-film directors: infrequent use of non-diegetic music, a distinctive visual style, minimalist storytelling, and a character-driven emphasis on quiet and intelligent conversation.
Ozu's influence on the modern art film
Art film
An art film is the result of filmmaking which is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience...
has been tremendous. Jim Jarmusch
Jim Jarmusch
James R. "Jim" Jarmusch is an American independent film director, screenwriter, actor, producer, editor and composer. Jarmusch has been a major proponent of independent cinema, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s.-Early life:...
, Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders
Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders is a German film director, playwright, author, photographer and producer.-Early life:Wenders was born in Düsseldorf. He graduated from high school in Oberhausen in the Ruhr area. He then studied medicine and philosophy in Freiburg and Düsseldorf...
, Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh
Michael "Mike" Leigh, OBE is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s...
, Deepa Mehta
Deepa Mehta
Deepa Mehta, LLD is a Genie Award-winning Indian-born Canadian film director and screenwriter, most known for her Elements Trilogy, Fire , Earth , and Water , among which Earth was submitted by Indian government for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film...
, Aki Kaurismaki
Aki Kaurismäki
-Career:After studying Media Studies at the University of Tampere, Aki Kaurismäki started his career as a co-director in the films of his elder brother Mika Kaurismäki. His debut as an independent director was Crime and Punishment , Dostoyevsky's famous crime story set in modern-day Helsinki...
and Pedro Costa
Pedro Costa
Pedro Costa is a Portuguese film director.He is acclaimed for using his ascetic style to depict the marginalised people in desperate living situations...
have all proclaimed to having been profoundly influenced by his films. Paul Schrader
Paul Schrader
Paul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter, film director, and former film critic. Apart from his credentials as a director, Schrader is most notably known for his screenplays for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Raging Bull....
had a high opinion of him as well, and in his book Transcendental Styles in Film relates Ozu to Robert Bresson
Robert Bresson
-Life and career:Bresson was born at Bromont-Lamothe, Puy-de-Dôme, the son of Marie-Élisabeth and Léon Bresson. Little is known of his early life and the year of his birth, 1901 or 1907, varies depending on the source. He was educated at Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, close to Paris, and...
and Carl Theodor Dreyer
Carl Theodor Dreyer
Carl Theodor Dreyer, Jr. was a Danish film director. He is regarded by many critics and filmmakers as one of the greatest directors in cinema.-Life:Dreyer was born illegitimate in Copenhagen, Denmark...
.
Ozu had some famous detractors. Japanese "New-Wave" filmmakers Shohei Imamura
Shohei Imamura
was a Japanese film director. Imamura was the first Japanese director to win two Palme d'Or awards.His eldest son Daisuke Tengan is also a script writer and film director, and worked on the screenplays to Imamura's filmsThe Eel , Dr...
and Nagisa Oshima
Nagisa Oshima
is a Japanese film director and screenwriter. After graduating from Kyoto University he was hired by Shochiku Ltd. and quickly progressed to directing his own movies, making his debut feature A Town of Love and Hope in 1959....
were completely uninterested in Ozu's style of film making. Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
's more gentle criticism was that Ozu's work was too rarefied; he wrote in his autobiography that he disliked their "dignified severity".
Tributes and documentaries
- The 2003 movie Five Dedicated to Ozu, by Iranian filmmaker Abbas KiarostamiAbbas KiarostamiAbbas Kiarostami is an internationally acclaimed Iranian film director, screenwriter, photographer and film producer. An active filmmaker since 1970, Kiarostami has been involved in over forty films, including shorts and documentaries...
, is a tribute to Ozu. The film consists of five long takes, averaging about 16 minutes each. - In the Wim WendersWim WendersErnst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders is a German film director, playwright, author, photographer and producer.-Early life:Wenders was born in Düsseldorf. He graduated from high school in Oberhausen in the Ruhr area. He then studied medicine and philosophy in Freiburg and Düsseldorf...
documentary film Tokyo-GaTokyo-GaTokyo-Ga is a 1985 documentary film directed by Wim Wenders ostensibly about filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu. However, only two scenes actually focus on Ozu—one where Wenders interviews Ozu’s regular cinematographer, Yuharu Atsuta, and another where he interviews Ozu’s favorite actor, Chishu Ryu. The rest...
, the director travels to Japan to explore the world of Ozu, interviewing both Chishu RyuChishu Ryuwas a famous Japanese film actor, a favourite of the director Yasujiro Ozu. From 1928 to 1992 he appeared in at least 155 films, including Ozu's Tokyo Story and Yoshitaro Nomura's Castle of Sand...
and Yuharu Atsuta. - In 2003, the centenary of Ozu's birth was commemorated at various film festivals around the world. Shochiku produced the film Café LumièreCafé Lumièreis a 2003 Japanese film directed by Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien for Shochiku as homage to Yasujiro Ozu, with direct reference to the late master's Tokyo Story . It premiered at a festival commemorating the centenary of Ozu's birth...
(珈琲時光), directed by TaiwanTaiwanTaiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
ese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-HsienHou Hsiao-HsienHou Hsiao-Hsien is an award-winning film director and a leading figure of Taiwan's New Wave cinema movement.-Biography:...
as homage to Ozu, with direct reference to the late master's Tokyo Story (1953), to premiere on Ozu's birthday. - John Walker, former editor of HalliwellLeslie HalliwellRobert James Leslie Halliwell was a British film encyclopaedist and television impresario who in 1965 compiled The Filmgoer's Companion, the first one-volume encyclopaedia devoted to all aspects of the cinema. He followed it a dozen years later with Halliwell's Film Guide, another monumental work...
`s Film Guide, placed Tokyo Story top in a list of the best 1000 films yet made. - In 2005, the New York Guitar FestivalNew York Guitar FestivalThe New York Guitar Festival is a music festival founded by radio host and author John Schaefer and musician, producer and curator David Spelman, who serves at the festival's Artistic Director...
commissioned the guitarist Alex de GrassiAlex de GrassiAlex de Grassi is an American Grammy Award-nominated fingerstyle guitarist.-Early life and influences:Though born in Yokosuka, Japan, de Grassi grew up in San Francisco, California, where his grandfather played violin for the San Francisco Symphony and his father was a classical pianist...
to compose a score to Ozu's A Story of Floating WeedsA Story of Floating Weedsis a 1934 silent film directed by Yasujiro Ozu which he later remade as Floating Weeds in 1959 in color.-Plot:The film starts with a travelling kabuki troupe arriving by train at a provincial seaside town. Kihachi Ichikawa , the head of the troupe, is a very popular actor...
. The guitarist performed his score to accompany the film at the 2006 New York Guitar Festival.
Filmography
| Filmography of Yasujirō Ozu | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Japanese Title | Rōmaji | English Title | Notes |
| Silent films | ||||
| 1927 | 懺悔の刃 | Zange no yaiba | Sword of Penitence Sword of Penitence is a 1927 Japanese silent film by Yasujirō Ozu. It is the first film directed by Ozu and was also the first of his many collaborations with screenwriter Kogo Noda.- Production :... |
Lost |
| 1928 | 若人の夢 | Wakodo no yume | Dreams of Youth | Lost |
| 女房紛失 | Nyobo funshitsu | Wife Lost | Lost | |
| カボチャ | Kabocha | Pumpkin | Lost | |
| 引越し夫婦 | Hikkoshi fufu | A Couple on the Move | Lost | |
| 肉体美 | Nikutaibi | Body Beautiful | Lost | |
| 1929 | 宝の山 | Takara no yama | Treasure Mountain | Lost |
| 学生ロマンス 若き日 | Wakaki hi | Days of Youth Days of Youth is a Japanese comedy film directed by Yasujiro Ozu. It is the oldest known surviving film by the director. The film tells of two friends from a university who vie for the attention of the same girl during a skiing trip.-External links:*... |
Ozu's earliest surviving film | |
| 和製喧嘩友達 | Wasei kenka tomodachi | Fighting Friends Japanese Style | 14 minutes survive | |
| 大学は出たけれど | Daigaku wa detakeredo | I Graduated, But... | 10 minutes survive | |
| 会社員生活 | Kaishain seikatsu | The Life of an Office Worker | Lost | |
| 突貫小僧 | Tokkan kozo | A Straightforward Boy | Short film | |
| 1930 | 結婚学入門 | Kekkongaku nyumon | An Introduction to Marriage | Lost |
| 朗かに歩め | Hogaraka ni ayume | Walk Cheerfully | ||
| 落第はしたけれど | Rakudai wa shitakeredo | I Flunked, But... | ||
| その夜の妻 | Sono yo no tsuma | That Night's Wife | ||
| エロ神の怨霊 | Erogami no onryo | The Revengeful Spirit of Eros | Lost | |
| 足に触った幸運 | Ashi ni sawatta koun | The Luck Which Touched the Leg | Lost | |
| お嬢さん | Ojosan | Young Miss | Lost | |
| 1931 | 淑女と髭 | Shukujo to hige | The Lady and the Beard | |
| 美人と哀愁 | Bijin aishu | Beauty's Sorrows | Lost | |
| 東京の合唱 | Tokyo no kôrasu | Tokyo Chorus Tokyo Chorus was a 1931 silent movie produced by Shochiku Company, directed by acclaimed and influential Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu and starring Tokihiko Okada and Emiko Yagumo. It was based on various stories in the Shoshimin-gai series and also shares influences with King Vidor's The Crowd... |
||
| 1932 | 春は御婦人から | Harn wa gofujin kara | Spring Comes from the Ladies | Lost |
| 大人の見る繪本 生れてはみたけれど | Umarete wa mita keredo | I Was Born, But... I Was Born, But... is a 1932 black-and-white Japanese silent film directed by Yasujiro Ozu. It became the first of six Ozu films to win the Kinema Junpō Critics' Prize... |
||
| 靑春の夢いまいづこ | Seishun no yume imaizuko | Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth? | ||
| また逢ふ日まで | Mata au hi made | Until the Day We Meet Again | Lost | |
| 1933 | 東京の女 | Tokyo no onna | Woman of Tokyo | |
| 非常線の女 | Hijosen no onna | Dragnet Girl Dragnet Girl Dragnet Girl is a 1933 Japanese Gangster film directed by Yasujirô Ozu. The film tells the story of a gangster and his girl finding redemption through the actions of an innocent girl.-Cast:*Kinuyo Tanaka*Joji Oka*Sumiko Mizukubo*Kôji Mitsui... |
||
| 出来ごころ | Degigokoro | Passing Fancy Passing Fancy is a 1933 silent movie produced by Shochiku Company, directed by Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu and starring Takeshi Sakamoto, Nobuko Fushimi, Den Obinata and Chouko Iida.... |
||
| 1934 | 母を恋はずや | Haha o kowazuya | A Mother Should Be Loved | |
| 浮草物語 | Ukigusa monogatari | A Story of Floating Weeds A Story of Floating Weeds is a 1934 silent film directed by Yasujiro Ozu which he later remade as Floating Weeds in 1959 in color.-Plot:The film starts with a travelling kabuki troupe arriving by train at a provincial seaside town. Kihachi Ichikawa , the head of the troupe, is a very popular actor... |
||
| 1935 | 箱入娘 | Hakoiri musume | An Innocent Maid | Lost |
| 菊五郎の鏡獅子 | Kagamijishi | Kagamijishi | Documentary | |
| 東京の宿 | Tokyo no yado | An Inn in Tokyo An Inn in Tokyo is a 1935 silent film directed by Yasujiro Ozu. The film is Ozu's last extant silent film.The script of the film is credited to a person by the name of Uinzato Mone, which means in Japanese, "Without Money"... |
||
| 1936 | 大学よいとこ | Daigaku yoitoko | College is a Nice Place | Lost |
| Sound, black-and-white films | ||||
| 1936 | ひとり息子 | Hitori musuko | The Only Son The Only Son (1936 film) is a 1936 film directed by Yasujiro Ozu, starring Chouko Iida and Shinichi Himori. The film was Ozu's first "talkie" feature.-Plot:The film starts in the rural town of Shinshū in 1923. A widow, Tsune Nonomiya , works hard at a silk production factory to provide for her only son, Ryosuke... |
Ozu's first sound film |
| 1937 | 淑女は何を忘れたか | Shukujo wa nani o wasuretaka | What Did the Lady Forget? What Did the Lady Forget? is a 1937 Japanese film directed by Yasujiro Ozu.-Plot:Komiya is an affluent, respected and good-natured professor of medicine at a Tokyo university. He has a wife, Tokiko , though they are without children. His niece from Osaka, Setsuko comes recently for a visit to Tokyo... |
|
| 1941 | 戸田家の兄妹 | Todake no kyodai | Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family is a 1941 Japanese film directed by Yasujirō Ozu.-Plot:The upper-class Toda family celebrates the 69th birthday of their father with a commemorative photoshoot at their outdoor garden. Unfortunately, shortly after the photo session, the father, Shintaro Toda , suffers a fatal heart attack... |
|
| 1942 | 父ありき | Chichi ariki | There Was a Father There Was a Father -Production:Yasujiro Ozu wrote the first draft of There Was a Father before he went to China in 1937. On returning for Japan, he re-wrote it again and feeling that "it could still be improved".-Release:... |
|
| 1947 | 長屋紳士録 | Nagaya Shinshiroku | Record of a Tenement Gentleman | |
| 1948 | 風の中の牝鶏 | Kaze no naka no mendori | A Hen in the Wind A Hen in the Wind is a 1948 drama film directed by Yasujiro Ozu, starring Kinuyo Tanaka and Shûji Sano.-Plot:The film is set in immediate postwar Japan, Tokyo. Tokiko , a twenty-nine-year-old mother of a young boy of four, is waiting for her husband's repatriation from World War II... |
|
| 1949 | 晩春 | Banshun | Late Spring Late Spring is a critically acclaimed black-and-white Japanese film drama, directed by Yasujirō Ozu , first released in Japan in September 1949. Based on the novel Father and Daughter by Kazuo Hirotsu, the story concerns a young woman who lives happily in Kamakura with her kindly professor father, a widower... |
Ozu's first film with Setsuko Hara Setsuko Hara is a Japanese actress who appeared in six of Yasujirō Ozu's films, most notably as Noriko in the 'Noriko Trilogy': Late Spring , Early Summer and Tokyo Story . Her other films for Ozu were Tokyo Twilight , Late Autumn and finally The End of Summer in 1961.She was born 会田 昌江 Masae Aida in... |
| 1950 | 宗方姉妹 | Munekata kyōdai | The Munekata Sisters | |
| 1951 | 麥秋 | Bakushu | Early Summer Early Summer is a 1951 film by Yasujiro Ozu. Like most of Ozu's post-war films, Early Summer deals with many issues ranging from communication problems between generations and the rising role of women in post-war Japan.... |
|
| 1952 | お茶漬けの味 | Ochazuke no aji | The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice is a 1952 Japanese film directed by Yasujiro Ozu about a wealthy middle-aged couple who have marital difficulties... |
Adapted from rejected 1939 script |
| 1953 | 東京物語 | Tokyo monogatari | Tokyo Story Tokyo Story is a 1953 Japanese film directed by Yasujirō Ozu. It tells the story of an aging couple who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children. The film contrasts the behavior of their biological children, who are too busy to pay them much attention, and their daughter-in-law, who treats them with... |
|
| 1956 | 早春 | Soshun | Early Spring Early Spring is a 1956 film by Yasujiro Ozu about a married office worker who has a fling with a typist, a fellow commuter, and the fallout that ensues with his friends and wife... |
|
| 1957 | 東京暮色 | Tōkyō boshoku | Tokyo Twilight Tokyo Twilight is a 1957 film by Yasujirō Ozu. The film is considered amongst Ozu's darkest postwar films.-Synopsis:Akiko Sugiyama is a young college graduate girl learning English shorthand. Her elder sister Takako , running away from an unhappy marriage, has returned home to stay with Akiko and their father... |
|
| Colour films | ||||
| 1958 | 彼岸花 | Higanbana | Equinox Flower Equinox Flower is a 1958 color Japanese film directed by Yasujiro Ozu. It is Yasujiro Ozu's first film in color while Japan's first color film, Keisuke Kinoshita's Carmen Comes Home, had been released in 1951. The film is based on a novel by Ton Satomi... |
Ozu's first film in colour |
| 1959 | お早よう | Ohayo | Good Morning Good Morning (film) is a 1959 comedy film by Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu. It is a loose remake of his own 1932 silent film I Was Born, But..., and one of only six films that Ozu made in color.-Plot:... |
Remake of I Was Born, But... |
| 浮草 | Ukigusa | Floating Weeds Floating Weeds is a 1959 film by Yasujiro Ozu and shot in colour by Kazuo Miyagawa, one of Japan's most highly regarded cinematographers. It is a remake of Ozu's own black-and-white silent film A Story of Floating Weeds .... |
Remake of A Story of Floating Weeds | |
| 1960 | 秋日和 | Akibiyori | Late Autumn | |
| 1961 | 小早川家の秋 | Kohayagawa-ke no aki | The End of Summer The End of Summer is a 1961 film directed by Yasujirō Ozu. It was entered into the 12th Berlin International Film Festival. The film was his penultimate film; only An Autumn Afternoon followed it.... |
|
| 1962 | 秋刀魚の味 | Sanma no aji | An Autumn Afternoon An Autumn Afternoon is a 1962 Japanese drama film directed by Yasujirō Ozu. It stars Ozu regular Chishu Ryu as the patriarch of the Hirayama family who oversees the wedding of his daughter, played by Shima Iwashita. It was Ozu's last film; he died in the following year... |
Ozu's final work |
External links
- Early Summer Review at subtitledonline.com
- Digital Ozu
- Profile at Japan Zone
- Directions for finding Yasujiro Ozu's grave at Engaku-ji
- "The quiet master" at The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
- Yasujiro Ozu at the Japanese Movie DatabaseJapanese Movie DatabaseThe , commonly referred to as JMDB, is an online database of information about Japanese movies, actors, and production crew personnel. It is similar to the Internet Movie Database, but lists only those films originally released in Japan. The site was started in 1997, and contains movies from Meiji...
- Ozu's Angry Women by Shigehiko Hasumi
- Ozu Yasujirō: Simply too Japanese
- Ozu-san.com - A Website Dedicated to Ozu Yasujiro
- "Notes on Ozu's Cinematic Style," William Rothman in the Stanley Cavell special issue (Jeffrey Crouse, editor), Film International Issue 22, Vol, 4, No, 4, 2006.