The stylistically austere films of Yasujiro Ozu examine the basic struggles that we all face in life: the cycles of birth and death, the transition from childhood to adulthood, and the tensions between tradition and modernity. The changing seasons, often represented in the film titles, are a symbolic backdrop for the evolving transitions of human experience. Seen together, Ozu’s influential oeuvre amounts to one of the most profound visions of family life in the history of cinema.
Don’t miss this week’s movies:
Floating Weeds
A troupe of travelling players arrive at a small seaport in the south of Japan. Komajuro Arashi, the aging master of the troupe, goes to visit his old flame Oyoshi and their son . But Jealousy in one of the actors leads to problems.
(Japan, 1953, 134 mins, dir. Yasujiro Ozu, with Ganjiro Nakamura & Machiko Kyo, Japanese with English subtitles).
Late Spring
Noriko is 27 years old and still living with her widowed father. Everybody tries to talk her into marrying, but Noriko wants to stay taking care of her father.
(Japan, 1949, B&W, 108 mins, dir. Yasujiro Ozu Chisu Ryu & Setsuko Hara, Japanese with English subtitles)
Tokyo Story
An elderly couple journey to Tokyo to visit their children and are confronted by indifference, ingradtitude and selfishness. When the parents are packed off to a resort by their impatient children, the film deepens into an unbearably moving meditation on mortality.
(Japan, 1953, 134 mins, dir. Yasujiro Ozu, with Chishu Ryu & Chieko Higashiyama, Japanese with English subtitles).
Good Morning
This movie takes a look at a very Westernized suburban Japan in the late 50’s. It focuses mainly on the daily lives of a small community that is dramatically effected when two boys stop speaking in protest to their parents not giving them a tv.
(Japan, 1959, B&W, 94 mins, dir. Yasujiro Ozu, with Keiji Sada & Yoshiko Kuga, Japanese with English subtitles)
Visit World Cinema Saturdays on UCSD-TV to see what’s playing in the weeks ahead.