The Ozu thread.

The Eclipse series of Criterion has released a shitload of early and late Ozu, some of which have never even gotten a VHS release. I just got Equinox Flower from the library.

I watched Equinox Flower last night and it was excellent!

that ware poster is amazing. need a copy.

So I have finally seen some Ozu films - Tokyo Story and his last one. I was somewhat surprised by them - I had picked up the idea (largely from this thread) that they would be a bit, er, boring. But they are very eventful, even if on a global scale not that much happens in them. I also loved how good natured they are.

I was going to revive this thread because Early Spring looked enticing at the library a few minutes ago.

http://www.bfi.org.uk/whatson/bfi_southbank/film_programme/january_seasons/yasujiro_ozu

I recommend Late Autumn, probably my second favourite after Tokyo Story.

Equinox Flower is my favorite of the color ones; the color accentuates the sadness and fatalism.

great article in sight & sound this month about ozu's unseen early genre flicks. didn't know so many - at least 16 iirc - of his films were lost.

have tickets to see tokyo story this weekend - psyched

Feeling awful how I've not seen any one thing from this yet :-(

the flavour of green tea over rice is worth seeing

tokyo story was aiiiight - like ohayo much better

i just saw tokyo story for the first time in a film class like 3 hours ago--7/11 people were crying by my count. (i was really close, still kind of want to cry tbh)

I've only seen 2 Ozu films, Tokyo Story (twice) and Floating Weeds. I found them boring. Do you think I should give up or try other films?

Late Autumn is slightly pacier than most (only slightly though), Ozu films take a bit of getting used to though - I saw Floating weeds ages ago and thought it was boring, now I love it.

if you found them boring, you should give up - his other stuff is not loaded with action - what he does is contemplative

i'd leave it. you might come back to him, you might not, but i wouldn't keep reading a novelist if i didn't like them after three goes.

As has been pointed out previously on this thread, Good Morning has lots of fart jokes. Slowly paced, but with farting.

good morning is great, pretty accessible becauase of the fart jokes

fart jokes go a long way

You could try a slightly off-center Ozu if you felt like it, something like A Hen in the Wind.

think part of the prob w/ TOKYO STORY esp is that the original negative was destroyed in a fire, so even new prints are struck from dupes, often making the image muddy/less luminous than it shld be

BFI have a blu ray of tokyo story out in the summer, will be interesting to see how that fares

even more off-centre: Dragnet Girl! it is a delight.

> I've only seen 2 Ozu films, Tokyo Story (twice) and Floating Weeds. I found them boring.

i was enthralled from the very first shot of Floating Weeds

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4060/4525225877_8058195c52.jpg

was the first Ozu i'd seen in colour, and the colour served to make the black and white kimonos stand out more.

the opening shots of an autumn afternoon are similarly spellbinding.

It took Floating Weeds and Early Summer for me to "get" him.

boy, is Tokyo Twilight bleak: an abortion, confrontation, and suicide.

are there ppl who hate ozu

high schoolers

Probably many are indifferent to him but they won't click on this thread

not ppl afaict xp

right....indifference is about the worst ozu inspires, even on the internet

http://filmfanatic.org/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/Tokyo2.JPG

(maybe shouldn't say but "indifferent" was code for those who intentionally or otherwise bait Film Snobs #1 and #2 on any general purpose movie thread. Or go after film-snob-elect clemenza)

i love that still

how to frame a landscape in academy ratio

Good point

He was keen to experiment with colour yet he eschewed any frame wider than standard Academy ratio, saying that the wide frame looked "like a piece of toilet paper".

are there ppl who hate ozu

now you must have seen this thread while searching to wake up the current one

i hate Ouzo -

http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/ProductImage.aspx?pc=LIQ%2FOUZ1&w=270

is nothing sacred xp

re that coca cola picture. i kinda expected the bfi (or whoever) to clean up that enormous scratch that persists for a good couple of minutes during this sequence.

I saw the silent "I Was Born, But..." the other weekend at Anthology. Such a beautiful and amusing film.

I've been meaning to watch Ozu for a while and I just finished my first one, Good Morning, which was utterly delightful. The low camera angles were great and and I found the setting so fucking charming. What should I watch next? Tokyo Story?

why not

milton -- this was bookmarked so i didnt see the other ozu thread

RIP Chikage Awashima

http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/chikage-awashima-1924-2012

man, it's instructive to read the start of this thread and see lamenting enrique, less than ten years ago, bemoaning the fact that the only ozu available for home viewing is tokyo story on vhs - now, in the uk at least, you can get beautiful blu-ray editions from the bfi for less than a tenner