The Ozu thread.

you were there too? I was super blown over by the effort they'd gone to - the music was fantastically well-planned, the benshi super funny and on-point, and all just for a members-only screening.

i think my favourite thing about the film was the excellent number of shots of hats.

I was! I feel lucky, a mate of mine is in a band with Tomoko and is a member so he had a jump on tickets. The musicians were great I agree, the shakuhachi player is the venerable Clive Bell who writes for The Wire.

I didn't expect the jaunty little 'hail and well met' dance routines in this film, I'd assumed wrongly that it was a student thing, I wonder if Japanese dudes actually *did* that in the 20's?

hah, I reckon not any more than dudes in the US in the 30s spontaneously broke into song whenever they had an emotion.

Good point, I guess I'm just not used to having to suspend my disbelief with Ozu.

big retro in NYC, June 7-27

To this day the only one I've seen is Good Morning but my god what a delightful film!

that one might be my favorite

it's the only ozu film with a shart joke that's for sure

"I wonder if Japanese dudes actually *did* that in the 20's?"

probably not, but the correct question is, "wouldn't it have been delightful if they did?"

it's the only ozu film with a shart joke that's for sure

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Wednesday, April 24, 2013 9:48 AM (54 seconds ago)

if my japanese instructor is any indication, older japanese people think farts are the funniest thing in the world.

not just a shart joke btw but REOCCURING shart joke

I just watched early summer. lovely stuff.

not just a shart joke btw but REOCCURING shart joke

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Wednesday, April 24, 2013 11:22 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

looks like i've been giving Ozu the short shrift all this time

I think you mean "the shart shrift."

l'esprit de l'escalier strikes again!

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/video/video-yasujiro-ozu-art-benshi

NYC sked

http://www.filmforum.org/movies/more/ozu#nowplaying

Which ones are you thinking about seeing? (if any)

Also, I've only just discovered that there are a fair number of early Ozu works on YouTube.

whatever's hard to see

...like yesterday, his earliest extant film, the collegiate ski-trip comedy (!!!) Days of Youth (1929). Then I find out it's on YouTube. About 20 mins too long, but if you want to see him handle pratfalls and getting-paint-on-your-hands gags....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMnXHaZJKZ4

lots of visual gags w/ ski poles IIRC

Chishu Ryu is one of the students, but I didn't spot him.

In one scene the boys are trying to groom one of their number using a Gary Cooper movie-mag photo.

i did spot chishu ryu when i saw this, but it's tough--he looks incredibly young.

i love all the americanophilia in this and other early ozu films

Has anyone here read Adam Mars-Jones' Noriko Smiling? seems like it might be an interesting bit of criticism...

Film

GAH

Film Forum is showing all the extant silents, what shd I see? Long ago saw Floating Weeds & I Was Born But...

http://sporadicscintillations.blogspot.com/search/label/Yasujiro%20Ozu

a commmenter on MUBI ranks them thusly

1. An Inn In Tokyo (1935)
2. A Story Of Floating Weeds (1934)
3. Passing Fancy (1933)
4. Tokyo Chorus (1931)
5. I Was Born, But… (1932)
6. Woman Of Tokyo (1933)
7. A Mother Should Be Loved (1934)
8. I Flunked, But… (1930)
9. Where Now Are The Dreams Of Youth? (1932)
10. Dragnet Girl (1933)
11. The Lady And The Beard (1931)
12. That Night’s Wife (1930)
13. Days Of Youth (1929)
14. I Graduated, But… (1929)
15. Walk Cheerfully (1930)
16. Fighting Friends (1929)
17. A Straightforward Boy (1929)

http://mubi.com/topics/days-of-youth-1929-an-ozu-film-i-did-not-like-at-all

the correct answer of course is that you should see all of them

the ones you shouldn't miss IMO are

1. An Inn In Tokyo (1935)
3. Passing Fancy (1933)
4. Tokyo Chorus (1931)
5. I Was Born, But… (1932)
6. Woman Of Tokyo (1933)
9. Where Now Are The Dreams Of Youth? (1932)
10. Dragnet Girl (1933)

ozu's 1933 is like ford's 1939 if you know what i mean

I liked That Night's Wife quite a lot. Haven't seen any of the others aside from I Was Born, But... and the existing fragment of I Graduated, But...

yeah, that night's wife is impressive.

wrestling with the "canonization" of Tokyo Story:

http://thefilmstage.com/features/tokyo-story-hits-criterion-blu-ray-questioning-a-canonical-classic/

Lol at

This, mind you, is not another “young philistine with little wit thinks he’s too cool for the canon” piece.

Clicked through to Bergman thing too.

It's not my favorite – the reissues of the last 10 years have changed it – but it's daft to say it's not one of his best

(about to read)

Life of Oharu on DVD at last -- got my copy today.

The Ozu thread.

that's what I get from mobile posting lol

What about Tokyo Story, by Kurosawa?

ehhhh not as good as Naruse's The Alamo.

> Life of Oharu

i saw it on dvd about 4 years ago. was available (region 2) via Artificial Eye "DVD Release Date: 26 April 2004", then OOP for a while. bought the criterion version last month, region 1...

frankly none of these films are half as good as john ford's "the flavor of green tea over rice"

Ward, how were the silent gangster films? Partner picked up that + the college film set on sale from the BFI, but there's a whole bunch of Italian diva films to get through first.

those ozu "gangster" films (which aren't really much like american gangster films IMO, much tamer) are fantastic.

i would recommend pushing back the italian diva films (are you talking about ones from the 1910s?) and watching those ozu movies tonight :)

Shamefully, ive not seen much ozu. i saw early spring last night, and maybe as i was just shattered after work, felt like I was kept at a distance, which made it hard to really engage with it. did see tokyo story and felt similarly, which is odd as it seems like something i would love (im going to try it again), but i seem to find these films too delicate, or precious, or maybe just far too understated (I think seeing them at home might actually suit them better than in the cinema). I have a similar issue with a lot of satyajit rays films. Oddly though, when I saw autumn afternoon last year, I loved it, which makes me think i might like his later films more.
The pcc in London is doing this ‘selectrospective’ season of his seasonally titled movies.
http://www.princecharlescinema.com/events/events.php?seasonanchor=ozu

trio of silents via Eclipse

http://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/review/eclipse-series-42-silent-ozu-three-crime-dramas

Saw that yesterday...I keep hoping Dragnet Girl will show up on Hulu since the other two are there.

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

― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, June 28, 2011 1:55 PM (4 years ago)

This is a really interesting film. Wonderful performances by the two lead actresses, Ineko Arima looking just completely forlorn. The city has almost a noir quality at times.

I think An Autumn Afternoon is exquisite, it is such an easy movie to completely immerse yourself in and I was genuinely weepy at the end. I really need to watch this again with some decent subs, the subtitle file was too literal and some joker had put viagra references into it. The use of music in this is quite stunning and unusual for the era as well. I can't quite put my finger on it but there is something magical about this movie.

there is a joke about taking "vitamins" for sexual potency.

I figured they had substituted some Japanese herbal word with viagra and it isn't a problem, but it was also a really rough sub-file and most likely a DIY jobbie.