The Ozu thread.

Inspired by this recent revive, I watched Late Autumn (1960) at the weekend, another late one in colour with a resolutely locked camera. Again, the palette (all browns and light blues) and framing of the image (so many 'unmotivated' shots of empty offices, bars, streets, corridors, breezes blowing through them, light rippling, filmed from bizarre angles and with the camera placed very very low) are masterful. The contrast between such radical mise-en-scene and the conventional family drama being played out (this time, a variant on Late Spring, the superior film) reflects back on the film's 'conflict' between old and new Japan (there's a mention of 'That Presley' at one point), and feels utterly distinctive and Ozu-like. Film is too long at over two hours and the ending - so devastating in Late Spring - is almost thrown away here: I guess it's Ozu resisting melodrama in favour of a more placid (or serene) acceptance of loneliness and separation.

having still only seen Good Morning I added some Ozu to my boo's Hulu+ queue so we are going to watch 1. Tokyo Story 2. Late Spring 3. An Autumn Afternoon, those are a good 3 intro Ozus right?

Wow, I rewatched An Autumn Afternoon an hour ago: a return to the Late Spring material with more humor but still bleak ending.

Good Morning might be the best introductory Ozu.

The news broke yesterday of Setsuko Hara's death in Sept, I guess the family wanted to keep it quiet. She was 95.

http://i65.tinypic.com/1604twy.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/WilliamCrump63/ozu%20killshot.jpg

lol

And of course the ending shot, of the waves, has been subjected to numerous interpretations but I suspect that like the waves of grain at the end of "Early Summer," it has a more local (i.e. specific to the film) meaning than has commonly been accepted. But I'll have to look into this.
― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, November 24, 2003 4:23 PM (fourteen years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the daughter has left home and the tide has gone out

Excited for summer revivals here - lots of Ozu, including a 35mm print of Early Summer, which I've never seen. Watched An Autumn Afternoon tonight and was again transfixed - not the gut punch of Late Spring, closer to this quote from Ebert: "He is a man with a profound understanding of human nature, about which he makes no dramatic statements. We are here, we hope to be happy, we want to do well, we are locked within our aloneness, life goes on."

Lost Ozu film found, restored, screening soon: http://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/digital-cinema-package-lost-japanese-film-351492/#.XAU1cclXaHc.twitter

A brand-new 4k restoration of Yasujirō Ozu's heartbreaking THE FLAVOR OF GREEN TEA OVER RICE opens @FilmForumNYC Friday! https://t.co/QDso5kOfKl pic.twitter.com/RnCYbj3CsE

— Janus Films (@janusfilms) December 11, 2018

Fun fact: the DCP was held up in customs by the FDA as they feared we were importing a food supplement.

— Janus Films (@janusfilms) December 11, 2018

A screening of I Was Born, But... (1932) that was originally scheduled for the Freer Gallery this weekend has been transferred to AFI Silver (https://scontent.fphl1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/45510790_10156644462929000_4152830356975779840_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&_nc_ht=scontent.fphl1-2.fna&oh=8bd49cb224c79b3ee732a0a1d9951c15&oe=5CCC20B6). AFI has offered me two free tickets, and I was curious if anyone else wanted to go.

That URL should be: https://silver.afi.com/Browsing/Movies/Details/m-0100002299.

Now showing: YASUJIRO OZU's A STRAIGHTFORWARD BOY. A Japanese master's enchanting silent comedy short about a child happy to be kidnapped – so long as his captors are willing to endure his company. Screening with 8 lost minutes restored, this week only on https://t.co/ze1aiGlY0x pic.twitter.com/2R5tjS5KD5

— Le Cinéma Club (@lecinemaclub) July 19, 2019

Watched the Criterion of The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice, a satire-drama of a rustic-born salaryman and his cultivated wife teetering on the edge of mutual alienation. Immaculately framed as usual, but the range of performing styles seemed wider than usual (to the good). Also has the clear antecedent feature What Did the Lady Forget? from the late '30s. Set aside a few hours for both + David Bordwell and others on the extras.

yeah, the tonal mismatches helped it.

it is one of Ozu's "most active films" ("there are car rides, and they go to a baseball game!") yes, but I was surprised how much he used the dolly in this one. I liked it but didn't know what to make of it afterward, maybe bc it didn't have a totalizing moment where the whole movie comes to a head (like Late Spring, Tokyo Story, Tokyo Twilight).

does the CC release have What Did the Lady Forget?

yes

i thought the titular snack was the totalizing moment!

Bordwell breaks down the use of the dolly in his segment.

Lol oh yeah

Caught it at a rep screening in June, sorta foggy on it

after, what, 4 years? there's another BFI Ozu dvd in the works

https://shop.bfi.org.uk/pre-order-the-flavour-of-green-tea-over-rice-dual-format-edition.html

also Tokyo Story in 4k a month later.

(last time i saw Green Tea it came with a bonus disk with Story Of A Tenement Gentleman which was great and i'd love to see again but, no...)

The enigmatic ‘pillow shots’ of Yasujiro Ozu:

https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/enigmatic-pillow-shots-yasujiro-ozu

https://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/styles/full/public/image/tokyo-story-1953-004-rails.jpg?itok=aPBiV31g

https://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/styles/full/public/image/late-autumn-1960-001-dining-tea-room-with-no-people.jpg?itok=1L6gDJO3

https://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/styles/full/public/image/autumn-afternoon-1962-009-telecommunication-cables.jpg?itok=5X6sl7ZQ

directors as architecture fans is my favourite thing, Ozu, Hitch, Argento

love some Ozu, the best kind of cinematic escapism.

big tick

Also 'passageways'...

https://vimeo.com/55956937

Saving 'The End of Summer' for... the end of summer. There aren't that many left that I haven't seen. I think that might be the last one left in color.... F

anyone check out the bonus film included on the Green Tea Over Rice disc?

The two bonus things aren't by Ozu (if you're talking about the new bfi release) but are thematically similar

The Mystery of Marriage (1932, 34 mins): educational filmmaker and pioneering female director Mary Field draws peculiar and poignant parallels between the mating rituals of humans, animals and mould in this eccentric, entertaining educational film

The Good Housewife “In Her Kitchen” (1949, 9 mins): the fourth wall is shattered in this imaginative public information film, filled with good advice for kitchen users - whether they have a refrigerator or not

there are a shitload of full Ozu movies on Youtube at the moment, Hara Setsuko is my current asmr dream guide

There is a YT channel called 'modernrocksong' which has a few dozen great old Japanese movies from the '30s, Shimizu Hiroshi's 'The Masseurs and a Woman' is especially good.

thanks, i'll check that

Pretty much all Shimizu is great--just watched Japanese Girls at the Harbor the other day, some great tracking shots that presage Mizoguchi.

He's a bit of a blank spot with me I guess cause his movies seem hard to come by - Region 1 Criterion boxes - but I love Mizoguchi, Street Of Shame is one of my favourite films.

Film Forum is showing everything there is right now for the 120th/60th anniversary of his death. https://filmforum.org/series/ozu-120

I just got back from seeing EARLY SUMMER for the first time.

that Ozu moment when I try to triangulate every combination of Early and Late seasons to recall which Ryū/Hara paired relationship is in it

> A complete retrospective of Yasujirō Ozu's extant work

no "record of a tenement gentleman"? - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039651/

nor Kabuki (aka The Lion Dance, an early sound doco) nor Tokyo Chorus (which is on Criterion Eclipse)

RECORD OF A TENEMENT GENTLEMEN already played. TOKYO CHORUS was scheduled for the 26th.

You can can click on the flyer. Or the numbers. Or scroll down.

that Ozu moment when I try to triangulate every combination of Early and Late seasons to recall which Ryū/Hara paired relationship is in it

xp ah - I did click and I did scroll down, but none of those titles showed for me.

Maybe they are not available in your region.

TOKYO CHORUS is on the web page, TENEMENT GENTLEMEN you have to work harder and click Download the Flyer to see since it has gone off already.

caught I was born, but... + a contemporaneous short last night with benshi narration

https://www.screenslate.com/articles/i-was-born-hawaii

pretty great!

Cool! I saw that was happening but couldn't stay.

Nothing made me appreciate Chishū Ryū more than seeing Early Summer, where you realize he's a nasty middle-aged man instead of the dotard he plays in Late Spring and Tokyo Story.