perceived slowless involves a lot of different factors. the length of shots, the amount and speed of movement of the camera, the amount and speed of movement in the frame, the story materials, etc. etc. by a lot of these standards--and again compared to your typical hollywood movie--ozu is slow. but is the overall effect that of "slowness" as in "boredom"? i dont think so, but then im a rather fanatical partisan so i would say that. certainly his films are not slow in the way that those by angelopoulos or hou hsiao-hsien can be slow. and many of his earlier films--the ones you probably arent likely to see--are quite fast, like a lubitsch or a von sternberg film.
anyway; i just found an article by jonathan rosenbaum called "is ozu slow?" its typically discursive and poorly structured and annoying for that (typical for rosenbaum that is) but there are some worthwhile tidbits in there: http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/00/4/ozu.html
― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 29 December 2003 12:51 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 29 December 2003 12:53 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 29 December 2003 12:55 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 29 December 2003 12:56 (twenty years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 29 December 2003 12:58 (twenty years ago) link
julio ozu's films were almost without exception very popular upon their release, and "tokyo story" only took about a decade after its formal introduction to europe and america to begin placing in the top 10 polls of the major film magazines. i'd say they have a pretty wide appeal among people who will search out older films.
― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 29 December 2003 13:00 (twenty years ago) link
I don't really know what kind of films I like either! It's possible I'd love these films.
there arent too many long shots in fact, there are as many medium shots and even some close ups (though not many).
I meant long in time.
― DV (dirtyvicar), Monday, 29 December 2003 13:01 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 29 December 2003 13:03 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 29 December 2003 13:05 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 29 December 2003 13:06 (twenty years ago) link
DV- you should def go to one of the movies that have been recommended here. I think it would be quite an experience.
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 29 December 2003 13:07 (twenty years ago) link
yeah it goes without saying that id recommend them too. which ones are playing? maybe i can make a suggestion...
― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 29 December 2003 13:09 (twenty years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 29 December 2003 13:14 (twenty years ago) link
both movies have this similar shot:
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/images/directors/03/26/ohayo7.jpg
with people walking up there too.
― A Nairn (moretap), Friday, 19 March 2004 19:16 (twenty years ago) link
― A Nairn (moretap), Friday, 19 March 2004 19:20 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 19 March 2004 19:25 (twenty years ago) link
― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Friday, 19 March 2004 20:57 (twenty years ago) link
― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Friday, 19 March 2004 20:58 (twenty years ago) link
http://www.criterionco.com/asp/release.asp?id=240§ion=feature
― amateur!st (amateurist), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 16:33 (nineteen years ago) link
http://www.livejournal.com/users/imomus/ (second post down.) (the img of the artificial eye 'floating weeds' is v. v. exciting.)
http://www.subjective.freeservers.com/tokyo-ga.html
― cºzen (Cozen), Friday, 27 August 2004 21:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― cºzen (Cozen), Friday, 27 August 2004 21:40 (nineteen years ago) link
?!
― jed_ (jed), Friday, 27 August 2004 21:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Friday, 27 August 2004 21:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― cºzen (Cozen), Friday, 27 August 2004 21:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Friday, 27 August 2004 21:45 (nineteen years ago) link
i meant to write "the end of summer"--that's the one with the anomalous subpar soundtrack. the score to "early summer" is in fact amazing.
― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Saturday, 28 August 2004 01:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Saturday, 28 August 2004 01:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 17 February 2005 18:46 (nineteen years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 17 February 2005 18:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 17 February 2005 18:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― adam.r.l. (nordicskilla), Thursday, 17 February 2005 18:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 17 February 2005 18:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 17 February 2005 18:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― adam.r.l. (nordicskilla), Thursday, 17 February 2005 19:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 17 February 2005 19:02 (nineteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 17 February 2005 19:04 (nineteen years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 17 February 2005 19:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― adam.r.l. (nordicskilla), Thursday, 17 February 2005 19:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 17 February 2005 19:10 (nineteen years ago) link
His family dynamic stuff reminds me of Henry James.
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 17 February 2005 20:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 17 February 2005 21:10 (nineteen years ago) link
there are a few ozu films that are more overtly didactic. "brothers and sisters of the toda family" starts out like many of the more familiar films but winds up in a very very didactic, even strident mode that i wasn't comfortable with. some of the silent films, too, are a bit didactic in a proto-neorealist vein ("an inn in tokyo"). there are of course didactic elements even in some of the best late films, but they are muted and no one character is ever made to be the "voice of the film" so to speak.
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 18 February 2005 07:14 (nineteen years ago) link
(cozen how are you?)
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 18 February 2005 07:40 (nineteen years ago) link
this doesn't accord with my limited knowledge of ozu, but there are so many questions begged i don't see how it ever could. if the family is an agent of 'oppression', whence that oppression? if you wanted a film that showed 'the individual vs the family', then 'rebel without a cause' might be a better place to look than ozu, but even if it were true of ozu, counterposing the individual to the collective unit is hardly incompatible with conservatism, which is all about the realization that social obligations cause suffering. which conservatives argue for *more* social obligations?
― NRQ, Friday, 18 February 2005 10:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 18 February 2005 23:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 18 February 2005 23:21 (nineteen years ago) link