by Allan Fish
(Japan 1957 140m) DVD1/2
Aka. Tokyo Boshaku
A child needs the love of both parents
p Takeshi Yamamoto d Yasujiro Ozu w Yasujiro Ozu, Kogo Nada ph Yuuharu Atsuta ed Yoshiyasu Hamamura m Kojin Saito
Setsuko Hara (Takako Numata), Isuzu Yamada (Kisako Soma), Ineko Arima (Akiko Sugiyama), Chishu Ryu (Shukichi Sugiyama), Masami Taura (Kenji Kimura), So Yamamura, Kamatari Fujiwara, Nobuo Kamakura, Haruko Sugimura,
There is little doubt that Japan’s capital meant a lot to director Yasujiro Ozu. I can think of four major films he made with the city in the title, two in the thirties and two in the fifties, and that’s only amongst the films I’ve seen. Each one in its way is a poem, but although the list contains his all-time magnum opus, Tokyo Story, I think this one isn’t too far behind. It wasn’t always appreciated as an Ozu masterwork, and indeed was never shown in the west on its original release except to eclectic art houses. Even now, it took till 2005 for the DVD releases, first in Hong Kong in the superb Anniversary Collection, and then later in the UK as part of a three film set. It’s undoubtedly the work of an older director than the man who first came to prominence, and an even more melancholy one than the director of Tokyo Story but four years earlier. Both are quite a bit over two hours, but though there are constants in the cast, as always with Ozu, they are very different in tone.
Shukichi is a divorcee living at home with his young daughter, Akiko. His wife left him soon after the birth of said daughter to live with another man, while his only son died in a mountain accident in the not too distant past. Back into his life comes his eldest daughter, Takako, who has left her drinking book translator husband, and taken their infant daughter with her. She moves back in at home, but father’s troubles are doubled when his youngest gets herself pregnant to a young ne’er-do-well, and decides to have an abortion. At the same time, Akiko unknowingly gets to know her mother and a bitter Takako sets out to find her mother and tell her to stay away.
A brief glimpse at the synopsis will show that this is not a happy film, indeed few Ozus of this period are. But at least most only went as far as ruminative melancholia, whereas here the despair is palpable, and he even gives us an off-screen tragedy which we should have seen coming, as the signposts were there, but which cuts us to the quick. All Ozu’s trademark camera angles and cross-cutting conversations are intact, but even the photography has a gloomier tinge, as befits both the title and the mood of the film. Each of the principal characters seems to seek solace outside of the home, be it in Sake bars, mahjong gaming houses or noodle parlours. Even as the film begins, Kikuchi is a forlorn individual, visiting his deserted son-in-law and helping him drink his whisky.
Though the majority of the applause must be directed at the director and his regular partner in crime Kogo Nada, it’s the actors whose faces are embellished on the images that stay with you at the final fadeout. Hara may once more play the daughter of Chishu Ryu, but this is not the ray of sunshine of the Noriko trilogy of several years previously. She looks barely older, but her warm smile is tempered with experience. To these eyes it may even be her greatest performance among many such roles for her beloved director. Equally as good is former Mizoguchi and Kurosawa muse Yamada, who is quite heartrending as the mother who returns into her children’s life at the point of tragedy, and who literally deflates before our eyes on hearing the news. There’s a sequence involving a bunch of flowers towards the end that ranks among the greatest she committed to film. As for Ryu, he is merely perfect in another of his effortless patriarchal demigods, and last, but by no means least, Arima, as the unfortunate Akiko, who very much provides the soul of the film, devastating in the scene after she has the abortion and returns home and sees her young niece playing in the hall. “Parental love is a primitive animal instinct“, we are told. Maybe then we should trust our instincts more.
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If TOKYO STORY were not in this decade, this Ozu would surely rank supreme among his work. But both “Tokyos” are masterpieces regardless, and this is one of the most moving and powerful of dramas. I get goose bumps just thinking of it. Great review of course!
I saw this when that Eclipse box was released by Criterion and I must agree it’s one of Ozu’s greatest films. Terrific review by Allan Fish.
Allan, I’ve never even heard of this film, but it definitely sounds like one to watch. I’ve read much about Ozu but have seen only “Floating Weeds” and “Tokyo Story,” both masterpieces. Considering his output, I sure have a lot to catch up on. The way you wrote about this film, though–the melancholy, the cross-cutting conversations, and the “faces…that stay with you at the final fade-out”–enabled me to picture exactly what you were talking about, as these are some of the exact same elements that have stuck with me from the two Ozus I’ve seen. A really good job of describing a movie in a way that I could envision it and that made me want to see it.
Yes, you need to see it, R.D., along with numerous others – Tokyo Chorus, I Was Born…But, Passing Fancy, A Story of Floating Weeds (earlier version), An Inn in Tokyo, The Only Son, Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family, There Was a Father, A Hen in the Wind, Late Spring, Early Summer, The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice, Equinix Flower, Ohayo, Late Autumn, The End of Summer and An Autumn Afternoon. They’re all essential viewing and there are DVD releases of all of them somewhere out there.
Well, there’s really not all that much that R.D. hasn’t seen in the cinematic pantheon, but in any case his thoughtful commentary here and flattering praise is what really matters most. He’ll negotiate those others in due time.