Yasujirō Ozu

Looking to get into Yasujiro Ozu's work, and I'm hoping to get recs from the hivemind on where to begin. I found this article on BFI's site:

... that recommends Good Morning as a gentle introduction, but then meanders and doesn't provide a clear roadmap but does provide details on which movies to watch or avoid at first and why.

What would you recommend as the first 3 or so Ozu movies to watch to get a feel for whether I'd be interested in the rest of his movies? Bonus if they're available to stream, but would happily buy if necessary. From the descriptions of his movies, I have a strong hunch that I'll want to watch as many of them as possible since I enjoy slice of life films depicting realistic relationships that aren't just full of overly-dramatic twists and turns, but maybe I'm mischaracterizing them and need to be corrected, in which case let me know.

If I end up enjoying Ozu's work, who should I try next? I've read that Hirokazu Kore-eda is one. Would you agree, and are there others in this same vein? They don't have to also be Japanese btw, just similar in style and/or substance.

Thanks ahead of time for sharing your knowledge!

I’ve only watched Good Morning and Late Spring of Ozu’s so far, but Floating Weeds is now my favorite. Japanese art and culture is heavily indebted to the seasons, and the nostalgia of ephemeral moments and the analogue that seasons make to our lives. In Floating Weeds, more so than the other two films, I feel that Ozu demonstrates this seasonal view of life in a more all-encompassing way, showing all age groups and the different motivations and challenges they have. Notably, how we deal with youthful idealism and the future, and the regrets of the past that comes with age.

In the young characters, we have a young boy and girl who incidentally fall for each other, despite the fact that the girl was originally sent to just seduce and entrap the boy. This boy is the bastard son of a kabuki actor, whose mistress sent the young girl to seduce and blackmail the boy out of jealousy that the actor was spending time with his bastard family. For the boy and girl, their youth leads them into an inevitable path of idealism and romance, eloping with each other.

For the old actor, he sees his young self in his son and doesn’t want him to have the same regrets and perceived mistakes he did, by taking foolish lovers and having a bastard son. He calls the young girl a harlot and tries to oppose their eloping. This is compounded by the fact that by finally stepping in as a father authority figure, his voice is undermined since he was an absent father for so long.

After the boy responds negatively to the intervention, instead of settling down and becoming a father, the old actor resigns to the inevitable, natural result of events and the course his life has taken. He returns to the road and reuinites with his mistress.

Both the young lovers and the old actor are playing out their parts according to the seasonal and inevitable factors of their age. The young lovers give into hopeless romanticism, while the old actor must accept that not all mistakes can be fixed and he must resume the path life has chosen for him. No one is in total control. The young lovers fall in love not by seeking each other out, but fall in love by chance. And the old actor cannot absolve his past by correcting his son’s youthful impulses, but he also has wisdom. Both of these phases in life have a kind of nostalgic sadness to them, just as the seasons have both good and bad aspects. Will the lovers be happily ever after or be parted? Will the old man finally find become the father he should have been or sink into the complacency/wise acceptance of his everyday profession?

In the supporting characters we also see the seasons of life. The middle aged actors chase women from town to town, as if delaying the eventual reckoning with their mistakes, trying to indefinitely simulate the idealism of youthful romance wherever they go. They have not yet reached the old age of the kabuki master and the confrontation he has with his regrets. And in the town’s children, we see them all gawk and follow the actors around like the exotic, transient players they are. In child-like wonder, they are totally oblivious to the realities of adult life and its many complications.

It is amazing how Ozu shows that as people, despite our best illusions of agency and control over our lives, we are subject to the unchanging realities and themes of the seasons in which we live, the age we are, and our inability to see the future or to correct the past. This all coheres with a very Japanese idea of natural, seasonal order ultimately having the final say over our lives.

Overall it’s a beautiful movie, the colors and shots are exquisite. Ozu’s meditations on private, everyday dramas and slices of life, have made me think about my own life, and how much I am dictated by my age or current circumstance beyond my control. I’m curious if Ozu’s storytelling or cinematography style influenced other Asian films like In the Mood for Love or a Brighter Summer Day. And I’d love to see more Ozu films in color!! For the old school Japan vibes in all their glory.

I have to choose only one of these films to watch/discuss for my film club that I’m in.

so i took a break from my Bond marathon to watch some more Ozu and he has quickly become one of my all-time favorite directors and Chishu Ryo has become one of my favorite actors.

one of the things i love the most about Ozu is that he is not a manipulator. he just presents you with a situation and let's you do the work, he doesn't try and pull your strings and his work still ends up becoming incredibly heart-felt and beautiful. his representation of family is unrivaled and his use of color is breathtaking.

his style is completely unique. i love how he never moves the camera or even uses the zoom. his habit of shooting from the floor is something i have never seen another director do and his use of "pillow shots" are so brilliant that they almost feel like characters themselves.

also, his movies always make me so hungry! there are always shots of steaming pots of rice or dumplings and it just looks so warm and inviting. i really want to go back in time and hang out in 1950s Japan, drinking beer and sake and eating noodles and dumplings. he is the kind of the "slice of life" movie.

so far i have seen Equinox Flower, Good Morning, Floating Weeds, The End of Summer and An Autumn Afternoon. An Autumn Afternoon is his last film and my favorite (closely followed by Good Morning) and now one of my favorite films of all-time. the crazy thing is that i haven't even seen any of his black and white movies yet! i am so enamored by his use of color that, as much as i love black and white films, i can't imagine a movie of his deprived of color.

i'm about to watch Late Autumn and that will be the last color film of his for me to see then i will move on to the black and white stuff. i know Tokyo Story is a classic and i can't wait to finally get to it.

here's to Yasujiro Ozu, one of the true masters of cinema!

so i took a break from my Bond marathon to watch some more Ozu and he has quickly become one of my all-time favorite directors and Chishu Ryo has become one of my favorite actors.

one of the things i love the most about Ozu is that he is not a manipulator. he just presents you with a situation and let's you do the work, he doesn't try and pull your strings and his work still ends up becoming incredibly heart-felt and beautiful. his representation of family is unrivaled and his use of color is breathtaking.

his style is completely unique. i love how he never moves the camera or even uses the zoom. his habit of shooting from the floor is something i have never seen another director do and his use of "pillow shots" are so brilliant that they almost feel like characters themselves.

also, his movies always make me so hungry! there are always shots of steaming pots of rice or dumplings and it just looks so warm and inviting. i really want to go back in time and hang out in 1950s Japan, drinking beer and sake and eating noodles and dumplings. he is the kind of the "slice of life" movie.

so far i have seen Equinox Flower, Good Morning, Floating Weeds, The End of Summer and An Autumn Afternoon. An Autumn Afternoon is his last film and my favorite (closely followed by Good Morning) and now one of my favorite films of all-time. the crazy thing is that i haven't even seen any of his black and white movies yet! i am so enamored by his use of color that, as much as i love black and white films, i can't imagine a movie of his deprived of color.

i'm about to watch Late Autumn and that will be the last color film of his for me to see then i will move on to the black and white stuff. i know Tokyo Story is a classic and i can't wait to finally get to it.

here's to Yasujiro Ozu, one of the true masters of cinema!

serves as my personal introduction to Yasujiro Ozu’s esteemed body of work.  Highly lauded as one of cinema’s best films by directors such as Martin Scorsese, its status has only risen to these heights within the past few decades.  Initially, distributors of Ozu were skeptical of how his films would be received by western audiences as they were viewed as being too Japanese and not containing the mainstream appeal of his contemporaries, such as Akira Kurosawa.  As a result, it was not until the 1960’s that his films would finally be shown stateside, either at festivals or other screenings and there they would receive high praise from critics and audiences alike.  That being said, these distributors were partially on the right to have the concerns they did.  The reserved style of filmmaking that Ozu provides is a far cry from the swashbuckling efforts being seen from his peers and thus may not have captured audience’s attention the same way those other films did with thrills and excitement.  These distributors made a mistake, however, which was looking at what a film like Tokyo Story couldn’t provide while ignoring what it did.  While it may be lacking the excitement of Japan’s extremely popular Samurai flicks, I found it does carry a wide appeal by focusing on a topic relevant to all cultures: the human condition.

The plot of Tokyo Story seems rather mundane and can be summed up in the sentence of “parents visit children who have no time for them”.  Under the surface though, there are many complex emotions to be found.  The setting shows a post-World War II Japan that is at odds with itself.  While traditional Japanese culture is on full display, there is an intrusion of western society.  This is prevalent in the many shots that show the Tokyo mainland being invading by smokestacks and other western technology.  These serve as a constant reminder to its world’s inhabitants that the times are-a-changing.  This isn’t the typical story with a protagonist facing off against their antagonist, but if there was a villain in this film it would be time itself.  Specifically, in how time affects us all, especially in our relationships with our parents/children.  Parents can possess almost magical qualities in the view of their children who are, in many cases, also entirely dependent on their parental love and care.  That child grows up though, and as an adult, they take on certain new responsibilities such as jobs or children of their own.  With so much to do, how can they find time to dedicate to their parents?  It’s not that they don’t love them anymore, it’s just that they don’t need them as much in their lives.  What about when their own children grow up, will they be ignored in largely the same way they ignored their own parents?  This is what Tokyo Story is interested in conveying.  The circular pattern of parents expecting too much from their children who, in turn, will grow up to cast them aside.  It’s a timeless story that remains just as relevant today and for future generations.

To visualize this story, Ozu directs in a style that is purely his own while also being very Japanese.  His methods subvert those seen normally in cinema, particularly when regarding typical camera placement and editing.  One of the first things I noticed upon starting was the camera was put in some odd positions.  Scenes with characters interacting with one another were shot from the ground level, which makes sense when considering traditional Japanese table sitting as that would put the camera close to eye level.  The camera is also kept stationary and there aren’t many, if any at all, shots with movement.   It’s as if Ozu is presenting this world as a playground for the actors to interact with, who can come and go as they please.  Conversations between characters make use of having the actors face and speak directly towards the lens of the camera.

 This contrasts with the usual filmmaking methods where the actors may face left or right to designate direction and space.  The results of this method made the film’s various conversations feel more intimate as if the viewer is invading the private moments of the characters which very well suits the story that is being told.  The editing benefits with a sense of timing that demonstrates a level of maturity and confidence from its director.  I liken it to music with how holding a certain note for an extended amount of time can elicit different types of feels from the listener.  The same is done here with shots being held long after the characters have exited the scene.  This gives a viewer a chance to reflect on what they have just watched while also offering another twist of added emotion.

Tokyo Story is a drama capable of eliciting many different types of emotions from its audience.  While that is usually the goal for these types of films, Ozu managed to accomplish this task by using rather unconventional means.  The space around a character’s dialogue is just as important as the written words as it gives the viewers a chance to contemplate and interpret the character’s motivations and emotions.  Whereas a contemporary Hollywood production would attempt to communicate these feelings with big moments in dialogue, Ozu was more interested in the silence before and afterward.  His distributors may have incorrectly assumed that his films would not resonate with western audiences, but they were correct in their assumptions why.  There is a definite language barrier here with general western movie audiences, and this is not in reference to the language the characters are speaking.  Instead, Ozu seemed to be speaking in his own cinematic language which has the chance of seeming alien to the viewer.  However, when dealing with a subject involving human beings like existentialism, his ability to relate is universal.

I apologize if this is the wrong sub but I couldn't think of a better movie-related sub to ask this. I love Ozu, his work immediately clicked with me as soon as I was exposed to it. But as a general rule, I know nothing about silent films (and generally don't think I would like them), but the bulk of his filmography (even though many are lost) happens to be in the silent era. Does anybody have recommendations for which silent era films to give a shot? Or are they all as good as his films with sound?

I’ve had a quite a few Ozu films on my watchlist for a while now, and I’ve finally decided that I want to watch one. But I don’t know where I should start. I’ve heard Good Morning and Floating Weeds are his most accessible, is this true? Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.