Ozu6 by Lewis Saul

From here on — in almost every single cut of this film — you will see how Ozu has placed some object or piece of clothing which is bright red somewhere in the frame. For example, just now the wedding party walked by a painting of Mt. Fuji and a bright red carpet. In the next cut, we see red roses in the bouquets.

In the next cut, two bouquets of flowers frame the wedding couple. Notice the deep, rich contrast between the various drinks on the table — red wine, golden beer and orange soda (!). There is something incredibly powerful about all these colors.

A few other glorious moments from this film:

•  0:05:08: In her 11th and final film for Ozu, Kinuyo Tanaka gives a fine, understated performance as the mother.
• 0:08:22: The three friends are drinking after the wedding. These scenes always serve a dual purpose for Ozu — we learn a lot of information — but more importantly, we relax along with the men as they unwind and talk about whatever comes to mind … in this case, memories of the war years and sons and daughters!
• 0:10:35: Ozu and Noda carefully set up a very funny joke here. The men have been discussing the old wive's tale about daughters being born if the father is stronger and sons being born if the wife is stronger. The owner of the inn has just come to say hello — Toyo Takahashi — a substantial person, as they say. Hirayama (Shin Saburi, sublime) asks her how many children she has. Three.
  • "All boys, aren't they?" Kawai (Nobuo Nakamura) asks.
  • "That's right, how did you know?" She has no idea what they're talking about of course, but the men have a good laugh.
• 0:11:02: The famous red tea kettle. Watch carefully as this prop moves all over the house, sometimes moving a few inches within the same scene!
• 0:16:19: Chishu Ryu is Mikami, another father with a "daughter problem." Mikami asks Hirayama to check on her for him. Hirayama promises to do so. They are interrupted by a visitor and Mikami leaves.
• The visitor is Mrs. Sasaki (Chieko Naniwa), fantastic comic relief. A hilarious conversation ensues:
  • Hirayama: "Thanks for the bamboo shoots."
  • Sasaki: "They weren't very good, were they? I'm so embarrassed. Matsu and I were talking about how we could send something so terrible. I shouldn't say this, but we have good guests and bad guests. We were supposed to send you the good batch. But we discovered that we had sent you the bad batch somehow. So Matsu and I were saying how stupid we were for this mistake. We thought of sending another batch, but there was nothing to send. The shoots were already bamboo by then."
  • "I wouldn't want bamboo."
• A few cuts later, she is talking about the doctor she wants her daughter to marry.
  • Hirayama: "I bet he gets the good shoots."
• Sasaki goes on a bit longer. Finally Hirayama says, "I have to go to the bathroom."
  • This line will take on a funny resonance later on!
• 0:23:00: Notice the girl with the red sweater. Yukiko arrives by car and dismisses her driver. Hirayama is home by himself and he invites his daughter's friend into an informal room. Ozu reprises the joke:
  • "I don't have to be too polite with you."
  • "Yes, I'm just a mediocre bamboo shoot."
• 0:27:51: We have already seen Hirayama's wedding speech where he praised the couple for finding love in the modern fashion. Here, Ozu strengthens this character when he phrases it even more precisely in this conversation with Yukiko:
  • "Someone as beautiful as you shouldn't go to some strange man."
• 0:31:39: Setsuko and Yukiko make their "pinky-pact."
• 0:33:34: Another great call-back. When Sasaki arrives, Kiyoko (mother) disappears for a moment while Sasaki has a funny moment with the maid. Kiyoko returns and sits down:
  • "I know how you can go on and on, so I decided to go the bathroom first."
• 0:42:21: Things just seem to happen in Ozu-land — but we know that they are carefully scripted. Masahiko Taniguchi (Keiji Sada) has called on Hirayama at work. He asks for Setsuko's hand in marriage. Hirayama is blown away. As Taniguchi is leaving, one of Hirayama's employees, Shotaru Kondo (Teiji Takahashi) is coming through the door. They seem to know each other.
• 0:56:00: Ozu shows us two separate meetings in Hirayama's office. In the first, with Kondo, he is asking help with his investigation of Taniguchi; in the second, Mikami asks if he's had a chance to go to the bar where his estranged daughter works.
  • With at least three matchmaking conspiracies at play, it's no wonder poor Hirayama has forgotten about Mikami's daughter.
• 0:59:00: The scene at Bar Luna is funny because Kondo is a regular there and must behave quite differently than he normally would.
• Again, Ozu elides something that happened and gives us the information in conversation. The barmaid has just called Kondo Kon-chan, a very familiar rather than formal greeting.
  • Hirayama: "You've been here before?"
  • Kondo: "Well … yes."
  • "They all seem to know you. You should have said so. Then we wouldn't have had to look around so long."
  • "I apologize. I didn't think we were coming here."
  • "Where did you think we were going? Did you think there was a different bar by the name of Luna?"
  • "Of course. I'm sorry."
• We now have a scene of moving images implanted in our minds … we can picture Kondo pretending not to know where the bar is in order to keep Hirayama from knowing that he's a regular there. Naturally, Hirayama gets annoyed and when he finally discovers that Kondo really doesn't know Taniguchi all that well, he is really disgusted. You've got to wonder about Kondo's future in the company at this point …
• 1:03:52: Fumiko (Yoshiko Kuga) is going with a piano player, who "specializes in music theory." Yeah you go dude …
• 1:09:03: One of my favorite pillow shot transitions: Hirayama, undressed, pacing in circles / cut / RCA Victor building, neon flashing / cut / narrow alley showing Luna at the top left of frame … Kondo enters frame …
• 1:14:29: Yukiko's big scene with Hirayama.
  • When Ozu says he has no use for plot, it makes me think of scenes like this. We have been so carefully prepared for this moment (the "pinky-pact," the two previous times that Hirayama has expressed his acceptance — and even admiration of — the way young people want to make their own matches) … it all adds up to a superb gotcha moment which — thanks to Ozu's careful pacing — seems completely spontaneous and natural …
• 1:29:43: When Ozu elides important events, the timing of the pillow shots is stretched a bit to allow us to feel that time has passed. Here Hirayama is at the bar in the golf clubhouse, realizing he's been tricked into allowing his daughter to pick out her own husband:
  • An empty sidewalk (note the red in the background) [7 sec]
  • Light fixture attached to pole [5 sec]
  • Interior with many sub-frames; a plain white vase (Late Spring) and a wooden two-tiered caddy containing various bottles [5 sec]
• 1:29:59: The maid is on the telephone making arrangements with the beauty parlor. Mother and daughters are having orange pop and fruit ~ the colors here are magnificent and Ozu holds on various compositions and lets the effect sink in.
• 1:37:45: If you've watched enough Ozu, you know that we're not going to see any of Setsuko's wedding. With three pillows (the sea, distant mountains, lantern on right / cut / long bridge over the water, lantern on left / cut / outside an inn [check out where Ozu puts the camera — in the bushes!] looking in, we hear men laughing …), we join the fathers as they celebrate, post-wedding.
• The men recall the earlier joke about strong fathers producing girls and strong mothers producing boys. Sugai, a tough-looking man, has seven children, all girls. The other men laugh, but like the muscular inn owner in the earlier scene, Sugai's not in on the joke …
• 1:40:12: As is often the case when Ryu has a relatively minor role, Ozu gives him his moment in the sun. Here he sings a militaristic wartime song and then the group sings another song together.
• 1:44:14: The long bridge from the second pillow shot above — except this time Ozu puts the lantern on the right / cut / Mikami and Hirayama on the bridge in matching kimonos …
• 1:55:50: The laundry-on-the-line pillow shot is really something else in color!
• Yukiko has once again manipulated Hirayama into going to visit his newly married daughter in Hiroshima, where Taniguchi has been transferred. We see him alone on the train, humming to himself / cut / train whizzing by until it nearly disappears in the distance … 

*50. Ohayô (Good Morning) (5/12/59) (94 min.) [Sound Color] [buy it here]

Two little boys live with their parents in a suburban Tokyo housing development. A misunderstanding among the neighbor ladies is innocently compounded by the two boys. After an argument with their parents (they want a television set and their father refuses to buy one), they are told to shut up. Taking their parents at their word they shut up completely, not speaking to anyone, including the neighbors. These ladies, finding that the customary morning greeting (ohayo) goes unanswered, at once assume the boys' mother is angry with them, and a neighborhood quarrel begins. Finally, the father relents, the television is bought, the boys answer the neighbor ladies politely, and all ends happily.

The next three films are remakes of previous films. Of course one could say that from the late 40's on, all Ozu films are remakes of earlier pictures. This is true, to some extent — but hopefully you've noticed that plot is not all that much of a concern for Ozu.

With his 24th film, in 1932 — I Was Born, But …, Ozu had directed a big hit, both critically and commercially. As I attempted to emphasize in my analysis of that film, Ozu's main concern was the perception of life's capricious unpredictabilities from the point of view of both the children and the adults.

Seen in that light, Good Morning is most certainly a sequel. In addition to the identical scenes of the boys refusing to speak, running away, etc., the idea of adult life from a child's POV (and a bit of the reverse) is what makes this gorgeous film tick …

• This was Criterion's first Ozu release (Spine #84, released in 2000). There are no extras other than a fine article by Rick Prelinger, a San Francisco archivist and filmmaker.
• He calls this film a "wildcard" in Ozu's career. I agree.
• Toshirô Mayuzumi's fine score contributes much to this film. He captures the corny, contemporary sound Ozu liked (accordions, xylophones, jaunty tunes) combined with a serious orchestral palette. Check out the mischievous unexpected half-step modulation under the director's credit!

Ozu uses the first 44 seconds to ease us into the action:

• Two transmission towers; in the background, behind a long white picket fence, are four houses [9 sec]
• The camera is right behind the picket fence. A small alley separates that fence from another one in front of some houses [7 sec]
  • As usual, Ozu pulls us closer and closer to the upcoming scene…
• A different alley, looking straight on at a small hill, covered in grass. Characters pass through a dissecting alleyway and at the top of the hill [8 sec]
• More or less axial cut to a closer position to the hill. Check out the way the ridge of the hill is only visible through a narrow section of frame consisting of the open space between two opposing roofs. We see a man walk by this space, pulling a cart [6 sec]
• The camera is now about halfway up that little hill. Four boys in school uniforms are singing and walking [14 sec] … the scene begins.
• The boys sneak away to watch television at the beatniks' house. Like Equinox Flower, this film is filled with red at the edges and backgrounds of the frame.
• The beatniks have two cool movie posters on the wall. First, we see Louis Malle's Les Amants (The Lovers) [1958] and then Stanley Kramer's The Defiant Ones [1958]. They are definitely hip.
• Kôji Shitara and Masahiko Shimazu are the latest Minoru and Isamu. Ozu always seemed to have such confidence in his child actors — and we see from the very early films that he was always successful at directing them so that they blended into the naturalistic film environment which he created.
• In this film, the boys have star billing.
• I am particularly fascinated watching the performance of Shimazu. He was born one day after my own birth, and was six going on seven when this film was made. He'll appear in three of the next (and last) four Ozu films; and then he had a great role as the son of the chauffeur in Kurosawa's High and Low (1963). That is his last IMDb credit.
• Their mother, the ageless beauty Kuniko Miyake, asks the boys where they're going; to study English, says Minoru. She warns them not to go watch television.
  • Minoru, in English: "Of course, madame."
  • Isamu, in English: "I love you."
• Her reponse: baka ne …
• 0:15:25: This is the identical joke about an English lesson that first appeared in Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family.
• The fart jokes come on with such bemused detachment …
• 0:18:25: Father (Ryu) comes home on the same train as his sister-in-law, Setsuko Arita (Yoshiko Kuga, Fumiko in Equinox Flower). Her character here is a nice bridge between the kids and adults — she's somewhere in the middle …
• 0:31:45: Haruko Sugimura is again given the thankless role of playing the bitch. She does it well, especially in a scene like this when she tells her mother "go to Mt. Narayama where the old go to die." Imamura's The Ballad of Narayama (1983) is a brilliant film made about an ugly subject.

In a remake of his 1934 film, A Story of Floating Weeds, a small theatrical troupe revisits a remote island town after some years' absence. The aging leading actor is particularly anxious to stop because he had had a son by one of the local women and wants to see him again. Though he has returned from time to time, his trips have been so infrequent that the boy thinks the actor is his uncle. This visit, however, leads to complications. The leading lady is the actor's mistress and resents the boy's mother. Then the son falls in love with one of the younger girls in the troupe. Eventually she decides to stay with the son, the troupe fails, and the actor returns to his mistress.

There is something wonderful about watching Ozu remake himself 25 years later.

• Ozu's contract with Shochiku required him to deliver one film per year. He finished Good Morning rather quickly, and the Daiei studios jumped at the chance to use Ozu.
• New actors, new DP — perhaps the greatest Japanese cinematographer of all time — Kazuo Miyagawa (Rashomon, Ugetsu, Yojimbo, etc.)
• The location is the island of Shijima, along the Wakayama Kii Peninsula. Ozu and Noda had originally written the script with a snowy location in mind, but there wasn't enough snow that winter.
• 0:02:04: The opening shot is one of those iconic stunners; an image that sticks in your mind as unforgettable: A white lighthouse at the end of a pier, huge expanse of blue sky and sea, and over on the right hand side of the frame, a dark empty bottle.
• A few more pillow shots and we're into the action, as the characters complain about how hot it is.
• One of the characters mentions that he's seen Komajuro (Ganjiro Nakamura) play Chuya Marubashi. Always interested in anything connected with ancient Japanese history, I Googled the name and found only this:
  • Hokaji Mino: "A Study on the Japanese People’s Social Behavior: Part One — From a Historical Point of View: 'Yokonarabi Behavior' and The Countervailing Force to the Social Trend. The reference to Marubashi does sound like typical Kabuki material:
    • "When a feudal lord had been deprived of his domain by the bakufu, the vassals of all at that han (clan or fief) became ronin. Therefore, it was said,  Shosetsu and his fellow Marubashi Chuya (? – 1651) and others sympathized with ronin samurai and organized them and hatched a plot to overthrow the Tokugawa Bakufu. The conspiracy was discovered in advance. Shosetsu committed suicide. Marubashi Chuya and others were executed. It was believed that Shosetsu left a note saying that they had only wanted to focus attention on the plight of the ronin, not to plot the overthrow the bakufu."
      • This all sounds amazingly similar to the 47 Ronin (Mizoguchi's 1941 version).
• 0:04:05: A two-pillow introduction:
  • The lighthouse, no empty bottle, but a flying bird. (Sound: distant putt-putt of engine) …
  • Small plankway on the boat; life preserver; pumps. (Sound: loud engine noise) …
  • Seven-person composition, as we meet the players: Third from the left, Sentaro (Mantaro Ushio); his son, Masao (Masahiko Shimazu, Isamu in Good Morning; Rokusaburo (Tatsuo Hanabu) …
  • cut / Sumiko (Machiko Kyo), 2) Komajuro …
  • cut / Second from left, Kichinosuke (Koji Mitsui); Sugiyama (Yosuke Irie); and Kayo (Ayako Wakao) …
• Mitsui and Ryu are the only two actors who appeared in both versions. Mitsui played the son in the '34 version, while Ryu just had one line, as a patron of the opening night play ("Finally!")
• Kichi walks into the bar where a lady in a slip (it's hot out!) who is — let's say, not very attractive — and she asks him his name:
  • "Toshiro."
  • "Toshiro?"
  • "Mifune."
• (Of course, Mifune was a huge star by 1959.)
• Ryu plays the theatre owner in this version.
• Haruko Sugimura plays the Oyoshi, the Mother.
• She asks Komajuro about his sore shoulders. He doesn't remember. (In the '34 version he was sore.)

There are many call-backs to the earlier film. Criterion was smart to release these two films in one package. Comparing them makes for great film study.

Ozu7