Presentation Script“Family values and relationships in the films of Yasujiro Ozu”

[Lights go down, run PowerPoint]

Speaker: Hello, welcome to this presentation about the films of Yasujiro Ozu and how he treats family values and relationships; mainly in “Late Spring”, “Tokyo Story” and “Early Summer”. Yasujiro Ozu was born in Tokyo, on the 12th December 1903; he was the second of five siblings. He attended a boarding school in Matsuzaka, his father’s hometown. He lived at the school until 1920, when he was accused of writing a love letter to a boy in another class; he then had to take the train to school. His uncle introduced him to the manager of the great Shochiku studio and, although his father disapproved, he started working there in 1923 as an assistant cameraman, and by 1927, had made his first film, “Sword of Penitence” which has since been lost. [Source 6] Perhaps his five siblings were inspiration for some of his films, although there are little parallels to draw between any of the ‘Noriko trilogy’ at least and his own family life. Between 1927 and 1936, Ozu made only silent films, experimenting with comedies and gangster films, and then in 1936, Ozu made his first film with sound, “The Only Son”. “Late Spring” in 1949 was his first film to star Setsuko Hara as Noriko, the actress and character that ties the three films together.

Speaker: At the end of World War II, the Allied forces occupied Japan, mainly led by the US. From 1945-1952 Japan was under a great deal of censorship, films had to be approved by the American Occupation at different stages. This had a great effect on several filmmakers, Ozu being one of them. A perfect example being “Late Spring”; the Occupation had a problem with the custom of arranged marriage in general, they thought it downgraded the importance of the individual. References to the US, the Allied forces etc. were removed from the script, Ozu toyed with the censors, for example, the running joke throughout “Late Spring” is that Aunt Masa keeps being told that she should turn the purse she finds on the ground in to the police; the Allied forces told Ozu that the audience should see her turn it in.

[Play “Purse” clip from “Late Spring” (Source 1)]

Speaker: The 1950’s are considered the first Golden Age of Japanese cinema (the second coming with Takeshi Kitano and Shinji Aoyama a good few decades later) [Source 7], starting with Akira Kurosawa’s seminal “Rashomon”, often held in very high regard, and often included (alongside “Seven Samurai”) in a lot of best film lists. Kurosawa’s films reached an international audience at the time, quite a limited one, but an international audience nonetheless. Ozu’s films were often considered too Japanese for an international audience, and so remained pretty much undiscovered, until a few decades later when he was found. David Bordwell writes that “critics who see Ozu as preserving Japanese tradition in the face of modernization might seem to have strong evidence in ‘Late Spring’”, meaning that the extensive use of Japanese iconography in “Late Spring” has a purpose, “to show that Japanese tradition can be reconciled with the new liberalism of the Occupation era” [Source 11] and although his films are so deeply rooted in Japanese tradition, he is acclaimed alongside Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi and Mikio Naruse as Japan’s greatest cinematic exports and as one of the greatest directors who has ever lived. The themes in his films are universal, and have moved people of all nationalities and cultures. Roger Ebert, for example, showed “Tokyo Story” to his film class and heard cries emanating from the darkness, and in his own words: “No newer, more "modern" film, has had that effect in the class over the years”. [Source 5]

Speaker: “Late Spring” was the first of his Noriko trilogy, starring Setsuko Hara as Noriko Somiya, a 27-year-old woman who lives with her widowed father, despite everyone trying to convince her to marry. The film is held in very high regard, both by directors and critics [Source 8], and is considered one of Ozu’s masterpieces and although “Tokyo Story” is more widely acclaimed than “Late Spring”, some people hold the latter in higher regard than the former. This is a very largely discussed scene

from “Late Spring”; Noriko and her father visit Kyoto in their last trip together before Noriko is married, after they both enjoy the day sightseeing, they are sleeping at an inn…

[Play vase scene clip from “Late Spring” (Source 1)]

Speaker: This scene is a classic example of a staple in Ozu’s films, the pillow shot. As Noriko and her father settle down to sleep for the night, she expresses embarrassment about her comments on Professor Onodera remarrying, her father falls asleep, we are then shown Noriko smiling in an extended shot, then a six second shot of a vase on the floor of their room, and then Ozu cuts back to Noriko, now sad, nearly crying, and then back to the vase. This is obviously key to understanding the film fully, considering how long Ozu shows us it for, and one thing we must remember when watching an Ozu film; not one shot is accidental. Many people have written about this scene, and the meaning of it, one critic, Donald Richie, writes that the vase shot, as well as a lot of other pillow shots in Ozu’s films are “containers for our emotions” [Source 12]. I personally feel that the vase can be interpreted as a symbol for femininity and womanhood, as Noriko thinks about her marriage and possible loss of individual female identity, she is saddened.

Speaker: A key theme in almost all of Ozu’s work is family values, inter-family relationships and family in general. Aging and the generation gap has hardly been touched upon with such subtle intimacy as Ozu did in “Tokyo Story” [Source 2], that film follows an elderly couple as they visit their children and grandchildren in Tokyo; when they arrive they realize that the children don’t have as much time for them as they would have hoped, and the grandchildren’s impoliteness shocks them. They are shown across the course of the film to slow down and, some would say, slowly fall apart, and yet their children see them as a sort of burden that they can send away. The only person who really seems to care about the couple is Noriko, the widow of their late son, who thinks that she is committing a great dishonor by wanting to move on…

[Play “A good woman” scene from “Tokyo Story” (Source 2)]

This scene, when Noriko breaks down crying, is, I think, one of the most powerful scenes when seen in context with the rest of the film. It is just about the first real on screen display of emotion; Ozu has a way of avoiding sentimentality, he doesn’t show the most obvious moments to provoke an audience reaction, this would be too easy and manipulative. Ozu earns this scene, and the reaction it provokes. Again, as Roger Ebert wrote, “It doesn't want to force our emotions, but to share its understanding.” [Source 4] I also, personally, think Ozu’s meticulous framing and direction contribute massively to the impact the films have on the audience. The way he frames his shots was revolutionary at the time, again, it’s as if every single shot is a “container for our emotions” [Source 12], and Ozu creates meaning with every one. As Kyōko Kagawa recalls in this clip from Mark Cousins’ comprehensive documentary series “The Story of Film: An Odyssey”, Ozu even told her exactly how many times she needed to move her fan before looking at her watch.

[Play Ozu clip from “The Story of Film: An Odyssey” (Source 10)]

As you can see from the rest of the clip, not one shred of his style is accidental, not one scene is in any way shot “off the cuff”. We also see comparisons in style to Chantal Akerman’s “Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles”, a film that could be, in many ways, seen as a tribute to Ozu.

[Play “Maybe I’m an optimist” scene from “Early Summer” (Source 3)]

Speaker: In “Early Summer”, we follow the Mamiya family in their search for a man to be their daughter Noriko’s husband, and her attempt to choose for herself. Marital relationships are another key theme in the Noriko trilogy, arranged marriage being the basis of the plot of two of the three, and

an elderly married couple being the protagonists of the third. In the clip from “Early Summer” that I have just shown, Noriko is talking to her sister-in-law Fumiko about her decision to marry her childhood friend Kenkichi, and how it’s quietly tearing the family apart; they don’t like the idea of her marrying a man who already has a child, Fumiko is worried, her mother feels sorry for her, Fumiko mentions seeing her crying in the kitchen. Noriko knows she will be fine, and she is comfortable marrying this man after thinking about it. For this, Fumiko tells Noriko that she admires her, and that she knew nothing of marriage before she got married. Further proof to Noriko that an arranged wedding would make for a miserable life.

Speaker: In conclusion, I personally think Ozu creates the most detailed, subtle and beautiful films about relationships and family. Whether it’s old age and the generation gap in “Tokyo Story”, or arranged marriage in “Late Spring” and “Early Summer”, Ozu always had the power to enlighten us, move us and change us with his depiction of relationships, a universal topic that affects us all. His films unfold slowly and set themselves in the mind. Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas) put it best when he said that in his opinion, he “elevated film, the art form of the 20th century, to its most beautiful form, one that cannot be imitated or repeated.” [Source 9] The memories of his films stick with the viewer, and they are fond. Yasujiro Ozu, the tofu maker, feels like a good friend after seeing these films, and they will forever remain some of my favourites of all time.