Tokyo Story
Late Spring
The End of Summer
Good Morning
An Autumn Afternoon
I’ve been obsessed with Suzuki lately. He’s delightful.
Of all of his films that I’ve seen and in no particular order:
Tokyo Story
Early Summer
Late Spring
Early Spring
I Was Born But . . .
Late Spring
Tokyo Story
Tokyo Twilight
Equinox Flower
An Autumn Afternoon
There really aren’t best films in his oeuvre, these are just his deepest films, in my opinion.
I Was Born But…
An Autumn Afternoon
Late Spring
Early Spring
Late Autumn
There’s twenty other amazing Ozu films that I could put in here, but that would be more than five…
I Was Born But. . .
Record of a Tenement Gentleman
There Was a Father
Late Spring
Tokyo Story
I have never given enough attention to Ozu, so I’m sort of monitoring these lists to get an average of the “best.” Seems like Tokyo Story comes up most often. The title of “I Was Born But…” is very intriguing in and of itself. I was born but what? I feel like I have to see it.
Late Spring
Tokyo Story
The End of Summer
Early Summer
Tokyo Twilight
(i’ve only seen parts of I was Born But, my #1 must-see film)
im ashamed to say…ive never watched any Ozu……..
Late Spring
Early Summer
Tokyo Story
An Autumn Afternoon
Tokyo Twilight
My top 5 or 6 complete with plot discriptions…not very intelligently dissected, mind you, but filled with potential spoilers nonetheless.
Equinox Flower
spoilers ahead:
(1958) Equinox Flower
Ozu’s first color film. Beautiful. Another one of Ozu’s ‘marriage’ pictures, but this one is really more about the father than anything. For me, this film is fuller than the other Ozu pictures that I have seen, perhaps because of the smaller canvas than some of his previous films, even great films like “Late Spring”, but I feel there is more attention to all of the people from all walks of life. We see the janitor mopping the hallway, and I wonder who is he marrying? What about the men at the train-station in the beggining? Its funny watching Kondo act so nervous when he go’s out with his boss. Everything in this film is so true to life, and universal. When an innkeeper and friend of the family visits the Hirayama’s house and has to go to the bathroom, she notices a broom leaning against the wall in the hallway, and puts it back in its place. Its sounds silly, but its the little things that happen in Ozu’s films that set them apart.
The story itself, is one of Ozu’s better plots, and full of playful coniving, and a battle between youth and parental authority, and a woman’s right to choose who she marries, and being forced to do so more or less in secret. Setsuko’s father lets tells her that its ok to have boyfriends, but when she decides that she wants to marry a boyfriend, he is automatically opposed. Her mother will call the father on his inconsistencies, but it only makes him more angry. It will take time before he realises that he was wrong, and that Setsuko’s judgement was as good as he had raised her and she was capable of being responsible for her choices, and she was able at making good decisions. All of the characters have more than one side to them, and all of them grow. Hirayama gathers with some classmates at a reunion, and though they grow old, they recognise that in their children, they carry their dreams of youth with them forever.
One of the reasons that I liked this film so much is because of the different levels that it works on. ITs about the changing ideas of parental authority and young people’s rights to choose whom they should marry. Its also about marriage between the classes, as well as marrying for love. And the film has other subtext’s as well. Kiyoko is one of the strongest wives in all of Ozu(without being dominating like the wife in “Flavor of Green Tea over Rice”), while not disrepectful, she stands up to Hirayama in showing him when he is wrong. Ozu gives us so much here, and the ending, in some ways resolved, almost like Shakespeare, inderectly, though, but a happy ending-which is a little out of the norm for Ozu who usually has the more contemplative endings. Sometimes its good to have a happy ending every once in a while, just as sometimes in life, there are happy endings.
Late Spring
spoilers ahead:
1949) Late Spring
Wow. This film really seems to be a turning point for Ozu. The setting of the film feels much more modern than any of his previous films, and Ozu is handling a much larger cast than he has ever had before, and I believe is his longest film up to this point. It is an epic, make no mistakes about it.
There are a lot of ironies in the film. Ironies like the Coca-cola sign along the road, and the english words on the signs. Noriko herself is a full of irony. While she is perhaps the most modern looking and behaving-the way she acts, that she says that she doesn’t believe in arranged marriages-but she is also much more traditional in her thoughts than her father and the other characters around her. In a way, I think that Noriko is meant to represent Japan, in that Japan was at a turning point and she is caught up in it, but she is still an adolescent, and must grow before she can become truly modern; and as the film goes along she comes to accept that re-marrying is not a sin, and she also ends up marrying herself, finally becoming full-grown.
Ryo Chisu, plays her father, and while he is playing an older character than he has ever played before, he is indeed one of the most modern characters in the entire film. You can tell this immedtiately simply by the way that Noriko acts and the way that he has raised her to be-for as much as she may try to think in the traditional manner, he has spoiled her and she acts much more like a westerner than a traditional Japanese girl. Ryo is the modern man, and you can tell in the scene in which he serves Noriko and her friend Aya-not common for a man to do at this time.
In the end her father actually tricks her into marrying, because he knows that the only way that she will leave him and marry, is if she thinks that another woman will take her place. He tells Aya that its the biggest lie he’s ever told, but he’s so incredibly happy that he did it, yet there is no mistaking how empty he now feels after his sacrifice. This is a slice of life, a masterpiece of the cinema.
This is certainly Ozu’s most complex film up to this point, as well as his best and there is so much to be said about it. I look forward to viewing this film many times in the future.
Early Spring
potential spoilers ahead:
1956) Early Spring
Early Spring stands out in the Ozu canon for a few reasons. Firstly, the subject matter, is of an affair, rather than the more common theme in Ozu’s work, trying to find a husband for a young lady. The second thing that makes the film stand out a little is that, at least in the early going, there is a stylistic shift toward a more common filmmaking style, particularly in where we follow the workers leaving their houses and going to work. This is very uncommon for Ozu, as in his films we rarely watch any one go from one destination to the next, and never with out dialogue. I guess what I am getting at is that Ozu’s use of montage in the early part of the film was shocking, for me, and allowed me to breathe a slightly different air about this film.
Early Spring is one of Ozu’s longest, and given that there isn’t the normal double-crossing marriage plot involved in Early Spring Ozu allows ample time to introduce us to all of the characters and what their life and work is like. And its not right away that the wheels of the plot begin to move, but this is perfectly fine with me, as Ozu constructs and paces everything so well, the set up is so completely natural for the viewer.
There is a lot to this film, and here Ozu confronts an issue that crosses all cultures and one that is kept quiet in all cultures, but Ozu’s own in particular. Masaka deals with her husband’s infidelity as appropriately as she can for 1950s Japan, but also finds it in her heart to forgive Sugiyama. And Goldfish, who is not evil, only arroused by temptation, comes to feel remorse for her part in the affair. In the end I believe that Shoji is truly sorry for his infidelity, and that Masaka forgives him, though I don’t buy her ‘confession’ that it was partly her fault, I understand her need to make Shoji feel less like a sh!t.
One of Ozu’s better films on an important theme, and a much different theme than his normal plowing ground.
Early Summer
Spoilers
(1951) Early Summer
This is definitely one of the best from Ozu I’ve seen thus far. Once again Noriko and Aya are single, and everyone wants Noriko to marry. Her boss tries to set her up with one of his old class mates, and he really is old. At 40, he’s 12 years older than Noriko, and her family doesn’t approve. But that doesn’t mean that she can just marry anyone she wants. When Noriko decides to marry an old friend of her brothers(her brother is an MIA), they immediately disaprove of her not choice; partly because he is a widower and already has a child, but mostly because they didn’t pick him. Noriko makes the right choice, and in this film Ozu is asserting that in a modern Japan it is up to the woman to choose who she will marry, and not her family. He breaks down many barriers here.
The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family
(1941) The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family
The film begins with a reunion of the Toda Family, as they are celebrating their mother’s turning 61-which in Japan is significant, as it symbolises a return to childhood. This is the first such reunion for the family since their father turned 61 some 8 years ago, and so everyone is mingling, and back in their old roles and routines. Shojiro, the youngest son, is late as always, and is ever the disappointment. Finally he shows for the family photo-their last, as later in the afternoon the patriarch will pass away after a day of cheerful drinking.
After the funeral the family discovers that while their father was very wealthy, he had promissed some people money, and they decide that it is necessary for them to honor those promisses in order to save face. The sons divide up the property and see to selling it off, and it is also decided what is to become of their mother and unmarried sister-they are to stay with the oldest son, as is customary. Shojiro, the youngest son decides that it is time for him to make something of himself, so he decides to leave for a job in Tianjian, China.
Mother and sister stay for a while at the eldest son’s house, but they are not made very welcome there, and so they move into the second son’s house. Second son is more wealthy with a larger, more western house, but it is clear from the begining that mother and sister are only a burden to second son and his wife. Mother and sister now feel that they are not welcome at any of the children’s homes so they don’t even bother to ask to stay at the eldest sister’s home-instead they move to the villa, which according to the older sons was worth less than the land it was sitting on.
A year passes and the family gets together for a service at the temple in honor of the anniversary of their father’s death. Shojiro returns a far more mature man than he left, and is ashamed at the behavior of his siblings in their neglect of his mother and sister. He scolds them angrily, and dismisses them from the restaurant. He then inivites mother and sister to live with him in China, atleast until he returns. In the few days before they leave for China, sister’s friend Tokiko comes by. Shojiro agrees to marry Tokiko but is still to bashful to meet her, and he escapes down the beach. An explosive, but uultimately happy ending, in this wonderful study of family by Ozu.
Floating Weeds
EARLY SUMMER, 1951
LATE SPRING, 1949
TOKYO STORY, 1953
THE ONLY SON, 1936
AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON, 1962
1. TOKYO TWILIGHT
2. EARLY SUMMER
3. TOKYO STORY
4. LATE SPRING
5. AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON
Tough picking out only 5 among so many masterpieces, but I’ll select :
TOKYO STORY /Tokyo Monogatari (1953)
I WAS BORN, BUT… /Umarete Wa mita keredo(1932)
EARLY SUMMER/Bakushu (1951)
FLOATING WEEDS /Ukigusa/ (1959) /
AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON/ Samma no Aji (1962)
Late Spring
An Autumn Afternoon
There was a Father
I Was Born, But…
Early Summer
Also, A Story of Floating Weeds, and The Only Son must be mentioned… so, I mentioned them.
Late Spring
Tokyo Story
Floating Weeds
Early Summer
I Was Born, but …
What interests me about Ozu is that I have seen a film of his in the number one spot of quite a few 100 and 1000 best lists … with three different films. So much wisdom from one director.In order:
1. Tokyo Story
2. Tokyo Twilight
3. An Autumn Afternoon
4. Late Autumn
5. Good Morning
So hard to choose only five!
1. Floating Weeds (silent)
2. TokyoStory
3. Dragon Girl
4. A Hen in the Wind
5. Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice
1. Floating Weeds (silent ,1934)
2. A Hen in the Wind
3. Flavour of Green Tea over Rice
4. Dragnet Girl (silent, 1933)
5. Record of a Tennant Gentleman
…..these are what i have watched recently and loved
but there are so many more ….always
1. Late Spring
2. The Only Son
3. Tokyo Story
4. Passing Fancy
5. Floating Weeds (remake)
Late Spring, Tokyo Story, An Inn in Tokyo, An Autumn Afternoon, Early Summer, The Only Son, I Was Born, But.., etc too many to list
Tokyo Story
Floating Weeds
Early Summer
Good Morning
The only son
Same as Apursansar:
1. TOKYO TWILIGHT
2. EARLY SUMMER
3. TOKYO STORY
4. LATE SPRING
5. AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON
Glad to see TOKYO TWILIGHT get its props…. Can’t believe I only just discovered it in 2009…
I don’t know if these are the best Ozu films, but after seeing them all several times each – in theaters – I’m willing to submit my favorites:
1. EARLY SUMMER – A sweet comedy that combines Ozu’s most familiar and expressive themes.
2. TOKYO STORY – A classic that always manages to make it into those “best ever” lists.
3. GOOD MORNING – A near-perfect amalgam of visuals, theme, and comedy; can be seen again and again.
4. LATE SPRING – A companion piece to EARLY SUMMER, but with more dignity and grace.
5. EQUINOX FLOWER – Ozu’s first color film is easily his most visually opulent, a rich viewing experience.
Tough to do since all of his oeuvre is wonderful.
1. Tokyo Twilight
2. There Was A Father
3. Late Autumn
4. An Autumn Afternoon
5. The End of Summer
I’d say all these are essential on the same level of greatness.
1. Tokyo Story
2. Tokyo Twilight
3. An Autumn Afternoon
4. Late Spring
5. The End Of Summer
1. late spring
2. i was born but
3. tokyo story
4. there was a father
5. tokyo twilight
Equinox Flower
There Was A Father
Early Summer
An Autumn Afternoon
Good Morning
1. Tokyo Story (1953)
2. I Was Born But… (1932)
3. Record of a Tenement Gentleman (1947)
4. Good Morning (1959)
5. There Was a Father (1942)
Willam
Tokyo Twilight
Late autumn
Tokyo Story
An Autumn Afternoon
The End of summer