I don’t think the fact of his sexuality makes any difference to interpreting his films. It would just be another name to add to the roster for LGBT political groups.
How do you know he was gay, Maud’s Son?
I think it’s a good thing that there has been little talk of his sexuality. I don’t think being single his whole life necessarily means he was homosexual, but I’m glad that for once a persons sexuality is being left alone. It’s inconsequential. I also haven’t read about Tarkovsky being heterosexual. That’s the way it should be, IMO.
Tarkovsky wasn’t necessarily heterosexual. According to Johnson and Petrie, he was bisexual but this was covered up by Tarkovsky’s inner circle.
Lol. Bad example.
I don’t see how that means he’s gay. It’s irrelevant regardless. He could have just as likely been asexual based off of that information.
Ha! I see what you mean though. There’s that Richard Dyer book “white” where he analyses the portrayal of white people in Hollywood movies. It might actually be really interesting to look at how straight people portray themselves.
I think the important thing to remember is that gay, straight or whatever…Ozu’s films are fantastic!
Malik, I agree with you. Does anyone know where to get good biographical material on Ozu? I know almost nothing about the guy. But I remember reading somewhere that he had the Japanese symbol for nothingness on his headstone, as if he was saying “I’m no-one in particular, just a conduit for my films”…
@Apursansar there are hints on the net, remaining single and childless doesn’t mean he was gay,and if he wasnt openly gay(not openly straight either), but there are hints on the Internet.
I’m not 100% sure, but I would bet on it.
@Jaxormax0r but wouldnt he have been a good leader for opening Japanese society more to homosexuality? I mean,can you imagine lesbian Japanese women openly living together in Japan without problems? Or a gay Japanese politician? I think an artist that appealed to Japanese(VS Kurusawa) and wasnt insane like Mishima-who seems to confirm homophobia- would’ve been a good thing for Japan’s gay population.
@Apursansar there are hints on the net, remaining single and childless doesn’t mean he was gay,and if he wasnt openly gay(not openly straight either), but there are hints on the Internet.
I’m not 100% sure, but I would bet on it.
@Jaxormax0r but wouldnt he have been a good leader for opening Japanese society more to homosexuality? I mean,can you imagine lesbian Japanese women openly living together in Japan without problems? Or a gay Japanese politician? I think an artist that appealed to Japanese(VS Kurusawa) and wasnt insane like Mishima-who seems to confirm homophobia- would’ve been a good thing for Japan’s gay population.
Didn’t Ehrenstein say that this was a well-known thing in Japan?
I see your point.
“I don’t think the fact of his sexuality makes any difference to interpreting his films.”
I don’t know, in college a lot of my classmates seemed to think his films were pretty gay.
Very sorry about this post , I see this topic has even discussed on this site, @ mods feel free to delete this thread and forward the discussion to:
Ozu = Evll? http://mubi.com/topics/ozu-evil
Apursansar writes,“That means Ozu is not just evil, but also gay. A revelatory thread…”
Ari writes, "As for Ozu’s sexuality, let’s just cite from the NY Times:
“Some people think he was gay, but no one is sure,” she continued. “He was expelled from his high school for sending a love letter to another male student, but it was an all-boys’ high school, and we don’t know whether it was a serious letter or just a joke.” What is known, she said, is that Ozu was “a very moralistic person.”"
@Maud’s Son: You may be right about it, but I’ve also read a couple of times that he was extremely shy, so that might just as well have been the reason for him remaining unmarried and childless. Either way and despite Ehrenstein’s claim that Ozu’s shots through doorways give evidence of him standing outside of Japanese society due to his homosexuality I rather doubt that our knowledge of his sexual preferences would make us gain much knowledge in regard to his films.
@John A. Riley: I suggest to download David Bordwell’s book “Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema” either for free on his website or via direct link here.
In Japanese society at the time it was not only expected for all men to get married but to have children, regardless of sexual orientation. A man remaining single in Ozu’s day was about as open as men got in that day.
There’s this funny section on one of the criterion DVD’s with a sort of dialogue between Masahiro Shinoda and Masaki Kobayashi where they both get to talking about the accurate depiction of family in Japanese film and of course Ozu comes up and Shinoda jokes that, in reverse of what one would expect from a master of the ‘home drama’, “Ozu remained single his entire life!” And there’s this really awkward pause and even more awkward silence after. It suggests something they don’t want to speak about.
But, in reality, that’s all it is; a suggestion. Was Ozu gay? Probably. Seems more likely than not but that doesn’t mean anything, really. If he shot men and women in the drastically different manner that someone like Bresson did it would be more important to explore the issue. Because it would become a part of who he was as an artist. But he didn’t. He used fiction as a means of distilling reality, as Donald Richie would argue he was the essence of the Japanese ideal of presentational art, not representational.
The only people that would really have definitive information on Ozu’s sexual orientation are either dead or definitely not opening up about it. Imagine Hara outing her old ‘sensei’ nearly 50 years after his death and over 45 since she’s allowed an interview.
@apursansar Thanks for the tip!
Yeah, that would be something if the “Eternal Virgin” outed Ozu – she never married either.
I would be interested to hear an example of what someone considers a “gay sensibility” in Ozu’s films. I just don’t see it.
Jack, perhaps it’s the LACK of a gay sensibility that makes it so conspicuous.
Or, uh…not.
Well, I have noticed a trend that films that are popular among (Non-cinephile) men tend to be goal-oriented films, and films that are popular among (Non-cinephile) women tend to be slice of life oriented films, and I’d certainly describe Ozu’s as the latter. His films are more similar in tone to say, Sofia Coppola or Kelly Reichardt. Also he’s one of the few Japanese filmmakers of his time that I know of who doesn’t make women into icons of purity and sacrifice.
Of course, having more feminine directorial tendencies doesn’t necessarily imply anything about his sexuality.
What would constitute a visible “gay sensibility” in Ozu’s films?
Gayness was not discussed freely and openly in Ozu’s time. Indeed it wasn’t until the late 60’s it was dealt with at all.
When Oshma (who is straight) made “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” and his last film “Gohatto” it was quite a big deal because of the gay content in both (especially the latter as it dealt frankly with gayness in the samurai era.)
Talk of a “gay sensibility” is a Western cultural manifestation. Japanese art deals with a great many things that the West would tag as “feminine” even though they’re not so gender-identified to the Japanese.
Ozu never dealt with gayness oopenly. He made a referece to his being thrown out of school for writing a love ltteer to another boy in one of his movies (it’s a bit of gossip between the old businessmen who meet periodically for dinner.
Ozu’s disinclination to marry is rare among gay Japanese men of his era. He made up for it of cpurse by having the overwhelming majority of his films revolve around the marriage of a reluctant daughter — a stand-in for himself.
I would have thought that it was more open than that David. Were lesbians not popular among the Pink films? I seem to recall them being mentioned in the commentary for “In The Realm of the Senses”.
Oh, and as for Gohatto, I’m not shocked to learn that Oshima was raring to make a film about something no one wanted to talk about. Of course the observant viewer will notice that the “Taboo” so to speak has nothing to do with homosexual relationships.
According to my Janapese gauy firneds it really wasn’t that open. As for lesbains — well Ozu’s most important actress is a lesbian.
Ozu’s disinclination to marry is rare among gay Japanese men of his era. He made up for it of cpurse by having the overwhelming majority of his films revolve around the marriage of a reluctant daughter — a stand-in for himself.
I think what David says is the extent of a gay sensibility in Ozu’s films. If Ozu’s films don’t lend themselves to gay readings, it’s because he was the most egalitarian of filmmakers. No character is privileged, they are all filmed the same way…Ozu films communication rather than character types.
“Also he’s one of the few Japanese filmmakers of his time that I know of who doesn’t make women into icons of purity and sacrifice.”
I don’t think Mizoguchi’s women are pure, at least not always. Certainly Naruse’s women aren’t. I think one could easily argue that Noriko in Late Spring is indeed an icon of purity and sacrifice… but then they’d be missing the forest for the trees just like they would be in a Shimizu, Naruse, Shimazu, Gosho or Mizoguchi if they were to simplify characters to such a mind numbing degree.
“Ozu films communication rather than character types.”
Precisely.
If he was indeed gay, his sexual orientation didn’t influence him enough to infuse his work with homosexual subtext like in the cases of some other gay filmmakers, like say Fassbinder or Jarman. Whether he was gay or not is about as interesting to me as whether he was left-handed or right-handed.
@David Ehrenstein “gauy firneds” I dont understand,did you mean “guy” or “gay”, please run the spell checker next time mate : )
Maud's Son
I would think this would be a landmark for LGBT scholars and students of film given Japanese culture. Wikipedia says so without admitting the obvious: “Ozu remained single and childless all of his life and stayed alone with his mother who died less than two years before his own death.”
Maybe the Japanese Culture wouldnt appreciate this very much?