Yasujiro ozu

Yasujiro Ozu was born in Tokyo on December 3, 1903, and sixty years later, on his birthday, at the age when the Japanese celebrate “kanreki”, he would leave this world. His life and his career in the world of cinema are in some way in line with the evolution that his country had to undergo, immersed in a rural feudalism that would give way to the inevitable modernity in the big cities, just like the imperialist tendencies. they would end up biting the dust with the defeat in the Second World War and the American tutelage, which would facilitate a democratization through which nothing would be as before. The transformation of the world in which Yasujiro has been raised and grew up will be part of his film world, although described with enormous subtlety and without acrimony or sterile laments,

The future filmmaker was the third of five siblings from a wealthy family, where the father, a businessman, rarely stopped at home, which led him to strengthen ties with his mother, to the point that they would live under the same roof until the next day. her death, which occurred a year before his. There was even a certain split due to the family fertilizer business, which led to the fact that in 1913 the mother moved with her five children to Matsuzaka, the main headquarters of the business, with the idea that she would take the reins there, while the father devoted himself preferentially to cultivating clients in Tokyo. Thus, it can be seen that Yasujiro was familiar with rural and urban environments from an early age, and without pretending that his films are strictly autobiographical,

Yasujiro Ozu learned to love cinema by watching films from the United States. Which is paradoxical in a director who is usually considered an exotic author far from Western parameters, a false impression, since he deals with something as universal as the family as the main theme. Ozu didn’t really dive into the cinema of his compatriots until he felt compelled to do so by starting to work in the industry, at Shiro Kido’s Shochiku studios, based in Kamata.

It was at the Atagoza cinema in Marsuzaka – “if it hadn’t been for this room, I would never have been a film director,” he claimed – where he saw tapes of Pearl White, Lillian Gish and William S. Hart . And filmmakers like Rex Ingram , Charles Chaplin , Ernst Lubitsch and King Vidor would mark him . He never stopped being interested in Hollywood cinema, because years later he would speak with admiration of Orson Welles , John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock , and even Disney animated films like Fantasia .. At an early age, his studies did not interest her much, and instead he did not miss the opportunity to escape to the dark room of the cinema.

The rise to film directing was gradual. Before there was a failed attempt to enter the Kobe commercial school where his older brother had studied, a year of unemployment, and his work as a teacher. It seems that at this time he became fond of sake that would end up affecting his health, and this theme, that of drinking, would also end up integrated into his films. In any case, the return to Tokyo with the family was imposed by parental decision, in order to order an erratic trajectory. Thanks to an uncle of his, he was able to connect with the Shochiku studios, which signed him in 1923 as a camera assistant, and although his father was not very convinced of such professional dedication, he would end up focusing on the twenty-something, who would give his passion for cinema a job opportunity .

Ozu fit well into the particular structure of the studio – almost all his films would be shot there – and he met someone who would be a faithful collaborator in his career, the screenwriter Kogo Noda. He would learn the trade from Joji Ohara and Hiroshi Sakai, although he did not express a special interest in managing the director’s baton, nor would he yield to overt stylistic influences; An example of this initial reluctance could be the fact that his first film, from 1927, silent and currently lost, is a samurai period film, The Sword of Penance, the only one of the “jidai geki” genre that he delivered throughout a 35-year career. As he himself declared, “I have not had anyone who can be called my teacher.” Anyway, he learned the keys to Japanese comedy with the director Tadamoto Okubo, although he would later give it a personal touch when it came to tackling the genre, accusing his knowledge of Chaplin and Lubitsch films. In 1926 Kido, the head of the studio, trusted him enough to commission a script, although it would not be shot until much later, in 1934, directed by Kintao Inoue.

After a break for military service, Ozu returned to Shochiku, and began making fast-paced films, signature melodramas and comedies, and gangster films. Some familiar faces from his later films are already appearing in these early silent works, almost all unknown in the West, and even irredeemably lost, such as those of Chishu Ryu and Tatsuo Saito .

Ozu’s life will run relatively calmly, like that of the characters in his best-known films, the changes that shake him are those that affect ordinary people, such as the death of his father in 1934, while filming Love the Father , which curiously it included a scene on that mournful theme; It would not be the only time, and the scriptwriter Noda assures that a similar scene from Once upon a father(1942) started from his personal memories. The newspapers, constant especially from 1933, manifest this normality, there he complains about the military, the fatigue, the lack of money, and manifests his insomnia problems. Despite his taste for sake -whose consumption, he insists, should be moderated-, he appears as a cultured and kind man, not given to excesses, who enjoys small daily pleasures such as reading and watching movies, or following of baseball. Probably the most “exciting” thing in Ozu’s existence was his time in the army and more specifically his call during the war with China, which took him almost two years, although according to what he recorded in the newspapers, and without going into political assessments, that It seemed like an unfortunate waste of time, “I’ll try to get out of all this well,” he said. At that time he witnessed the bloody takeover of Nanking, which abounded as occurs in all wars in brutal actions. It is striking that despite his personal experience, the filmmaker decided to ignore the issue of war in his films, he never dealt with it directly. Apparently Ozu stopped writing or destroyed in his diaries everything related to the decade 1939-1949, probably he wanted to make a clean slate regarding his country’s war adventure; although other interpretations consider that this part of the diary was lost in a fire that affected Shochiku’s studios in 1952, and that destroyed the apartment where he used to work. the filmmaker decided to ignore the issue of war in his films, he never dealt with it directly. Apparently Ozu stopped writing or destroyed in his diaries everything related to the decade 1939-1949, probably he wanted to make a clean slate regarding his country’s war adventure; although other interpretations consider that he lost that part of the diary in a fire that affected the Shochiku studios in 1952, and that destroyed the apartment where he used to work. the filmmaker decided to ignore the issue of war in his films, he never dealt with it directly. Apparently Ozu stopped writing or destroyed in his diaries everything related to the decade 1939-1949, probably he wanted to make a clean slate regarding his country’s war adventure; although other interpretations consider that he lost that part of the diary in a fire that affected the Shochiku studios in 1952, and that destroyed the apartment where he used to work.

Very modest, little is known about his private life, those who knew him describe him as shy; he never married, although he was credited with having an alleged affair with an actress, and he frequently refers to his close relationship with Sakae Mori, a geisha who went by the name of Senmaru. Ozu was annoyed that it inspired a story by Rintaro Takeda, to the point of writing in the diary: “How can one allow oneself to die, if being alive one already hears things like this?”

Kinema Jumpo magazine is gradually recognizing his film achievements. Talkies were introduced somewhat late in Japan, which is why Ozu continues to deliver highly mature silent films such as I was born, but… (1932), with a soft humor, which in addition to dealing with the reconciliation of work and family life, offers a nice look at childhood, which will continue in his filmography, notably in the later and now in color Good Morning (1959). The tenderness with which the director looks at old age suggests a kind of second childhood in this autumnal stage of life, as can be seen in the elderly couple in the masterful Cuentos de Tokio (1953).

With Ozu it is tempting to summarize by saying that he always made the same film, there is even talk of the circularity of his filmography and minimalism. Which is true… up to a point. Because in effect, they are always daily relationships and minimal stories within the family where normality prevails, to the point that the memory of the commentator can end up mixing films, not remembering exactly in which film a widowed parent almost unconsciously transferred his sense of guilt for an accidental death of her son – There was a father (1942) -, or in which tape the unmarried daughter does not quite take advantage of matrimonial opportunities to accompany her widowed father – Late Spring(1949)-. A thousand variations on the same theme, but of course, the enormity of the theme consists in nothing less than the person and relationships with his fellow men, family ties and subsequent obligations, life itself painted with a most delicate tenderness. So that generational contrasts dominate – Beginning of Summer (1951) in addition to the aforementioned Tales from Tokyo -, fraternal relations – The Munekata sisters (1950), Twilight in Tokyo (1957) – matchmaking concerns, work frustrations… Life is beautiful but it is filled with bittersweet moments, and sometimes we are like birds locked in a cage despite ourselves, as the images of Principles of Summer suggest..

Quiet rhythm, significant silences, contemplative glances, camera still or almost. Lots of interior scenes aiming at the height of the tatami, like sitting down with the characters. Very elaborate composition shots, meticulously prepared, the filmmaker always has the last word on the framing that takes advantage of the geometry of sliding doors or entrances to houses. Ozu is a poet of ordinary life, it seems that we listen to the twilight breeze with his characters, and we are transported with them to an existence where there is no hurry, not even when it is considered that it would be time to start making certain decisions. His films are full of genuine emotion, they are love stories in their deepest sense and they unfold with different faces, a true marvel of sensitivity,