Fresh look at Ozu

When I visited Beijing two and a half years ago, I got hold of an anthology of Yasujiro Ozu's last 15 films. Their style and quality is consistent and in fact, probably because they tend to focus on domestic issues of the middle class, with roles by his regular actors, it is easy to come to the conclusion that Ozu the director had stayed that way all the time: low camera position, minimum movement both of the camera and the characters, protagonists hardly engaged in matters of monetary nature.

Tokyo Chorus and I Was Born But... change all that. Such delightful and beautiful pearls show a very different Ozu: one that deemed humour one of the key elements in his characters and story telling, one that was obviously heavily influenced by masters like Chaplin (think of the scenes where the father was captured making faces in front of camera), and one that is already a great director with child actors.

Both films have many scenes of children behaving, well, just like children in their most natural state of their age, and it was incredible that Ozu managed to get such brilliant performances from these child actors, with the eldest being no more than eight or nine years old. I Was Born But... stands out in particular as it deals both with children's adaptation to the usually forced new environments (new neighbourhood, new school, new kids, new bullies etc as their fathers' social status changed), and that of the adult world from their prospectives. The latter proves to be especially a fresh and poignant angle to remind us what is being lost from adolescence to adulthood when reality kicks in.

In comparison to the characters in Mikio Naruse's best works, such as When Women Ascend the Stairs and Flouting Clouds, who are all obviously making difficult choices due to the lack of financial stability, those in Ozu's latter and better known films seldom address such issues openly as if they would be resolved on their own. Yet the two films from his silent era suggest another template, one which is not too different from that of Naruse in terms of how the ordinary people are leading their lives when bounded by immediate or long term financial concerns. It is only in the latter period that Ozu dropped such subject matters directly related to one's financial circumstance.

A true master, someone whose early works prove to be a wonderful surprise to those like myself who were introduced to him through his latter works. His works look at the role of a father in the family, especially that in a boy's world. His concern is humane and realistic. But best of all, he has never allowed himself to forget the films are there to entertain in the first instance; his wit and sense of humour are there to captivate us throughout in the two silent films.