An unemployed Japanese man and his two sons wander the industrial flatlands of Depression-era Tokyo, until he chances upon an old friend and befriends a woman and her daughter, who are in a similar predicament.
Length 80 minutes
Takeshi Sakamoto | Yoshiko Okada | Chôko Iida | Chishū Ryū | Tomio Aoki | Kazuko Ojima | Takayuki Suematsu
Date Viewed | Device | Format | Source | Rating |
---|---|---|---|---|
05/11/2013 | Movie Screen | Film | Theater | 7.5 stars |
(Average) 7.5 stars |
When I saw that this movie was not available on home video, Criterion or otherwise, I didn’t hesitate to head down to Music Box to see this. I’m so glad I did not just for the chance to see an Ozu film in 35mm but also to hear Dennis Scott’s live accompaniment of original Japanese influence composition he developed in the morning prior to the screening. What we composed and performed during this silent movie was so good I kept wishing that I had a recording of it. There were moments when it was so good replicating a Japanese stringed instrument, a biwa perhaps, that I forgot it was an organ. The movie is quite disparate and tragic despite Ozu’s flashes of momentary humor. The of his films that I see the more I see the comparisons to Frank Capra. A shame this film hasn’t been released by Criterion or Kino Lorber.
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