Ozu’s Tokyo Story

Thursday is Thanksgiving, a time for families to come together. However, when an aging couple visits their grown children in Tokyo, the experience is more bitter than sweet. Time passes and generations drift apart as they always must in the films of Yasujiro Ozu. Indeed, his universally acknowledged masterpiece Tokyo Story (trailer here) is certainly no exception. The best known of his three “Noriko” films featuring Setsuko Hara as a dutiful daughter of said name, Story begins a special two-week run at the IFC Center this Friday.

Shukichi Hirayama and his wife Tomi live peacefully in a remote coastal village with their youngest daughter Kyôko, an unmarried school teacher. They rarely make the long trek to Tokyo where their eldest son Koichi and daughter Shige work. Though they never say so directly, this trip might be the last time they see them. They will also visit the Noriko, the ever-faithful widow of their middle son who was lost in the war. Unfortunately, the self-absorbed Koichi and Shige neglect their parents during their stay, while only Noriko makes time for her in-laws. Of course, the supposedly mature siblings will realize their short-sightedness, but only when the family reconvenes under sadder circumstances.

Tokyo is a film to make viewers fall in love with Setsuko Hara, either for the first time or all over again. Undeniably a beautiful woman, she radiates a warmth and humanity rarely seen on screen. Of the three Noriko films (also including Early Summer and the truly perfect Late Spring), Tokyo is Hara’s most heartbreaking role. Quiet but powerful and emotionally direct, it is one of the great performances in the history of cinema.

Those who partook of the IFC Center’s Ozu Weekend series will recognize many of his regular staple of players, besides Hara. Once again, Chishu Ryu is the gentle family patriarch, who displays the perfect lived-in comfort level with Cheiko Higashiyama (also the mother of Early Summer) as his wife Tomi. Haruko Sugimura also reappears as the tart-tongued Shige, the sort of role she specialized in for Ozu. Though not part of the unofficial Ozu repertory company, Kyôko Kagawa also is quite touching as the youngest namesake daughter.

Perfectly representative of Ozu’s style, Toyko features his usual landscape and cityscape transitions, as well as an atmosphere of calm resignation, even though society is in a transitional period. Yet throughout it all, post-war life just seems to be too harried for the senior Hirayamas.

There seem to be a number of constants in Ozu’s films. Young boys are always bratty, the prospective of marriage is always complicated, and above all, Hara (particularly as Noriko) always gives a devastatingly heartfelt performance. Despite their similarities, each of Ozu’s family dramas has an infinite richness all its own. Perfect as a capstone to the IFC Center’s celebration of Ozu or as a neophyte’s introduction to the Japanese auteur, Toyko (note the new 35 mm print) opens this Friday (11/26) at the IFC Center.

Ozu at IFC: Late Autumn

It could be considered a case of turn-around being fair play. After appearing in several Yasujiro Ozu films as a daughter needing to be married off, Setsuko Hara finally played a mother trying to make matrimonial arrangements for her own daughter in Ozu’s Late Autumn (trailer here), which screens tomorrow at the IFC Center as part of their ongoing Ozu weekend series.

Though ostensibly based on different source novels, Autumn is clearly a reworking of Ozu’s Late Spring, with Hara assuming the role of the single parent, Akiko Miwa. It is about time her daughter Ayako married and moved out, but the dutiful young woman refuses to leave her mother by herself. However, instead of a gossipy aunt, Akiko has the dubious help of three of her late husband’s old cronies. When the source of Ayako’s objections becomes clear, one of them even starts to get ideas regarding her mother, noting how attractive she still is (yeah, no kidding, she’s Setsuko Hara).

Autumn is one of the films that truly immortalizes Hara’s image as a paragon of virtue. Ever dedicated to her daughter in life while loyal to her husband in death, she personifies domestic goodness. She is also still a radiant screen presence. In contrast, Shin Saburi brings the curmudgeonly charisma in spades as her husband’s friend Soichi Mamiya, essentially reprising his gruff but warmhearted persona from Equinox Flower. Mariko Okada, dubbed “Mad, Bad, and Dangerous” by a Japan Society retrospective earlier in the year, is really none of those things as Akiko’s best friend Yukiko Sasaki. Still, there are times the busybody middle-aged men of Autumn would beg to differ, but her on-screen charm is always totally winning.

Though the parallels with Spring are inescapable, Autumn still holds up on its own even for those who truly adore Ozu’s 1951 masterpiece. Switching Ayako’s surviving parent to a mother (particularly one played by Hara) certainly increases the pathos of their natural parting. Yet, nothing can approach the bittersweet beauty of Spring’s final moments.

As usual, Autumn is punctuated by Ozu’s peaceful transitional shots of home and hearth. A sad but gentle film, it perfectly represents his themes and motifs. It is also underscores Ozu’s stature as the preeminent artistic chronicler of Japan’s middle class, at a time when many were trying to maintain their traditional values while simultaneously enjoying a hard-earned prosperity and respectability. Though maybe not quite the transcendent masterpiece of Spring, Autumn is still a wistfully elegant classic. Recommended as a top-tier Ozu film, it screens this Friday (10/22) through Sunday (10/24) at the IFC Center.

Ozu at IFC: Tokyo Twilight

Marrying off daughters is a tricky business. Shukichi Sugiyama largely botched the job with his eldest daughter Takako, whereas he might have waited too long with his youngest, Akiko. However, it is mother issues that plague the young women in Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Twilight, which screens this Friday at the IFC Center as part of their continuing Ozu weekend series.

Old man Sugiyama enjoys the company of his daughters, but their domestic lives are out of equilibrium. Takako has left her husband, moving back into her father’s house with her young daughter. Akiko never left, but she is clearly restless. Having fallen in with a fast crowd, she is desperately seeking her no-account boyfriend, which obviously portends bad news. Instead, she finds a mahjong parlor proprietress of roughly the same age as her long deserted mother, who seems to know an awful lot about the family.

Kisako Soma is indeed the girls’ mother. Clearly regretting their separation, she is eager for reconciliation, but her daughters will have none of it. We get the distinct impression there is more to her story of abandonment than meets the eye, but viewers will not get to hear it, since Takako and Akiko are not listening.

Though certainly restrained, Twilight is rather unapologetically melodramatic by Ozu’s standards. Yet, many of his frequent themes reappear in spades. In fact, the closing scene between Takako and her father surprisingly parallels that of Late Spring and Early Summer, though it reaches that point via a more tragic route. Ozu regular Setsuko Hara again personifies filial duty, but she projects an uncharacteristically severe presence as Takako. By contrast, Ineko Arima is hauntingly frail as Akiko, but the film’s real pathos comes from Isuzu Yamada’s moving performance as the prodigal mother Soma. All too aware of her terrible mistakes, she cuts a heartbreaking figure.

Twilight displays all the hallmarks of Ozu’s style, but at a relatively expansive 140 minute running time, there are a few extraneous distractions along the way. Still, when Ozu lowers the emotional boom, it is definitely heavy. As usual, Yuuhara Atsuta’s black and white cinematography has a warm, soothing quality, while also capturing a tactile sense of post-war Japanese daily life. Though Hara again demonstrates a movie star command of the screen, it is Yamada’s devastating work that really distinguishes Twilight. A worthy representative of the auteur’s body of work, Twilight screens this weekend (9/24-9/26) at the IFC Center.

Ozu at IFC: Late Spring

This might sound familiar. A daughter in her late twenties named Noriko is pressured to marry by her family. Like Early Summer’s Noriko, she even has a best friend named Aya. While the parallels are strong, each is an elegant variation on the themes of master Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu. Following last week’s screening Summer, the second film of his so-called “Noriko Trilogy,” the IFC Center presents the first Noriko picture, Late Spring (1949), as part of their continuing Ozu weekend series.

Though widowed, Professor Somiya lives a pleasant, comfortable life with his devoted daughter Noriko. She in turn, wants nothing more from life than what she already has. However, when her aunt starts buzzing in the professor’s ear about potential matches, he agrees it is probably time for her to marry. Noriko is not convinced, believing her father would be helpless without her. When he presses the issues, she becomes resentful, but as is often the case in Ozu’s films, the seasons will change, whether we want them to or not.

Like in 1951’s Summer, it is hard to believe a parade of suitors has not camped out in front of the Somiya home. Setsuko Hara had an endearing screen presence and an eerie, hard-to-describe beauty. In Spring, she is both more dutiful and a bit more sassy than later Norikos, but they were all quietly powerful performances.

In comparison to later Noriko films, Spring features a relatively small cast of characters, but their relationships are deep and rich. In particular, keep an eye on Yumeji Tsukioka as Noriko’s friend Aya (Kitagawa). Her delicately turned scene with the old Professor late in the film is quite touching, conveying so much life experience, so simply.

Again, Spring is classic example of Ozu’s eye for still life and interior shots. Nobody could convey the warmth of domestic settings as effectively. Through his lens a simple shot of some magazines falling off a chair expresses volumes.

Spring is a truly beautiful film, featuring a haunting lead performance from Hara. Depicting generational conflict and evolving gender roles during Japan’s tumultuous post-war years with quiet sensitivity, it is one of several Ozu masterpieces everyone should see. It screens this weekend, Friday (9/3) through the bonus Labor Day Monday, at the IFC Center.

Ozu at IFC: Early Summer

Sorry, no CGI or 3D here, just family drama of a universal nature. Few directors handled such material as assuredly as Yasujiro Ozu. For a prime example, check out Ozu’s Early Summer, now screening at the IFC Center as part of their ongoing Ozu weekend series.

Life is realistically pleasant for the Mamiya family. The eldest son Koichi is a doctor, married to the dutiful Fumiko. They live with his parents, their two young mischievous sons, and his younger sister Noriko. There is someone missing though: the younger brother still listed as missing in action, several years after the war. His fate remains a source of pain for the Mamiya parents, but it has dulled with the passage of time (a major Ozu theme). In fact, they have more immediate concerns, like that unmarried twenty-eight year-old daughter of theirs. It turns out they are not the only ones considering her matrimonial prospects, starting with her matchmaker boss.

In many ways, Summer is a perfectly representational Ozu film, featuring a relatively large ensemble cast in an intimate family setting. As in next week’s Late Spring, the plot is driven by attempts to marry off a daughter named Noriko played by Ozu regular Setsuko Hara. It also features two willful young boys, who come across a bit brattier than the brothers of I Was Born But . . . It also features his trademark still shots that in Summer (as well as Spring) evoke a feeling of comfort and security in the characters’ working middle class homes. Ozu’s pacing is gentle and reassuring with important events often happen off-screen, as they usually do in real life.

Of course, it is hard to imagine either Noriko lacking a parade of suitors. A radiant screen presence, Hara was dubbed the “Eternal Virgin” in Japan, largely for her roles of familial fidelity in Ozu’s films. (She also played the assertive, morally ambiguous lead in Akira Kurosawa’s unfairly dismissed adaptation of The Idiot, almost single handedly rescuing the troubled production.) Indeed, she had a pure but earthy beauty, like a Japanese Loretta Young. Her performance as Summer’s Noriko is lovely, charming, and ultimately quite human.

However, in Summer Hara has plenty of support, including small but endearing turns from a spirited Chikage Awashima as her decidedly single best friend Aya and Shûji Sano as her slightly goofy but well meaning boss Satake.

Though hardly a conflict driven plot, Ozu still keeps us engaged thanks to the ever present sense of tempus fugit. Time passes and it is clear these mostly idyllic moments will not last forever. Wise and sensitive, Summer is a pleasure to watch quietly unfold. A good place to start appreciating the work of both Ozu and Hara, it screens today (8/28) and tomorrow morning at the IFC Center.