1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 This is a Bergen Film Club podcast. 2 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:56,000 Hello, welcome to The Real Thing. 3 00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:58,560 I am your host Joel Lortz. 4 00:00:58,560 --> 00:01:04,000 This podcast is an extension of Bergen Film Club, which is an independent cinema society 5 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:10,320 in Bergen, Norway, with a focus on expanding Bergen's film literacy, shining a light on 6 00:01:10,320 --> 00:01:15,280 those who deserve it, female directors, non-binary directors, showing films from countries that 7 00:01:15,280 --> 00:01:20,320 don't necessarily get a spotlight, and most importantly showing great film. 8 00:01:20,320 --> 00:01:26,680 This podcast is an extension of SIT Film Club, where I contextualize the films and talk about 9 00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:33,520 the wider story going on there, and just getting a better understanding, any cool stories, 10 00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:35,240 anything like that. 11 00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:39,240 Today is something a little unconventional in terms of our podcast history. 12 00:01:39,240 --> 00:01:47,640 We're actually revisiting an old topic, just to give it the real attention that it deserves. 13 00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:57,360 So in 2023, on the 30th of October, episode 22 of the podcast, we talked about the director 14 00:01:57,360 --> 00:02:04,180 Yasujiro Ozu, leading off to his 120th birthday. 15 00:02:04,180 --> 00:02:08,360 We talked about it then. 16 00:02:08,360 --> 00:02:15,680 Just a disclaimer, the podcast is an ever-evolving thing, as am I, as a researcher, as a host, 17 00:02:15,680 --> 00:02:18,320 as a producer of myself. 18 00:02:18,320 --> 00:02:25,680 So in retrospect, I feel like that topic needed more attention and needed to be a bit more 19 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:27,240 thorough. 20 00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:30,040 Source-wise, it was kind of lacking. 21 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:33,080 I'm going there. 22 00:02:33,080 --> 00:02:37,920 If you listen to that episode, then maybe listen to this one. 23 00:02:37,920 --> 00:02:41,920 So before we dive in, I'm going to start with my sources. 24 00:02:41,920 --> 00:02:51,200 Obviously, the Wikipedia page for Yasujiro Ozu talks a lot of information from that. 25 00:02:51,200 --> 00:03:00,120 A Nippon.com article, Ozu Yasujiro, a director's time in Tatashina by Carmen Grout Villa, which 26 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:02,800 was originally in Spanish and was translated. 27 00:03:02,800 --> 00:03:09,000 A Harvard Film Archive, Ozu 120 by Kelly Dong. 28 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:13,960 And a BFI article, Ozu Yasujiro, the master of time by Tom Anderson. 29 00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:21,480 And a grave of Yasujiro Ozu from Atlas Obscura, amongst many other sources which you can see 30 00:03:21,480 --> 00:03:23,120 in the show notes. 31 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:30,160 Specifically, one source, Kantoku Ozu by Shigwe Hiko Hasumi, which is a book that has recently 32 00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:33,080 been released. 33 00:03:33,080 --> 00:03:41,200 There were a number of articles that I took from that included translations from that 34 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:43,360 article. 35 00:03:43,360 --> 00:03:49,620 So without further ado, let's tell the story of Yasujiro Ozu in the way that it should 36 00:03:49,620 --> 00:03:54,040 have been told. 37 00:03:54,040 --> 00:03:59,160 Yasujiro Ozu was born December 12th, 1903 to a working class riverside neighborhood 38 00:03:59,160 --> 00:04:02,560 in Tokyo on the banks of the Fukugawa River. 39 00:04:02,560 --> 00:04:06,560 On the second of five siblings, he spent the majority of his childhood in the city of Tokyo 40 00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:10,560 with his mother Assei and his older brother Shinichi. 41 00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:15,840 His father, Toranosuke, was a successful merchant who sold sardine flour, which at the time 42 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:23,560 was a highly coveted amenity due to its use as fertilizer, particularly in cotton cultivation. 43 00:04:23,560 --> 00:04:31,200 Which set his family apart from the rest of the families living in this arena, like he 44 00:04:31,200 --> 00:04:36,000 was squarely a middle class child, but his family was kind of set apart from the rest 45 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:40,800 of them as they never really went without. 46 00:04:40,800 --> 00:04:46,400 When he turned 10, the family moved to Matsusaka in the Mie Prefecture where Ozu would spend 47 00:04:46,400 --> 00:04:51,280 the rest of his childhood, attending schools as a boarder, practicing judo and sketching 48 00:04:51,280 --> 00:04:53,320 and journaling. 49 00:04:53,320 --> 00:04:57,360 Known to be something of a rule breaker, Ozu would often skip school to attend some 50 00:04:57,360 --> 00:05:03,400 of the first cinemas in the area to watch American silent films such as Quo Vadis, The 51 00:05:03,400 --> 00:05:10,160 Last Days of Pompeii and Civilization, a movie that spurred his desire to be a film director. 52 00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:15,720 At the age of 17 in 1920, Ozu was actually thrown out of dormitories after being accused 53 00:05:15,720 --> 00:05:20,880 of writing a quote love letter to a good looking boy in a lower class, following which he had 54 00:05:20,880 --> 00:05:22,680 to commute to school by train. 55 00:05:22,680 --> 00:05:27,440 In 1921 he graduated from high school and took the entrance exam for what is now Kobe 56 00:05:27,440 --> 00:05:29,960 University but failed. 57 00:05:29,960 --> 00:05:33,720 Against his father's wishes, he instead worked as a substitute teacher in a rural school 58 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:35,760 in the Mie Prefecture. 59 00:05:35,760 --> 00:05:41,480 In 1922, his family, except Ozu and his sister Toki, moved to Tokyo to live with his father. 60 00:05:41,480 --> 00:05:46,520 In 1923 when Toki graduated, Ozu also moved to Tokyo to try his first luck in the film 61 00:05:46,520 --> 00:05:49,560 industry. 62 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:54,800 With Ozu's uncle acting as an intermediary, Ozu entered the Shichiku Film Company as an 63 00:05:54,800 --> 00:05:57,840 assistant in the cinematography department. 64 00:05:57,840 --> 00:06:03,400 Although not coming from a family in the arts, Ozu's nephew, Nagai Hideyuki, stated he believed 65 00:06:03,400 --> 00:06:09,960 Ozu was born at a good time and his vision in the film was the result of the era in which 66 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:12,060 he lived. 67 00:06:12,060 --> 00:06:16,800 In the early 20th century, Japan's rural areas experienced significant changes due to the 68 00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:20,400 broader forces of modernization and industrialization. 69 00:06:20,400 --> 00:06:26,520 The Meiji Restoration started in 1868 and this set the stage for rapid economic and 70 00:06:26,520 --> 00:06:28,600 social transformations. 71 00:06:28,600 --> 00:06:33,040 While cities embraced western technologies at more conveniences, rural Japan faced a more 72 00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:38,400 gradual shift where traditional agrarian life began to intersect with new influences. 73 00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:43,600 This period of transition created a notable generational divide within rural communities. 74 00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:48,160 Older generations deeply rooted in traditional practices and values often struggled to adapt 75 00:06:48,160 --> 00:06:50,760 to the rapid changes occurring around them. 76 00:06:50,760 --> 00:06:55,120 They clung to the established customs and social structures, valuing the continuity 77 00:06:55,120 --> 00:06:58,560 of cultural heritage and the familiar ways of life. 78 00:06:58,560 --> 00:07:02,360 In contrast, the younger generations were more receptive to modernization. 79 00:07:02,360 --> 00:07:06,720 They were exposed to new ideas and technology, partly through education and exposure to urban 80 00:07:06,720 --> 00:07:08,300 influences. 81 00:07:08,300 --> 00:07:13,080 This younger cohort began to embrace aspects of western culture, including new agricultural 82 00:07:13,080 --> 00:07:18,180 techniques, modern conveniences, and evolving social norms. 83 00:07:18,180 --> 00:07:22,640 The resulting generational divide was evident in various aspects of this rural life. 84 00:07:22,640 --> 00:07:25,760 Traditional roles and values were increasingly questioned by younger generations, leading 85 00:07:25,760 --> 00:07:30,840 to tensions between maintaining cultural traditions and pursuing modern advancement. 86 00:07:30,840 --> 00:07:36,280 This divide often manifested in different attitudes towards work, family structure, 87 00:07:36,280 --> 00:07:40,440 and societal changes and roles, reflecting the broader clash between the old and the 88 00:07:40,440 --> 00:07:43,240 new and the rapidly changing Japan. 89 00:07:43,240 --> 00:07:47,480 The 20th century rural Japan was marked by significant modernization which deepened the 90 00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:52,840 divide, older generations holding faster to these traditional ways, with younger individuals 91 00:07:52,840 --> 00:07:57,660 increasingly embracing modern influences, creating a dynamic interplay between preserving 92 00:07:57,660 --> 00:08:01,520 cultural heritage and adapting to new realities. 93 00:08:01,520 --> 00:08:08,200 It's these themes that you would see crop up in many, many, many of Ozu's films. 94 00:08:08,200 --> 00:08:14,320 In 1926, Ozu became a director at Shichiku, in a rather unconventional way. 95 00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:18,040 Whilst waiting in line for lunch, a colleague of his jumped the queue, which Ozu responded 96 00:08:18,040 --> 00:08:20,640 to by punching the employee. 97 00:08:20,640 --> 00:08:24,400 When called to the director's office, Ozu took this opportunity to present a film script 98 00:08:24,400 --> 00:08:26,060 he had written. 99 00:08:26,060 --> 00:08:29,760 This kind of behaviour had only gotten him in trouble in the past, but here his impudence 100 00:08:29,760 --> 00:08:31,880 was rewarded. 101 00:08:31,880 --> 00:08:38,000 The following year, he was promoted to the director of the Jitageki, period film, department, 102 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:46,600 and directed his first film, Sword of Penitence, which is now lost. 103 00:08:46,600 --> 00:08:52,320 This marked the first time working with Kogo Noda, who became Ozu's co-writer for the 104 00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:54,640 rest of his career. 105 00:08:54,640 --> 00:08:59,200 On September 25th, he was called up to service in the military reserves until November, which 106 00:08:59,200 --> 00:09:03,560 meant that the film had to be partly finished by another director. 107 00:09:03,560 --> 00:09:06,920 Upon his return, he was able to complete the production of multiple films a year across 108 00:09:06,920 --> 00:09:14,920 many genres and hone his craft, exploring through trial and error, playing with pans, 109 00:09:14,920 --> 00:09:19,720 tilts, dollies, dissolves, and the like, all to develop his technical proficiency as a 110 00:09:19,720 --> 00:09:21,760 director. 111 00:09:21,760 --> 00:09:26,680 Once he began exploring films about upper middle class life and the acceptance of choice, 112 00:09:26,680 --> 00:09:32,400 circumstance, and being, he began to develop into the auteur he is known as today. 113 00:09:32,400 --> 00:09:38,080 As Harvard Film Archive puts it, his, 114 00:09:38,080 --> 00:09:45,660 The creation of his trademark setup was something of an accident during the making of another 115 00:09:45,660 --> 00:09:48,680 lost film, Body Beautiful, in 1928. 116 00:09:48,680 --> 00:09:53,200 To avoid tidying up electrical cables over the floor, he lowered the camera to the floor 117 00:09:53,200 --> 00:09:56,000 and immediately fell in love with what he saw. 118 00:09:56,000 --> 00:10:00,640 Towards the end of the 30s, Ozu had become a well-recognized artist, regularly receiving 119 00:10:00,640 --> 00:10:05,840 accolades for his work in film, mainly in Japan, but was frequently praised by critics. 120 00:10:05,840 --> 00:10:09,720 This never really translated into box office success however, and Ozu came to resent the 121 00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:15,640 label of quote, critics director, as a sign of banishment into a niche. 122 00:10:15,640 --> 00:10:20,280 Before any of this had real consequence however, Ozu was drafted. 123 00:10:20,280 --> 00:10:27,640 In September 1937, during this time of uncertainty in his career, he was conscripted into the 124 00:10:27,640 --> 00:10:29,880 Imperial Japanese Army. 125 00:10:29,880 --> 00:10:34,440 He spent the following two years in China during the second Sino-Japanese war. 126 00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:38,920 Arriving in Shanghai, he was fairly quickly promoted to sergeant as part of an infantry 127 00:10:38,920 --> 00:10:42,200 regiment handling chemical weapons. 128 00:10:42,200 --> 00:10:46,120 He was stationed in several places across China and Japan, with his conscription ending 129 00:10:46,120 --> 00:10:48,800 in 1939. 130 00:10:48,800 --> 00:10:53,080 There was a lot of controversy concerning Ozu's character and role in the war, the 131 00:10:53,080 --> 00:10:57,600 information from his diaries, which were published even though he forbade it. 132 00:10:57,600 --> 00:11:01,200 In these diaries, he refers to the group's involvement in chemical warfare, which were 133 00:11:01,200 --> 00:11:02,600 in violation of protocol. 134 00:11:02,600 --> 00:11:08,960 However, Japan had, as in violation of what was stated in the Geneva Protocol, however, 135 00:11:08,960 --> 00:11:10,960 Japan had withdrawn from the League of Nations. 136 00:11:10,960 --> 00:11:17,480 He similarly refers to Chinese soldiers disparagingly, often using slurs, perhaps due to the nature 137 00:11:17,480 --> 00:11:23,240 of the situation he found himself retreating into his kind of directorial aspect in mind, 138 00:11:23,240 --> 00:11:27,760 usually referring to certain situations as quote similar to what they are in films, such 139 00:11:27,760 --> 00:11:29,800 as the murder he witnessed. 140 00:11:29,800 --> 00:11:34,480 His diaries also offer insight into the Japanese military's use of comfort women, who were 141 00:11:34,480 --> 00:11:38,160 forced into sexual slavery. 142 00:11:38,160 --> 00:11:42,520 Despite being actively involved in the war planning and deployment, he developed and 143 00:11:42,520 --> 00:11:46,960 wrote the script for his film, The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice, which concerns marmarriage 144 00:11:46,960 --> 00:11:49,380 conflict and family struggles. 145 00:11:49,380 --> 00:11:53,120 The first film he released following the war was Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family 146 00:11:53,120 --> 00:11:59,560 in 1941 and There Was a Father in 1942, which explores the dynamics of a father-son relationship 147 00:11:59,560 --> 00:12:03,200 following a great separation. 148 00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:08,700 In 1943, Ozu was drafted again, this time to make a propaganda film in Burma. 149 00:12:08,700 --> 00:12:14,360 He was instead sent to Singapore to make a documentary about Chandra Bose, who is an 150 00:12:14,360 --> 00:12:22,140 extremely interesting person, if you want to look into this person. 151 00:12:22,140 --> 00:12:25,840 During this time, however, he had little desire to work and instead spent most of his time 152 00:12:25,840 --> 00:12:31,200 reading, exercising, playing tennis and watching American films provided by the Army Information 153 00:12:31,200 --> 00:12:34,980 Corps, being particularly impressed by Citizen Kane. 154 00:12:34,980 --> 00:12:39,800 At the end of World War II, Ozu destroyed the script and all footage of his documentary. 155 00:12:39,800 --> 00:12:43,440 He was then detained as a citizen and forced to work on a rubber plantation along with 156 00:12:43,440 --> 00:12:47,480 his 32 strong film team. 157 00:12:47,480 --> 00:12:53,120 After this time, 28 spaces were available for the first repatriation boats back to Japan, 158 00:12:53,120 --> 00:13:00,540 which Ozu had won a spot on in a lottery to go home, but he waited longer because he gave 159 00:13:00,540 --> 00:13:07,000 the ticket away to someone else who he felt was more deserving to go home than he. 160 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:12,680 Akiko Ozu, his niece, recalled Ozu's return in 1946 and that he had travelled straight 161 00:13:12,680 --> 00:13:17,040 to his neighbourhood in search of his mother, but she had gone, having left Tokyo following 162 00:13:17,040 --> 00:13:19,120 the Great Tokyo Air Raid in 1945. 163 00:13:19,120 --> 00:13:24,560 She was now living with her daughter in Noda, two hours from the capital. 164 00:13:24,560 --> 00:13:27,280 Once learning this, he spent the night in Tokyo, then headed straight to his mother 165 00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:29,040 the next day. 166 00:13:29,040 --> 00:13:33,040 He spent these post-war years in this town with his mother and extended family. 167 00:13:33,040 --> 00:13:37,620 Akiko recalls the definitive role that Soke played for Ozu at this time, that he would 168 00:13:37,620 --> 00:13:41,640 play with the children on the same level and that he was mischievous as a child in this 169 00:13:41,640 --> 00:13:42,840 way. 170 00:13:42,840 --> 00:13:50,960 He later moved to Tatsushina, with this move often heralded at his last creative haven. 171 00:13:50,960 --> 00:13:54,080 This is where he would create some of the movies that are now recognised as his most 172 00:13:54,080 --> 00:13:57,360 accomplished. 173 00:13:57,360 --> 00:14:02,700 Anecdotal stories from his niece Akiko and nephew Nagai Hidaki portray Ozu as something 174 00:14:02,700 --> 00:14:07,880 of a sake gomon and that there is a degree of hedonism that could be inferred from this 175 00:14:07,880 --> 00:14:12,280 kind of lifestyle that he lived, but his family stories say that this couldn't be further 176 00:14:12,280 --> 00:14:14,020 from the truth. 177 00:14:14,020 --> 00:14:19,640 Those who shared a table with him as Nagai, his nephew often did, stated that experiences 178 00:14:19,640 --> 00:14:24,520 with him were just to focus on the meal, simply drinking and sharing the time between a close 179 00:14:24,520 --> 00:14:25,520 one. 180 00:14:25,520 --> 00:14:30,520 He speaks fondly of travelling local areas with his uncle to discover or hunt down new 181 00:14:30,520 --> 00:14:34,240 dishes which later came to feature in some of his films. 182 00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:36,000 He didn't go to fancy places. 183 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:38,400 What he liked was to get together with people. 184 00:14:38,400 --> 00:14:41,800 He enjoyed being with others. 185 00:14:41,800 --> 00:14:46,520 A character point of Ozu's which is frequently pinpointed is that he never married and was 186 00:14:46,520 --> 00:14:48,720 alone most of his life. 187 00:14:48,720 --> 00:14:52,160 It's often also remarked questioningly about him living with his mother for the majority 188 00:14:52,160 --> 00:14:53,160 of his life. 189 00:14:53,160 --> 00:14:58,520 From this information alone it's easy to create this idea of a brooding, contemplative, perhaps 190 00:14:58,520 --> 00:15:03,960 standoffish and sturdy man, but again from his family descriptions, from this Nippon.com 191 00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:06,800 article, it seems like he was completely opposite. 192 00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:10,840 Nagai, his nephew states, quote, I think he was able to do everything he did because he 193 00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:11,840 was single. 194 00:15:11,840 --> 00:15:12,840 He never married. 195 00:15:12,840 --> 00:15:15,920 Sure, but it doesn't mean that he didn't have affairs. 196 00:15:15,920 --> 00:15:20,400 Many different women played different roles in his life. 197 00:15:20,400 --> 00:15:25,160 Ozu in a way owed Asai, his mother, his life twice over. 198 00:15:25,160 --> 00:15:31,080 Firstly being born, but when Ozu was three years old, he contracted meningitis which led 199 00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:35,380 him to be very, very sick and obviously incredibly life threatening illness at the beginning 200 00:15:35,380 --> 00:15:37,900 of the 20th century. 201 00:15:37,900 --> 00:15:42,600 That his mother devoted herself, body and soul to his recovery, which is something that 202 00:15:42,600 --> 00:15:46,840 the filmmaker remained deeply grateful for the rest of his life. 203 00:15:46,840 --> 00:15:52,720 Ozu Akiko also, his niece also believes that her uncle liked to be around others, but that 204 00:15:52,720 --> 00:15:54,880 he was very shy at heart. 205 00:15:54,880 --> 00:15:58,320 And as far as she knows, he liked at least three girls. 206 00:15:58,320 --> 00:16:03,120 Quote, he had an inability of declaring his love. 207 00:16:03,120 --> 00:16:07,040 And in the meantime, often people would get there ahead of him. 208 00:16:07,040 --> 00:16:12,040 With such a large family, the rich tapestry of interpersonal affairs must have struck 209 00:16:12,040 --> 00:16:16,520 him and kind of the melodrama of life and the largeness of one's own life is seemingly 210 00:16:16,520 --> 00:16:20,040 what drove his kind of autistic flair. 211 00:16:20,040 --> 00:16:26,880 Expectation, love, conflict and all the more obvious and interesting to him. 212 00:16:26,880 --> 00:16:30,200 For example, his older brother as his tradition was supposed to care for his mother in her 213 00:16:30,200 --> 00:16:37,120 old age, but as Ozu observed this complex relationship between his mother and his sister 214 00:16:37,120 --> 00:16:39,440 in law, it fell to him to take over. 215 00:16:39,440 --> 00:16:44,520 It seems that these kind of meditative moments of conflict are what fascinated him the most 216 00:16:44,520 --> 00:16:49,240 or all of us, which is why his films kind of strike chord just so many that he'd be 217 00:16:49,240 --> 00:16:55,600 able to kind of play the melodrama of the Quote d'Ion so perfectly and strongly that 218 00:16:55,600 --> 00:17:01,840 you kind of drop into these moments that could be as if you are enjoying or you're experiencing 219 00:17:01,840 --> 00:17:07,440 the conversation as if it's happening in front of you. 220 00:17:07,440 --> 00:17:13,760 The so-called Noriko trilogy is esteemed as Ozu's most favorably received and acclaimed 221 00:17:13,760 --> 00:17:20,400 works with these being Late Spring in 1949, Early Summer 1951 and Tokyo Story in 1953, 222 00:17:20,400 --> 00:17:23,480 which all feature Setsuko Hara. 223 00:17:23,480 --> 00:17:27,240 Late Spring, the first of these three films was the beginning of Ozu's commercial success 224 00:17:27,240 --> 00:17:32,080 and the development of his cinematography and storytelling style or kind of the perfection 225 00:17:32,080 --> 00:17:33,440 of it. 226 00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:38,800 These three films were followed by his first color films, Equinox Flower 1958, Floating 227 00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:47,000 Weeds 1959 and Late Autumn in 1962, which released the ep before he died in 1963. 228 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:51,360 His frequent collaboration with Setsuko Hara sparked romance and rumors, but his family 229 00:17:51,360 --> 00:17:54,760 claimed that this relationship was purely professional. 230 00:17:54,760 --> 00:17:59,640 Since the rumor mill was furthered by Hara's retirement following Ozu's death in 1963, 231 00:17:59,640 --> 00:18:03,280 his nephew claims that this was purely due to her place in the industry as a woman quote 232 00:18:03,280 --> 00:18:09,740 well over 40, that she had kind of peaked and she would never really be like taken seriously 233 00:18:09,740 --> 00:18:12,000 or even hired again. 234 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:16,820 However, it was commonly known that they believed that they brought out the best of each other 235 00:18:16,820 --> 00:18:21,600 professionally so hence the collaboration. 236 00:18:21,600 --> 00:18:26,840 So following the production of some of his most acclaimed best work as a lifelong swagger, 237 00:18:26,840 --> 00:18:31,940 he died of throat cancer in 1963 on the day of his 60th birthday just one year after his 238 00:18:31,940 --> 00:18:35,360 own mother's passing. 239 00:18:35,360 --> 00:18:40,320 They are buried together in Kamakura with a headstone that has no name, but rather the 240 00:18:40,320 --> 00:18:45,840 character Mu, which means nothingness in Japanese. 241 00:18:45,840 --> 00:18:50,440 And this kind of concept of nothingness is something that through all of the sources 242 00:18:50,440 --> 00:18:55,680 that I read is some kind of thing that plays often through his films. 243 00:18:55,680 --> 00:18:59,680 It's not necessarily that it's like nothingness, but I think I'll speak a bit later, but he 244 00:18:59,680 --> 00:19:05,160 speaks that there's no need to kind of like bring a grandeur to a situation that doesn't 245 00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:13,880 need it, that everyday life and everyday situations and relationships and conflict in a kind of 246 00:19:13,880 --> 00:19:21,240 like interpersonal way has its own gravitas and that there is this level of kind of of 247 00:19:21,240 --> 00:19:28,520 nothingness of emptiness that really isn't empty at all. 248 00:19:28,520 --> 00:19:33,020 Ozu was a frugal and vital man and the numerous awards he received in Japan did not affect 249 00:19:33,020 --> 00:19:34,400 his worth. 250 00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:38,080 According to his nephew, his last years were spent composing scripts in the middle of a 251 00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:42,560 forest in Tateshina and that this was a very good period for him. 252 00:19:42,560 --> 00:19:47,220 He was a man of his tough era, who did not mind living in the wilderness and experiencing 253 00:19:47,220 --> 00:19:49,640 its harshness. 254 00:19:49,640 --> 00:19:52,560 During the winter he generated ideas and in the summer he filmed. 255 00:19:52,560 --> 00:19:57,040 For almost a decade he and his colleague and screenwriter No Gokobo followed a cycle of 256 00:19:57,040 --> 00:20:02,360 creation and rest at a villa located in the mountains of Nagano still preserved today. 257 00:20:02,360 --> 00:20:09,320 Even though these landscapes were never seen in his work, Tateshina was always in his heart. 258 00:20:09,320 --> 00:20:12,760 Ozu's narrative content and technical style are probably what is the most striking to 259 00:20:12,760 --> 00:20:16,320 viewers, particularly in the post-war sound films. 260 00:20:16,320 --> 00:20:19,840 He shoots in a way that involves the viewer as if you have a seat at the table of the 261 00:20:19,840 --> 00:20:22,440 conversation and it's happening before you. 262 00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:26,920 His development of quote pillow shots, which are these intermediate shots that take place 263 00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:31,660 of traditional cuts or fades, a way he would contextualize and vary the viewer from one 264 00:20:31,660 --> 00:20:38,200 conversation to another, sometimes with static images reflecting the themes of the film, 265 00:20:38,200 --> 00:20:45,200 often with images countering classical imagery with something mechanized. 266 00:20:45,200 --> 00:20:51,600 Shigwe Hiko Sumi, who recently published this book, Kantoku Ozu, which means Director Ozu, 267 00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:58,640 has actually criticized or rather identified that the West's perception of Ozu is largely 268 00:20:58,640 --> 00:21:04,080 driven by three people, Donald Ritchie, Paul Schrader and David Bordwell, all of which 269 00:21:04,080 --> 00:21:09,440 are obviously influential in their own right. And it's worth noting that there is a degree 270 00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:16,440 in which he has kind of been contextualized in Western cinema by kind of reflecting an 271 00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:24,520 Eastern or Japanese expectation back upon him. By kind of ascribing certain choices, 272 00:21:24,520 --> 00:21:30,320 shots, dialogue, inclusion of certain set pieces that are chosen by Ozu that like this 273 00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:36,240 was only done because he was a Japanese man or applying like Eastern religion motif to 274 00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:42,640 it. When it, as Sumi says, may not have necessarily been the case, that rather it was just kind 275 00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:47,520 of like, this is everyday life, not necessarily some kind of like deeper, like religious Eastern 276 00:21:47,520 --> 00:21:56,240 meaning. I just thought I can't speak too much to it because I'm not like a film analysis 277 00:21:56,240 --> 00:22:04,960 nerd, but it's an interesting point the way that we kind of view Eastern cinema, I guess 278 00:22:04,960 --> 00:22:12,720 that we have it, maybe have a tendency to kind of like put on an extra level of Eastern 279 00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:18,400 motif because it is an Eastern film. I just thought it was a very interesting point. I 280 00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:25,560 believe the Hatsumi book has been translated or it will be. So I'm sure that there's a 281 00:22:25,560 --> 00:22:34,600 lot of interesting points in there. Ozu's legacy and influences, nonetheless, undeniable. 282 00:22:34,600 --> 00:22:42,040 The themes in his movies are as relevant today as then, you could say. It's intergenerational 283 00:22:42,040 --> 00:22:48,080 conflict, whether this be due to expectation, tradition, generals, it's a strong core theme 284 00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:53,560 throughout all of his features, but not necessarily told in this heavily dramaticized way that 285 00:22:53,560 --> 00:22:58,280 it could be told in other films of the period. Ozu never aimed to sensationalize or go beyond 286 00:22:58,280 --> 00:23:06,120 what was necessary. It was deliberate and calm. It was a family. It was people talking. 287 00:23:06,120 --> 00:23:14,040 Yeah. So I guess that's kind of, I just wanted to kind of broaden the Ozu narrative that 288 00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:19,280 we have on the podcast because I'm not saying that I did a bad job researching it, just 289 00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:23,480 could have done a better job, I think. And yeah, I just think it's, you know, like with 290 00:23:23,480 --> 00:23:27,760 research, with sighting, it's just important to be like, I'll talk about everything. So 291 00:23:27,760 --> 00:23:33,080 this is, you know, I think I filled in the gaps with that. I didn't touch on any other 292 00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:36,920 episodes, so that could definitely be like, kind of like a companion episode in that way, 293 00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:41,080 but it's just good to have something a bit more holistic and a bit more well researched. 294 00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:51,160 So that's why I did this. Yeah. But many cool episodes coming up, collaboration and yeah, 295 00:23:51,160 --> 00:23:56,720 I'm excited to move forward. It's been fun researching this episode. I actually had a 296 00:23:56,720 --> 00:24:03,080 good time learning about him as a person. There's a lot like pressure kind of like put 297 00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:10,000 on him as a person, but he was just a guy just being alive, living his life pretty much. 298 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:17,680 So do with that, or you will. But thank you very much for listening. This has been The 299 00:24:17,680 --> 00:24:44,080 Real Thing, I've been Jill Lawrence. Goodbye.