DVD/150: KAZE NO NAKA NO MENDORI (A HEN IN THE WIND) (Yasujiro Ozu, 1948)

Made while Japan was under American occupation, this has been dismissed and even Ozu disliked it.  A somber film missing his usual gentle humour and - unusually for him - there are two scenes of violence.

Dressmaker Tokiko struggles to survive in post-war Tokyo; living in a single room with her young son Hiroshi, she longs for her husband Shuichi's return from the army.

Hiroshi is suddenly hospitalized for ten days and faced with the large hospital bill, Tokiko has no other option but to prostitute herself for one night.

Shuichi returns but any happiness ends when Tokiko decides to tell him what happened.  His anger matches her shame and he refuses to forgive her.

Shuichi visits the brothel Tokiko had used and meets Fusako, a young prostitiute. Through her he realises what the post-war conditions are forcing women to choose.

But is there any chance he will forgive Tokiko?

Shelf or charity shop?  This is on the same DVD as a far superior Ozu film so I will keep it on the shelf.  It is not one of my personal favourites but I can appreciate the performances of Shuji Sano as the conflicted Shuichi although Kinuyo Tanaka's Tokiko is a bit one-note in her despair.  There are fine performances from Chieko Murata as Tokiko's disapproving friend Akiko and Chiyoko Fumiya as the young prostitute Fusako.  It is a joy as always to find Ozu-san's favourite actor Chishu Ryu in the supporting role of Shuichi's understanding boss Satake - it was only six years earlier Ryu and Sano had played father and son in Ozu's CHICHI ARIKI (THERE WAS A FATHER).

 

DVD/150: HIGANBANA (EQUINOX FLOWER) (Yasujiro Ozu, 1958)

Just as Ozu came late to making sound films, so he waited seven years to make his first film in colour.

Businessman Hirayama is the man people turn to in a crisis.  Speaking at a wedding, he congratulates the couple for marrying for love, unlike his marriage to Kiyoko which was arranged by their parents.

His schoolfriend Mikami did not attend the wedding, too ashamed as his daughter has left home after he refused her wish to marry a musician and he asks Mikami to help sort it out.

A young man, Taniguchi, appears in Hirayama's office and tells him that he works with his older daughter Setsuko and they wish to marry.  Hirayama later confronts Setsuko and refuses to give his blessing as he was not consulted.

Thanks to his niece Yukiko and a mournful class reunion, Hirayama understands that parents must ultimately give way over their children's lives.

Shelf or charity shop?  Def shelf!  Just as Jane Austen described her work as "the little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush" so Ozu explores again the faultlines beneath middle-class families of mid-20th Century Japan, still haunted by the war years and out-of-step with the rush to modernity.  In his inimitable style, it's a humourous film which still finds space for the audience to pause for thought, usually at the same time as his characters.  Ozu finds a harmony in the use of colour - the colour red really pops out in scenes - and again elicits lovely performances from his cast of regulars.  Shin Saburi (his fourth Ozu film) is fine as Hirayama while Kinuyo Tanaka (her seventh Ozu) is a delight as his wife Kiyoko who admits to remembering the war years fondly as they kept the family together.  Keiji Sada made his Ozu debut as Taniguchi (looking like a Japanese Gregory Peck) and would appear in three further Ozu films before his tragic death at 37 in a car accident.  Teiji Takahashi is a delight in his third Ozu outing, as the office underling who Hirayama pumps for information about his prospective son-in-law, tragically he was killed the following year, also in a car crash.  Ozu's favourite actor Chishu Ryu appeared in 52 of Ozu's 54 films and here plays the old friend Mikami wonderfully, he even gets to sing a sad acapella song at the school reunion as Ozu's camera stays fixed on him.  Another Ozu regular Nobuo Nakamura is a pleasure to see again as another of Hirayama's old friends. Fujiko Yamamoto made her only Ozu appearance as the resourceful Yukiko and won a Best Actress award for her performance; on loan from a rival studio, she was one of the main reasons for the use of colour!  A gentle masterpiece from Ozu San.