DVD/150: HAHA WO KOWAZUYA (aka A MOTHER SHOULD BE LOVED) (Yasujiro Ozu, 1934)

Ozu made 54 films but 17 are considered lost including his first 7 films.  Two other films barely survive while HAHA WO KOWAZUYA is missing it's first and last reels; it is still watchable but it's fairly standard melodrama.

Ozu returns to the theme of the breakdown of a family but it is fairly thin although well performed by the three lead actors.

Sadao and Kosaku's happy life shatters when their father's sudden death leaves them and their mother Chieko alone.  A few years later, Sadao discovers he is not Chieko's son but the child of his father's first marriage, he is angry at Chieko for not being told but his uncle pursuades him to forgive his mother.

A few years later, the secret flares up again when both brothers accuse Chieko of favouring the other.  Eventually Chieko reveals to Kosaku why his brother dislikes her.  Can the family survive?

Shelf or charity shop?  A keeper as it is paired with the superior LATE AUTUMN.  In later years Ozu-san said the film was only really memorable for him because his own father had died during the filming.  But despite the fairly basic melodramatic plot Ozu still builds an intensity in the scenes of family conflict and the tonal shift between the ever-reducing family homes and the shadowy local bordello with it's shuttered windows, striped awning and western film posters - boy, did I jump when Joan Crawford in RAIN appears suddenly!  Mitsuko Yoshikawa has the thankless role of the long-suffering mother, much given to collapsing to her knees. It appears to be a family trait as the brothers also crumple easily but I liked the surliness of Den Obinata as Sadao.  Ozu's favourite actor Chishu Ryu pops up as Sadao's dissolute student friend while there are nice performances from Yumeko Aizome as an icy prostitute and frequent Ozu performer Choko Iida as the bordello maid.

 

DVD/150: TODA-KE NO KYODAI (Brothers and Sisters of The Toda Family) (Yasujiro Ozu, 1941)

Ozu's first film after two years in the Japanese army fighting on mainland China was the box-office hit TODA-KE NO KYODAI.  It shows the beginning of his more focused storyelling which was to emerge eight years later with BANSHUN (Late Spring): stories of family breakups, mixing drama and gentle humour with a sad undertow.

The Toda family gather for a group photograph outside their parent's large home to celebrate the father's 69th birthday but that night he dies from a heart attack...

The family discover their father was the guarantor for massive debts accrued by a failing business.  They sell the family home and possessions to pay half the debt, but cannot sell a dilapidated beach home.

It is decided that homeless Mrs Toda and youngest daughter Setsuko should move between the houses of the eldest three children.

But the women are treated as an embarrassing, unwanted burdon...

Shelf or charity shop?  This is on the same dvd as the glorious TOKYO STORY so of course it's a keeper but also because it is the first film where Ozu's vision of film-making started falling into place.  The film has a pace and an elegance that belies it's age and Ozu offers us his characters without judgement, just a well-observed resignation of their failings.  Ozu's favourite actor Chishu Ryu is seen in a bit part as a friend of the youngest son Shojiro who is charismatically played by Shin Saburi, the first of five roles he played for Ozu.  Ayako Katsuragi and Mieko Takamine are fine as the unwanted mother and daughter while Kuniko Miyake and Mitsuko Yoshikawa are hissable as the unwelcoming sister-in-law and sister of the Toda family.  There is also a very nice performance from Michiko Kuwano as Setsuko's friend: sadly the actress - who had played a lead role in Ozu's WHAT DID THE LADY FORGET? in 1937 - died several years later aged only 31. The film's odd, abrupt ending was the result of Ozu realizing that he didn't have two days left to film but two hours!