December 12, 2020
It marks the 117th anniversary of Ozu Yasujiro's birth
It was also the 57th year of his death
At Yuanjue-ji Temple in Kamakura, Japan, there is a different tombstone – the stone stele is engraved with the simple and powerful character "None", and the front of the stele is filled with various kinds of sake drinks that come and go.
This is the tomb of Yasujiro Ozu. It seems that in this land, all the worldly disturbances have turned into a void, and all the descendants who have been touched and deeply inspired by his films can cross the time and space barrier with him here and drink wine under the dark green forest.
Figure | The tomb of Yasujiro Ozu at Kamakura Genjue-ji Temple, Japan
Yasujiro Ozu has long been regarded as one of the world's most influential directors, and in a 2012 survey by Sight & Hear magazine, his Tokyo Story was ranked third in "Ten Greatest Films of All Time." Before his death, his films have won the first place in the annual top ten films of the "Film Shunbao" many times, and won the Minister's Award of the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Culture, and the Japan Academy of Arts Award. Such a director standing under the dazzling starlight, Ozu's personality is as peaceful and simple as his films.
He describes himself as a "tofu maker" who "only makes tofu", and his decades of filmmaking are like a table of life that he carefully cooks.
Early entry
The "rebellious student" who does not take the usual path
On December 12, 1903, Yasujiro Ozu was born into a family in Tokyo. During his childhood, Ozu rarely saw his father due to his long-term absence. Ozu's mother single-handedly brought him up and pampered him, and this childhood imprint had a great influence on Ozu's subsequent family film creations. Ozu spent his middle school years in Matsusaka. When he was a student, he was not the kind of child who made people worry, not only did he not grow much in schoolwork, but he also developed the habit of "alcoholism". However, it was also during this time that Ozu began watching various Hollywood films, from Charles Chaplin to Harold Lloyd, and developed an initial interest in images.
Figure | Directed by Yasujiro Ozu
In 1923, the Ozu family moved back to Tokyo. Because Ozu, who graduated from high school, was not admitted to the ideal high school, after being introduced by his uncle, Ozu entered the shochiku picture painting, which was famous in Japan at that time, and served as a photography assistant. Little did he know at the time that this would be the beginning of a legendary film career.
After a year of military service, Ozu returned to Shochiku in 1926 as an assistant director. In 1927, Ozu directed his first film, Blade of Confession, which really began his career as a director.
Figure | The 1927 film Blade of Confession is also Ozu Yasujiro's only costume work
Although Ozu had become a director in the mid-20s, it wasn't until the 30s that he really built his reputation. 1933's "Whim", the first part of the Kihachi trilogy, is a good reflection of Ozu's early comedy films. The film became the best film of the year in the Film Journal.
In the 1930s, Ozu successively shot films such as "The Tale of Floating Grass" (1934), "Mirror Lion" (1936), "Only Child" (1936), and his creation also changed from silent to sound with the important development of film history. However, in terms of shooting methods and aesthetics, Ozu's comedy during this period could not be separated from the appearance of Western films that had a deep influence on him in his youth. The shooting style that has truly become a symbol of Ozu's personal aesthetics is gradually brewing in the accumulation of continuous experience.
Figure | Poster of Floating Grass Story
Figure | Mirror Lion poster
Figure | Poster of "The Only Child"
Mature style
The formation of a new shooting aesthetic
There is no doubt that 1949's Late Spring became a landmark work in Ozu's chronology. At that time, Ozu ended his service of being conscripted again, and returned to Japan in 1946. Direct participation in the propaganda and reporting of the Japanese army during World War II also gave Ozu a new vision and thinking about the war in a broader sense.
"Late Spring", starring Kasa Shizumi and Hara Setsuko, tells the story of the touching father-daughter relationship between father Zhou Ji and daughter Noriko. Due to the dependence on her father since childhood, the age-appropriate Noriko was unable to step out of the marriage barrier, and the long-lasting friendship was told in the "mutual fulfillment" of the two. In addition to showing the ethical filial piety embodied in the relationship between the East, "Late Spring" is also full of depictions of Japan's post-war scene.
Figure | poster of "Late Spring"
More importantly, in this film, Ozu has developed his own new shooting style - both getting rid of the borrowing of Western classic films and different from the traditional Japanese shooting method, which is completely Ozu-style innovation.
Due to the Japanese culture habit of kneeling on a tatami mat and talking, Ozu lowered the camera and even maintained a low calf perspective to capture the dialogue of the characters, which completely simulated the Japanese people's point of view and psychological state when communicating. After trying many camera scheduling, Ozu decided to simplify the complexity and keep the shooting of a fixed lens, which also reflected the quiet and subtle temperament of the Japanese.
Figure | "Late Spring" embodies the characteristics of Ozu Yasujiro's low camera shooting
In addition, he broke the mechanical techniques of films such as stacking and replaced them with timeless and blank empty shots. For the 180-degree axis that was regarded as a golden rule in filming, Ozu also boldly broke it. Everything in his films is premised on the purpose of reconstructing the true nature of life. It was as if we were sitting next to these characters and watching them converse in their ordinary conversations, both private and immediacy.
Ozu Yasujiro's signature footnote can be seen in every shot of Late Spring, and this work is also hailed as a sign of Ozu Yasujiro's entry into a mature stage.
Family bloodline
A timeless theme of exploration in Ozu's films
More than Ozu's unique shooting style, he is better known for his constant focus on ordinary Japanese family ties and delicate and sincere portrayals of blood ties.
Figure | A family in "Mai Qiu"
Two years after "Late Spring", Kasa Shizō and Setsuko Hara starred in Ozu's "Mai Qiu", and the sincere emotions in the plain story made the film selected for the first place of the annual film of the Shunbun. The Tale of Tokyo In 1953 is Ozu Yasujiro's truly the most widely known collection. Through the depiction of an elderly couple, Zhou Ji and his wife, visiting their children in Tokyo, the film powerfully conveys the eternal topic of family affection and filial piety with plain brushstrokes, and also depicts the gradual demise of the traditional "Tao" and family system in the torrent of the new era.
Figure | Tokyo Story (1953)
From the mid-to-late 1950s to the early 1960s, Early Spring (1956), Tokyo Twilight (1957), Good Morning (1959), Autumn Kazu (1960), and Taste of Saury (1962) continued Ozu's subtle emotional dynamics and everyday life in the family. Behind the seemingly trivial little things of this ordinary family is Ozu's profound understanding of the human situation, which contains a nostalgia for the past, a sense of responsibility and morality in traditional ethics, and a unique material mourning mood and sentiment that belongs only to the Japanese. In this vivid picture of Japan after the war, Ozu constructs a comparison between the elders and the juniors, the new order and the old order.
Figure | Autumn And (1960)
Figure | The Taste of Saury (1962)
In 1962, Yasujiro Ozu directed his last film, The Taste of Saury. As if echoing with "Late Spring", "The Taste of Saury" returns to the original creative topic of "marrying a daughter", and a father and a daughter are silent but sincere. Ozu's lens is a simple and unpretentious story that penetrates the true meaning of life, and it is also like the title of his film that reflects the flow of the four seasons, from spring to autumn, recording the lives of the most ordinary people, but also illuminating an entire era with a small view.
Figure | Director Yasujiro Ozu holding a wine bottle
On December 12, 1963, the year after his mother's death, Yasujiro Ozu died of cancer. Leaving on the same day of his birth, and walking through the entire sixty years, he seemed to draw a full and beautiful circle.
As he said in his essay collection "I open a tofu shop, I only make tofu": "The movie wins or loses with the aftertaste". To this day, the aftertaste of Ozu Yasujiro's films is getting thicker and more mellow, and the many bottles of wine he drank and talked with him in front of his tomb may be the best testimony to this.
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