Film Review
With
I Graduated, But..., his
tenth film, director Yasujirô Ozu was able to move on from the
brisk comedies that dominated his early output at Shochiku studio to
more serious dramas depicting life in the real world, as experienced by
most lower middle-class Japanese people. Ozu's more senior
contemporary at Shochiku, Shimizu Hiroshi, was originally assigned to
direct the film, but Ozu took over, determined to demonstrate his
versatility. Today, only fragments of the film (totalling ten
minutes of run time) exist, so it is not possible to judge how
successfully Ozu was in making the transition to more a serious kind of
film, but there is no doubt that
I
Graduated, But... is much darker in tone and much more
restrained than Ozu's previous surviving films, as befits its subject.
At the time the film was made, Japan was already deeply mired in a long
depression that was many time worse than the one which was about to
strike the western economies. Unemployment amongst university
graduates was particularly high and it was quite common place for
highly educated graduates to accept offers of menial work to make ends
meet. What
I Graduated, But...
shows is a reality that was all too familiar to Japanese
graduates in the late 1920s, and Ozu captures, very effectively, and
rather poignantly, the soul-destroying despondency of facing a future
without work with a degree in your back pocket. The director
would revisit the same theme in his subsequent film,
I Flunked, But..., albeit in a
somewhat more humorous vein, more in keeping with the tone of his
previous student comedies. It is worth mentioning, en passant,
that this was the first occasion Ozu worked with Minoru Takada and
Kinuyo Tanaka, who were both fated to become major stars of Japanese
cinema, Tanaka being especially famous for her many collaborations with
another great cineaste, Kenji Mizoguchi.
© James Travers 2013
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Yasujirô Ozu film:
I Flunked, But... (1930)
Film Synopsis
Having recently graduated, Tetsuo Nomoto thinks he will soon find a
well-paid job worthy of his talents. He goes for a job interview
with a large company but all he is offered is the post of a
receptionist, which he immediately turns down. When he returns
home, he receives an unexpected visit from his mother and his
fiancée Machiko. Too embarrassed to reveal the truth,
Tetsuo tells his mother that he has a good job. He maintains this
fiction by going out each morning to the park, where he spends the day
playing with children. One evening, he discovers that Machiko is
working in a bar. He is naturally outraged but he becomes ashamed
when Machiko tells him she took the job because they desperately need
the money. Humbled by his wife's sacrifice, Tetsuo returns to the
company that interviewed him earlier, ready to accept the lowly
receptionist job...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.