I Flunked, But... (1930)
Directed by Yasujirô Ozu

Film Review

I Flunked, But... was only the third in Yasujirô Ozu's series of student comedies but already you can feel an aura of melancholic realism starting to intrude into his youthful optimism.  The film begins in a similar vein to Ozu's first student comedy Days of Youth (1929), with a cheerful account of college days camaraderie embroidered with Harold Lloyd-style slapstick.  But, by the midpoint, the mood has changed and the grim realities of life in Depression Era Japan begin to assert themselves.  Getting a university degree proves not to be a passport to success.  Those who manage to pass their exams sink into despondency after months of futile job hunting, looking in envy on the idlers who flunked their exams and can continue their carefree existence within their educational sanctuary, like chicks in an incubator.  This contrasts with Ozu's previous film, I Graduated, But... (1929), in which a degree proves to be a useful thing (in the end).  The film anticipates the more pessimistic tone of Ozu's subsequent Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth? (1932), a class-conscious satire in which academic achievement proves to be subordinate to one's social standing.

One of the most fascinating aspects of Ozu's cinema in his early years is the gradual transition from the 'nansensu eiga' or 'nonsense film', a popular genre that combined satire, slapstick and farce, to the 'shomin-geki' or 'home drama', the domestic melodrama that Japanese audiences took to in the early 1940s.  Even in Ozu's earliest films there are elements of shomin-geki, and comedy persisted even into his mature phase, albeit in a far more restrained and subtle form.   I Flunked, But... is, arguably, the first of Ozu's films in which this direction of travel is first apparent, and also the first in which Ozu's technical and artistic prowess becomes evident.  Still only in mid-twenties, the director shows both skill and ingenuity in his use of the camera to stress the dramatic and comedic impact of his scenes.  The masterfully orchestrated sequence in which the students resort to skulduggery in the exam room might easily have come out of a Harold Lloyd film, and the scenes involving the student hero Takahasi and the kind-hearted waitress Kinuyo Tanaka (played by Ozu regulars Tatsuo Saitô and Kinuyo Tanaka) are exquisitely tender, underplaying the obvious emotional connection between the two vulnerable characters.

I Flunked, But... is Ozu's most flagrant tribute to Harold Lloyd, one of the American filmmakers who was to have most impact on him in his early years.  Flags of American universities adorn the opening credits and the sets in homage to Lloyd's comic masterpiece The Freshman (1925), which offers a similarly idealistic portrait of college life.  Takahasi and his fellow idlers are often seen performing a little dance that is reminiscent of Lloyd's jig in The Freshman, and other references to the film are not hard to spot.  Ozu did not himself attend college (he failed his entrance exams to study economics at Kobe University) and so it is tempting to read his student comedies as an attempt to make up for this painful gap in his life.  Takahasi, the hero of I Flunked, But..., is obviously Ozu in all but name, a self-portrait of a young man who was always a rebel at school and was prone to moments of dark introspection.  Takahasi's experiences not only shed some light on Ozu's character but also lead us to share Ozu's conclusion that the most important thing about a college education is not the piece of paper you get at the end of it, but the experience of growing up and making the most of one's youth, before the harsh realities of life take hold.

Film Synopsis

Takahasi spends most of his time in college idling about with his four friends.  When the exams come round, these five devise various schemes to cheat their way to success, including writing notes on their shirts.  The plan backfires when Takahasi's shirt gets sent to the cleaners by mistake.  Whilst his more studious roommates all pass their exams, Takahasi fails and must suffer the humiliation of staying in college for another year.  As his roommates fail to find work, Takahasi has the last laugh...