Film Review
One of the most popular of Yasujirô Ozu's silent films,
I Was Born, But... adopts a child's
eye view to explore many of the director's most beloved themes:
generational conflict, class consciousness and the struggles of
everyday life for a family of modest means. As is apparent in
this and subsequent films, Ozu had a natural affinity for children and
few directors managed to extract such rich and authentic performances
from his child actors. Most of the charm of
I Was Born, But... comes from the
humorous interaction of the rebellious older brother and his devoted
younger sibling, who form such a compelling double act that all of the
other characters in the drama are relegated to the status of supporting
players. The younger son Keiji was played by Tomio Aoki, who
became a national star in Japan after his screen debut (at the age of
six) in Ozu's earlier film
A
Straightforward Boy (1929).
With almost two dozen films under his belt, Ozu had by this time
established himself as one of Shôchiku Kamata studio's most
prolific and technically gifted filmmakers, but sustained commercial
success was still proving elusive.
I Was Born, But... was one of Ozu's
first box office hits, and also the first of his films to win the
Kinema Junpo Critics' Prize. The film must have meant a great
deal to its director as Ozu remade it twenty-seven years later as
Good Morning (1959), in glorious
Technicolor, his wryly humorous commentary on the age of
consumerism.
I Was Born, But...
contains a few autobiographical touches, which makes it particularly
interesting for fans of the director. Like the boys in the
film, Ozu often played truant as a schoolboy, so that he could feed his
already voracious appetite for American cinema. He may have
resented his father's occupation (as a fertilizer salesman) and,
lacking effective parental control, he became an habitually unruly
child, drinking alcohol from an early age and even managing to get
himself expelled from his school dormitory. It is tempting to see in the
older boy Ryoichi a grudging but revealing self-portrait.
I Was Born, But... may be a
technically flawless piece of silent cinema (on a par with Chaplin's
films of this period) but its production was far from smooth. Ozu
took an unusally long time to complete the film (five months), owing to
various interruptions which were beyond his control. When one of
the boy actors sustained an injury, Ozu made use of a one month haitus
to knock out
Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth?
(1932), one of his cinematic milestones. By this time, Ozu's
trademark formalism was beginning to crystallise, and his familiar use
of low camera positioning is particularly effective here as it forces
the spectator to see the world from a child's perspective
(literally). Ozu would later eschew camera movement but in this
film tracking shots are used liberally to create a visual dynamic that
evokes the playfulness and restlessness of childhood.
The film introduces itself as 'A Picture Book for Grown-ups' and this
is what it is - a film that addresses serious adult themes from the
point of view of a child. It is with the children - principally
the two main characters Ryoichi and Keiji - that we are compelled to
identify. The adults are portrayed either as fools or sad
wretches, all trapped by convention and circumstances in their
humiliating humdrum routine. Life is cruel but few things are
more cruel than a child's unthinking censure of his parents. The
indignant Ryoichi has yet to understand how human society is organised
and the way in which this impinges on personal freedoms. He
naturally feels a sense of his injustice that his father should kowtow
to his boss, the father of another boy he knows he is superior
to. In the gentlest way, Ozu delivers a subtle yet powerful
critique of Japan's hierarchical class system, ending what is
predominantly a delightful comedy on a sombre and thoughtful
note.
© James Travers 2013
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Next Yasujirô Ozu film:
Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth? (1932)
Film Synopsis
Yoshi has recently moved with his family to the suburbs of
Tokyo. His two young sons, Keiji and Ryoichi, become the victims
of a local bully and are put off from attending school. When
their father discovers his sons have been playing truant, he chastises
them. The boys earn the respect of their peers by getting a
delivery boy, Kozou, to beat up the bully. Ryoichi is
then disappointed to learn that his father is employed by the father
of a boy in his gang, Taro. Yoshi tells his son that he
must work for Taro's father so that he can feed his family.
Ashamed of their father because he is someone of no importance, the two
boys agree to go on a hunger strike...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.