Woman of Tokyo (1933)
Directed by Yasujirô Ozu

Film Review

Yasujirô Ozu was about to start production on Dragnet Girl (1933) when he was diverted by his bosses at Shochiku to direct another film, to fill a gap in the studio's production schedule.  That film, Woman of Tokyo, was to provide a crucial milestone in Ozu's development from a director of popular adolescent comedies to a mature cineaste and serious commentator on Japanese society.  The film itself is quite a modest affair, a social-realist melodrama that was shot in just nine days and barely runs to fifty minutes.  Yet it marks a decisive break with Ozu's previous approach to filmmaking, which was explorative and heavily influenced by Hollywood, and the emergence of a distinctive formalism that would soon come to define Ozu's unique brand of cinema.

The socially conscious story is one that is more typical of Ozu's contemporary Kenji Mizoguchi than Ozu himself.  Its account of a young woman who selflessly sacrifices everything she has (in accordance with Japanese custom at the time) just so that her brother can attend university appears to have Mizoguchi's mark all over it, and yet the story was written by Ozu, bizarrely credited to a non-existent novel written by a fictitious author, Ernst Schwartz.  Ozu's apparent unwillingness to take the credit for the story is perhaps not surprising, given that he often credited himself as screenwriter on his films under an assumed named (usually James Maki).  Ozu may perhaps have been conscious of the shortcomings of the script, not having had the time to develop the characters as fully as he would have liked and therefore having to resort to the shorthand of popular melodrama.  So tight was the production timescale that filming began even before the script was completed.  One story strand (in which the heroine Chikako is revealed to be an active supporter of the Communist Party) was removed prior to filming to avoid problems with the censor, which may account for the film's brevity.

Being a low budget production, the sets were sparse and few in number, and this gives the film an almost brutal sense of confinement.  The contained setting serves to define the characters and the relationship between them, in particular that of the two principal characters Ryoichi and Chikako.  A brother and sister, these two individuals are so emotionally tied to one another that they could be mistaken for a married couple, although it soon becomes apparent that one (Ryoichi) is entirely dependent on the other (Chikako).  This subtle relationship between character and setting would become an essential aspect of Ozu's cinema, emphasised by his stylistic quirks, such as using low camera positioning and punctuating scenes by focusing on inanimate objects, such as kettles and clotheslines - both of which are noticeable in this film.  This is also where Ozu begins to use his famous 'pillow shots' as a conscious device to break up the narrative, like chapter endings, without arresting the visual flow - examples include a static shot of a tree or a chimney stack belching smoke.

Woman of Tokyo may exhibit fewer of the western influences than many of the films that preceded it but Ozu still manages to pay homage to his Hollywood heroes, by including an excerpt from the anthology film If I Had a Million (1932).  The insert is taken from Ernst Lubitsch's contribution to the film, entitled The Clerk, which depicts Charles Laughton marching purposefully towards his employer with the intention of giving him a loud raspberry shortly after discovering he has inherited a fortune.  By cutting the sequence just before it reaches its memorable punchline, Ozu seems to be announcing to the world that his days as a comedy director are over.  As if to drive home the point, the twenty minutes or so that ensue are the bleakest, most desperately pessimistic in his entire oeuvre.  This is the point at which Ozu graduated from being merely an exceptionally talented debutant filmmaker to an undisputed master of his art.  The bitter tears that flow in the climactic scene of Woman of Tokyo are but a foretaste of the emotional havoc that Ozu would wreak on his audiences with his subsequent timeless masterpieces.

Film Synopsis

Ryoichi is a student who is financially dependent on his older sister Chikako.  To pay for her brother's education, Chikako supplements her daytime income as a typist by, so she claims, working evenings for a university professor.  Ryoichi's girlfriend Harue learns from her brother, Kinoshita, that Chikako's night time employment is far less respectable than she pretends.  It appears that she is working in a seedy bar cabaret, and may even be earning money as a prostitute.  When Ryoichi hears about this he is devastated.  How could his sister sink so low, bringing disgrace to both of them?  The next day, Chikako becomes anxious when her brother fails to return home.  It is left to Harue to tell her the terrible news that Ryoichi is dead...