Silent
. Black and White . 65 minutes
Shochiku Kamata Studio
Written By
Ozu Yasujiro
Fushimi Akira
Cinematography
Mohara Hideo
Atsuta Yuharu
Cast
Saito Tatsuo (Takahasi)
Futaba Kaoru (Landlady)
Aoki Tomio (Landlady's Son)
Tanaka Jinuyo (Cafe Girl)
Wakabayashi Hiroo (Professor)
Okuni Ichiro (Professor)
Ryu Chishu (Hattori)
Yokoo Dekao (Flunking Student)
Seki Tokio (Flunking Student)
Mikura Hiroshi (Flunking Student)
Yokoyama Goro (Flunking Student)
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Synopsis
A motley crew of students face "exam hell".
When not studying, they hang out at a local coffee
shop and flirt with the pretty waitress. She seems
to take a shine to one of them, Takahasi. Takahasi
prepares for the exam by scribbling crib notes
on his shirt. However, the landlady takes the
shirt to the launderette and he flunks. His four
best friends who live across from him, also fail,
but his fellow lodgers all pass. Ironically, it's
the graduates who leap from the frying pan to
fire - job hunt hell. Takahasi and his friends
enroll for another term at college and become
cheerleaders.
Thoughts from Ozu
One could say this is the flip side of I
Graduated, But... The student-protagonist
scribbles his crib notes on his shirt sleeve,
but the day of his graduation exam, the girl at
his boarding house unwittingly takes the shirt
to the launderette So naturally, he flunks. However,
those who pass and graduate in high spirits cannot
land any job, while the ones who flunked can continue
to bum around living off their parent's money.
It's a vignette. Although Ryu Chishu has appeared
in my previous films, it was the first time I
let him have a go at a more significant role.
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Background
The 15th film shot from the end of March to the
beginning of April 1930. The film was finished in
just one week. Ozu engages his routine work, a student
comedy, with its main places of action being the
lodging, the college and the bakery. Critics praised
the high degree of technical skill, but also pointed
out his dilettantism and a deadend mannerism. (That
kind of reputation clung to him for life.) On the
whole, Ozu's completion of the outstanding films
An Introduction to Marriage (Kekkongaku
nyumon, 1929), Walk Cheerfully and I
Flunked, But... in this year was greatly appreciated.
The Eiga Hyoron magazine published the very
first special issue on Ozu's work in July of 1930.
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