Synopsis
Yoshii and his family move to a Tokyo suburb, to the same neighborhood as his boos. His two boys are initially terrorized by the school bully, and run truant. Eventually, they beat up and usurp the bully's place, lording it over all the boys, including the boss' son. When they gatecrash a screening of the boss' home movies at his mansion, their image of their authoritative father is tarnished when they watch him playing the clown and ingratiate himself to the boss. They quarrel with him and stage a hunger strike, but differences are reconciled the next day.

Thoughts from Ozu
This film grew out of my desire to make a film about children. A story about children to begin with, but veers towards adults by the end. The tone is initially lighthearted, but halfway through a shift occurs and it ends on a bleak note. The company delayed its screening for two months on account of the "unexpectedly dark subject." Moreover, I consciously did away with fade-ins and replaced them with the cut. Henceforth, I never used such editing techniques again. In fact, neither dissolve, fade-in not fade-out can be regarded as "the grammar of film", they are no more than characteristics of the camera.

Personal Thoughts and Comments
I Was Born, But… is often cited among Ozu's most beloved works (be it of pre or post WW11). It's a lovely film. One that begins light-hearted and subtly grows darker as it progresses. It's a witty comedy, but the film also emerges as an insightful and transcendent tragedy in its incredibly in-depth awareness of social and human behaviors. As in most of Ozu's silents, the visual style is far more expressive then that of his post-war work. I Was Born, But… perfectly defines the perspective of the characters, notably the two young boys. Ozu always got great performances from child actors and this film is essentially expressed through the two boys. In the opening scene, we see the boys watching their father as a great hero helping a car get out of a mud pit. As the film gradually moves forward their perspective changes such as when they see their father acting like a jokester in some old home movies. Here the film delves darker as the children's innocence become a overwhelming awareness of social and adult contradictions. I Was Born, But… marked one of Ozu's earliest successes as a filmmaker, both financially and critically, as the film was a box office success and also won the Kinema Jumpo poll as best Japanese film of the year. Ozu himself loosely remade the film with the more-lighthearted and inferior (though still quite good) 1959 Technicolor film Good Morning (Ohayo).