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.
Background
The 24th film, shot from November 1931 to the begging
of April 1932. The shooting was made at intervals.
In between, from December 1931 to January 1932,
the film Spring Comes from Ladies (Haru
wa gofunjin kara, 1932) was made. In September
of 1931, the three beaux of Kamata, Suzuki Denmei,
Takada Minoru, and Okada Tokihiko, withdrew from
the studio, forming Fuji Eiga. Saito Tatsuo and
Sakamoto Takeshi were also signed up by the seceding
group, but finally remained. When the commotion
subsided, Saito was back as leading actor in Ozu's
crew. The first scene shows a removal somewhere
in the suburbs. If we are attentive to the specific
meaning of the housing in Ozu's films, the change
of lodging (or better, of the lodging's form) at
the begging of the film builds up anticipation that
something is going to happen. This expectation is
fulfilled within 12 minutes. Fresh, unknown intruders
the two brothers) disturb the order of the previously
established group. The method of controlling the
situation and creating a new order, the friction
and the changes are carefully depicted within the
world of children's play. At that time, many American
films with children in the main roles were imported
and released, such as Tom Sawyer, Skippy,
Forbidden Adventure, Huckleberry Finn
and Sooky. Certainly this stimulated Shochiku
Kamata to make similar films, since the studio had
many child actors at its disposal. However, after
the film show in the house of the managing director,
the main themes switches from the children to the
tension and the contrast between the suburbs and
the enter of the city in Ozu's Tokyo, and the film
without fail assumes the aspect of a film by Yasujiro
Ozu. The scenes after the confrontation of father
and sons on the evening of the film show completely
differ from Fushimi's scenario, which may also be
due to the long interruption of the shooting. In
the scenario, the situation is resolved soon. Ryoichi
follows a march of the soldiers and does not come
home. His parents are relived, as the boy finally
returns. This significant change indicates the differences
between the two authors Fushimi and Ozu. Fushimi
remains within the frame of the Kamata style with
its humor and its pace. On the contrary Ozu and
Fushimi, his important longtime collaborator of
many silent short comedies ended here. They teamed
up again only once, for What Did the Lady Forget?
For Ozu, the separation from Fushimi also meant
the farewell to a pastoral, bucolic youth.
Personal
Thoughts and Comments I Was Born, But is often cited among
Ozu's most beloved works (be it of pre or post
WW2). 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 ideas of this film with the more-lighthearted
and inferior (though still quite good) 1959 Technicolor
film Good Morning (Ohayo).