Synopsis
School teacher and widower Horikawa takes his
students on an outing. When one of them drowns
accidentally, he feels responsible and resigns.
To give his son a good education, he leaves him
at a boarding school, while he makes a living
alone in Tokyo. Father and son share some brief
moments of intimacy together, on a fishing trip
or at a hot spring. But most of their lives, they
are separated. Even though the grown-up Ryohei
offers to live with him in Tokyo, Horikawa admonishes
him to fulfill his duty as a teacher in faraway
Akita. After a reunion with old students, and
arranging a marriage for Ryohei, Horikawa dies
at the height of happiness.
Thoughts from Ozu I think Ryu Chishu has made huge progress
since playing the father who runs a tonkatsu (fried
porkchop) joint. I wonder where Tsuda Haruhiko
who played the son as a boy has gone. I'd really
like to meet him once. The story came from a script
I wrote a long time ago. I believe that film becomes
more subtle and refined as time goes by, so it
won't do to take a script from olden days and
just use it without making the necessary amendments
Even though it was my own creation, I still made
change after change, but hopefully it is an improvement
on the old version. After completing the script
for The Far-Away Country of My Parents
(Haruka nari fubo no kuni), I went off
to Southeast Asia and didn't come back until 1946.
There should be a copy of the script, though it
could have been lost in that fire. It was meant
to be an army film starring Ry Chishu which would
have been fun. However, I heard that the image
of military officers I portrayed did not concur
with the authorities. They seemed to think soldiers
should be stronger and more courageous. I had
no choice but to scrap the project. I was not
very prolific during this period at all. Still,
as long as I remained in Japan, I would maintain
an input of at least one a year. If it weren't
for the war, I'm sure there would be at least
seven more titles on my filmography.
Background
The
39th film, shot from October 1941 to March 1942.
This is a screenplay adapted from a homonymous
script that Ozu had written together with Ikeda
Tadao and Yanai Takao in a mere two moths, just
before going to the front, in September 1939.
Five days after the completion of the screenplay,
Ozu received the induction order of the army.
The management of the Kamata studios (in other
words, Kido Shiro) did not entrust another director
and waited for Ozu to come back. However, when
Ozu finally could film this screenplay, after
the completion of Brothers and Sisters of the
Toda Family in 1941, four years had passed
and the times had drastically changed. The three
writers had to revise the screenplay completely.
There are big differences between the original
screenplay of 1937 and the completed film. For
example, the town where father and son live in
the beginning changed from Matsumoto to Kanazawa.
The removal to Ueda is due to a friend's request
in the first version, but in the film, the father
wants to return to his ancestors' grave. The removal
from Matsumoto to Ueda (in the original screenplay)
is a movement within the same Shinshu region.
However, the removal from seaside Kanazawa to
the mountainous Ueda (in the film) signifies a
complete geographical change, and the boy's disorientation
and loneliness increases even more. Furthermore,
the father's wandering about is stressed by the
fact that his ancestors have lived far away in
Ueda. In the original screenplay, the son cannot
find work and goes to live with this father in
the suburbs of Tokyo, which he does not in the
film. In a very beautiful scene in the film, father
and son meet in a spa, and the father admonishes
his son to give his best at work and fulfill his
duty. In the same scene in the original screenplay,
father and son go to a public bath, and although
showing his discontent, the father consoles his
impatient son. Made in a period which bore the
distinctive marks of wartime, There Was a Father
could not escape the tendency of the time
in the details. Therefore, many parts of this
film were out at the time of re-release after
the war (especially the parts of the class meeting),
making it the most cut film of Ozu.
Personal
Thoughts and Comments There Was A Father is one of only two films
Ozu made during the war, yet ironically this may
be his most peaceful and quiet film. Just about
every film Ozu has made is simplistic in approach,
but this may actually be his most simplistic film.
There is no direct reference to the war, but rather
a deeply sympathetic father-son relationship (in
contrast to his more traditional father-daughter
relationship) which details the importance of
the parent and the separation of family. I'm not
sure if the camera ever even moves, and there
are some definitive Ozu pillow shots. Ozu regular
Chishu Ryu, who starred in almost all of his films,
gives yet another brilliant subtle performance.
