Restored classics by Yasujirō Ozu

Ozu (1903-1963) is known for his tender films about Japanese family values and the generational conflict between parents and their children. In this new series, we once again screen TOKYO STORY (1953), the film chosen as the best film of all time by directors in the leading poll by British film magazine Sight & Sound. We will also be screening some lesser-known films by Ozu, including the film that he himself considered to be his best work: THE FLAVOR OF GREEN TEA OVER RICE).

Ozu has been called 'the most Japanese of all Japanese filmmakers', not least because of his preference for a sober, minimalist film style. In almost all of his films, the camera work is static. Ozu’s trademark is the low camera angle. In the so-called ‘tatami shot’, the camera circles 360 degrees from a height of only 90 cm above the ground, the eye level of a Japanese adult sitting cross-legged on a tatami mat. The camera often starts running before the actors are on their spot and continues to run for some time after the actors have left the frame. This gives Ozu’s films their typical observational style.

Not only stylistically, but also in terms of content, Ozu’s films show great similarities. His films invariably portray middle-class Japanese families and deal with family relationships, the conflict between tradition and modernity, the relationship between parents and their children and the transience of life. Ozu’s films express a tender and humorous view of humanity.

Ozu’s work was discovered late in the West. However, the 1950s – when Ozu made his best films – were a golden period for Japanese cinema. After the Second World War, Japanese films were screened at international film festivals for the first time. The films of Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi proved a revelation to European audiences. The producers of Ozu’s work, however, did not want to export his films because they thought that the subtle beauty of his films would be wasted on Western audiences. In the 1970s, he was finally discovered by film critics and historians and today, Ozu is considered one of the absolute masters of the art of cinema.