Rent Two Films by Yasujirô Ozu (1942)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
From his early silent films to his final features in the 1960s, Ozu perfected a style that stripped away unnecessary plot mechanics and camera movement. In doing so, he produced a cinema whose surface simplicity belies character studies of depth, warmth and on occasion, humour. This release features two newly restored films, presented on video including a longer and previously unreleased version of 'There Was a Father'.
I Was Born, But...(1932)As brothers Ryoichi and Keiji struggle to outwit the local bully and scale the pecking order in their new neighbourhood they find out that injustice does not end with school. Ozu's silent masterpiece prefigures themes from his later, colour classic Good Morning, but with a darker edge.
There Was a Father (1942)
Shuhei Horikawa sacrifices his teaching career after an unfortunate accident but refuses to sacrifice the education of his only son.- Actors:
- Tatsuo Saitô, Tomio Aoki, Mitsuko Yoshikawa, Hideo Sugawara, Takeshi Sakamoto, Teruyo Hayami, Seiichi Katô, Shôichi Kofujita, Seiji Nishimura, Zentarô Iijima, Shôtarô Fujimatsu, Masao Hayama, Michio Sato, Kuniyasu Hayashi, Akio Nomura, Teruaki Ishiwatari, Chishû Ryû, Shûji Sano, Shin Saburi, Mitsuko Mito
- Directors:
- Yasujirô Ozu
- Writers:
- Akira Fushimi, Geibei Ibushiya, Yasujirô Ozu, Tadao Ikeda, Takao Yanai
- Aka:
- I Was Born, But…(1932) / There Was a Father (1942)
- Genres:
- Children & Family, Classics, Comedy, Drama
- Countries:
- Japan
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 22/04/2024
- Run Time:
- 184 minutes
- Languages:
- Japanese LPCM Mono, Japanese LPCM Stereo
- Subtitles:
- English
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Full Screen 1.37:1
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Newly recorded audio commentaries on both films by writer an film critic Adrian Martin
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Reviews (1) of Two Films by Yasujirô Ozu
There Was a Father - Two Films by Yasujirô Ozu review by griggs
An earlier, sterner Ozu, this feels like watching the roots of his later masterpieces take shape under stricter conditions. The familiar concerns are all here—family, duty, and the slow passing of time—but There Was a Father treats them with less warmth and more severity. I wasn’t swept away by it, but it lingered in that quietly insistent Ozu way.
The father-son relationship gives it a different emotional texture from the later films built around daughters, marriage, and domestic change. Here, love is expressed through restraint, sacrifice, and a near-heroic refusal to say what anyone actually feels. It is, in its own reserved way, quietly heartbreaking. Chishu Ryu is superb at the centre of it, seeming to age before your eyes as responsibility and time steadily wear him down.
Made in 1942, the wartime atmosphere lingers in the background: responsibility first, self second, feelings pushed firmly to the bottom of the drawer. Ozu’s calm framing and immaculate manners keep everything poised, but the sadness still gets through. Not top-tier Ozu for me, perhaps because the severity keeps it at arm’s length, yet it leaves behind that familiar Ozu feeling: sadness arriving softly, then refusing to leave.