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The first images rhyme an oil lampshade with the kasa hats of passersby, an off-screen clock ticks and chimes. (A food truck's bell and the slurping of noodles are some of the other choice sounds in Yasujiro Ozu's first talkie.) The provincial widow (Choko Iida) toils hard so her son can get an education and thrive in Tokyo, a trip to the big city after a lengthy separation finds the lad (Shinichi Himori) in a humble rut, married and teaching geometry in night school. On a field with a garbage incinerator in the distance, he confesses his dissatisfaction and dreads her disappointment. "Life's tragedy begins with the bond between parent and child," so goes the proverb. An early model for Tokyo Story, more bitter and less serene, the existential cycle perpetually spinning is a wheel at the silk mill. Promise does not guarantee success in the world at large, the earnest professor (Chishu Ryu) is seen frying cutlets to support a large brood. "What will you become?" the tiny grandson is asked. There's a hint of Great Expectations, and a minute of a German musical at the movie house. (Junior marvels at the cinematic novelties while Mom feels the weight of her eyelids.) The emotional climax is an after-hours family argument, Ozu cuts from the weeping figures to a protracted still life in a corner of the room and four decades later Scorsese dollies away from his rejected taxi driver to an empty hallway. Maternal pride, "the best souvenir I can take home," also a shield that cracks during a break at the factory. Ray inherits the dilemma in Aparajito. With Yoshiko Tsubouchi, Mitsuko Yoshikawa, and Tomio Aoki. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |