Tomine on the aesthetics of Ozu:
There’s also been a lot written about the famous “Ozu shot,” but I think that’s the kind of thing that works on a completely subconscious level…you’d never ask, “Why are we looking at this shot of laundry flapping in the wind? What does that symbolize?” I think the beauty of those shots is that they make you feel something that’s otherwise inexpressible, in a way that’s absolutely particular to that piece of film.
Richard Brody’s DVD OF THE WEEK: Floating Weeds (The New Yorker Online):
Yasujiro Ozu’s 1959 film “Floating Weeds,” which I discuss in this clip, is a drama about the romantic entanglements of members of an itinerant theatrical troupe with residents of a small seaside town, and offers a bright and flamboyant palette of cinematic color to match the emotional intensity of the action. Ozu is often considered to be a director of sober restraint; in fact, sober restraint is his main subject, and the subject of his critique. If he tones down the emotional temperature of his characters’ outward expression and keeps his image-making within a narrow spectrum of visual variety, it’s to heighten the power and scope of nuance. The changes of shots in Ozu are as audacious and jolting as those in, say, the films of Nicholas Ray, and the struggle for personal expression and freedom—inner and outer—in a convention-bound, tradition-burdened society is Ozu’s main subject, as it is for Ray. In this film, Ozu lets fly with more flagrant furies than usual. In his quiet (and, here, a little less quiet) way, he was an angry Expressionist, a permanent exile, who didn’t need to show his turmoil in a tumultuous way in order to capture and convey turmoil even wilder than that of some overtly agitated filmmakers.
I want people to feel without resorting to drama
— Yasujirō Ozu on Late Autumn/秋日和 Akibiyori (1960)
(via ozu-teapot)
Ozu and Noda’s notes for The Radish and the Carrot // OZU MONTH:
#29. hiking
-a telegram comes in. Yoshida goes home first
-Kasa feels bad so he goes home worried. But once he goes home, there is nothing wrong
-so many rule changes, but no definite
#30. Kasa’s friend admits to Kasa being a rare value
-that’s strange that you say that. You’re being stubborn
-I’m not being stubborn
-Toshi says that having good and bad is common sense
-you can say that because you don’t have common sense
#31. a child’s senses until three years old will stick to you until you’re 100 (Japanese proverb)
-you’re a kid no matter what
#32. Nakamura understands both parties
#33. huge sumo wrestling match on NHK (Japanese channel)
That’s it. Happy New Year.
Ozu and Noda’s notes for The Radish and the Carrot // OZU MONTH:
#26. I can’t believe you remembered something like that still
-I don’t have resentment, I just have a good memory
-but since you do resent me, that’s why you remember it
#27. Kasa, playing Japanese game go
#28. fight
-physical fight
-the mediator of the wedding tries to stop
-there’s no need to stop, just let them hit each other
-you made us stop for no reason
-fine, I’ll just ignore your fights from now on
-then another fights starts
Ozu and Noda’s notes for The Radish and the Carrot // OZU MONTH:
#22. the day after the fight at the restaurant
-both parties have somewhere in their body that hurts
-both lie and say that they got those bruises from golfing accidents
-at the bar, when he’s about to leave, goes to the bathroom
-at least let me piss
#23. takes no notice
#24. the corner
#25. there is a fist fight
-the wives find out and say something about it
-the husbands try to avoid it
Ozu and Noda’s notes for The Radish and the Carrot // OZU MONTH:
#19. daughter and father fight
-the daughter leaves and goes to her friend, Baisho’s place
#20. the old part of Tokyo, and the friend has a modest lifestyle
#21. Toshi and Kasa fight
-but while the husbands are fighting, the wives meet secretly to discuss about wedding plans
Get rid of all the dramatics and show a sad character. Without using drama make the audience feel the emotion.
Ozu and Noda’s notes for The Radish and the Carrot // OZU MONTH:
#18. Tanaka (Toshi’s wife), buys Iwashita (daughter)’s furniture so she could bring that to her marriage
-when Toshi looks at this, he says, “what!”
-I don’t want my daughter to be married to the son of that guy
Ozu and Noda’s notes for The Radish and the Carrot // OZU MONTH:
#15. last scene
-they both understand where each other is coming from, but yet they still fight
#16. kasa’s son, Yoshida is employed at Toshi’s company
-don’t go to that company
-I didn’t want my son to be allowed to go there
-but I took a test to get into this company
#17. Toshi
-don’t get married into that old man’s family
-don’t get married to Yoshida… Yoshida’s a good kid, but his stubborn father is going to make you unhappy, so don’t get married into that family
