Category: JAPANESE FILMS

Masahiro Shinoda once worked under Ozu as an assistant director (Tokyo Boshoku). During the shooting, there was a sitting cushion placed on the tatami floor in the set, which was never used by any of the characters in the scene. He asked Ozu what was the meaning of that cushion. Ozu invited Shinoda to the view finder of the camera. “What do you see?”, he asked. There were lines and lines of tatami edge (hen) covering the lower half of the frame. Ozu did not like the tatami edges invading his composition and the cushion was placed to conceal them. …

“Another problem (in cinema direction) is that people stand up and sit down. In western-style rooms, this is not as difficult, since the posture of the person is fairly consistent throughout the movement. But it is problematic in Japanese-style rooms. First of all, when the person stands up (from sitting position on tatami), the center of gravity (of the body) translates in a complex fashion. Then, the vertical size is doubled. But the screen would not be elongated in the vertical axis accordingly.” This passage was written by Kouzaburo Yoshimura in 1942. The contemporary of Ozu, he had directed such …

The father and the son visit the small hot-spring resort to spend a weekend. From what I can gather, the location is Shiobara Onsen in Tochigi prefecture. I was not able to identify the exact location of the inn and the hot spa. In any case, the visit to a hot-spring resort plays a pivotal role in Ozu’s films. For example, in “The Flavor of Rice Over Green Tea”, Taeko and her friends visit the (very expensive and luxurious) hot-spring resort in Shuzenji and have fun. In “Tokyo Story”, the resort is the least pleasant place for the elderly couple. …