Tag: YASUJIRO OZU

Sometimes, we find some illogical coincidence among trivial matters in our daily life. If you see the old lady from the next block with her dog in the morning, it’s a bad omen for the day, for example. But if you see a black cat living the next door before you start the car, you will be okey for the day. Maybe the collage kid in the coffee shop signals the bad weather in the afternoon, or something else. No logical connection. It’s just a stupid coincidence you happened to notice. If you take a statistics for such matters, it’s …

Sessho (殺生)  Taking of the Life One of the Five Precepts in Bhuddism is not to take life. This “taking of life” is called “sessho” in Japanese. During the conversation with the priest, Horikawa says “It is worrisome that he likes sessho,” referring to his son going out to catch dragonflies. Not troubled so much, just the remark. The priest replies, “Oh, kids are like that”. Later, at night, the father and the son are talking about the plan of fishing the next day. The priest, while working on the mill, says “Don’t mind me. I already gave them last …

After the conversation about his resigning teachership with Hirata, Horikawa moves to his hometown with his son. This six minutes concerns the beginning of their life-long sojourn. It is often noted that an image of train is the central device of Ozu’s films. Here, this device, shot from on board, frames the conversation between the father and the son. Their exchanges signify their rootlessness, home lost. The father says they are going back to his hometown, but there is no place which they can call their own. The shots of this conversation are conventional cutbacks with the exception of its …