I Was Born, But... (1932)
Directed by Yasujirô Ozu

Film Review

One of the most popular of Yasujirô Ozu's silent films, I Was Born, But... adopts a child's eye view to explore many of the director's most beloved themes: generational conflict, class consciousness and the struggles of everyday life for a family of modest means.  As is apparent in this and subsequent films, Ozu had a natural affinity for children and few directors managed to extract such rich and authentic performances from his child actors.   Most of the charm of I Was Born, But... comes from the humorous interaction of the rebellious older brother and his devoted younger sibling, who form such a compelling double act that all of the other characters in the drama are relegated to the status of supporting players.  The younger son Keiji was played by Tomio Aoki, who became a national star in Japan after his screen debut (at the age of six) in Ozu's earlier film A Straightforward Boy (1929).

With almost two dozen films under his belt, Ozu had by this time established himself as one of Shôchiku Kamata studio's most prolific and technically gifted filmmakers, but sustained commercial success was still proving elusive.  I Was Born, But... was one of Ozu's first box office hits, and also the first of his films to win the Kinema Junpo Critics' Prize.  The film must have meant a great deal to its director as Ozu remade it twenty-seven years later as Good Morning (1959), in glorious Technicolor, his wryly humorous commentary on the age of consumerism.  I Was Born, But... contains a few autobiographical touches, which makes it particularly interesting for fans of the director.   Like the boys in the film, Ozu often played truant as a schoolboy, so that he could feed his already voracious appetite for American cinema.  He may have resented his father's occupation (as a fertilizer salesman) and, lacking effective parental control, he became an habitually unruly child, drinking alcohol from an early age and even managing to get himself expelled from his school dormitory.  It is tempting to see in the older boy Ryoichi a grudging but revealing self-portrait.

I Was Born, But... may be a technically flawless piece of silent cinema (on a par with Chaplin's films of this period) but its production was far from smooth.  Ozu took an unusally long time to complete the film (five months), owing to various interruptions which were beyond his control.  When one of the boy actors sustained an injury, Ozu made use of a one month haitus to knock out Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth? (1932), one of his cinematic milestones.  By this time, Ozu's trademark formalism was beginning to crystallise, and his familiar use of low camera positioning is particularly effective here as it forces the spectator to see the world from a child's perspective (literally).  Ozu would later eschew camera movement but in this film tracking shots are used liberally to create a visual dynamic that evokes the playfulness and restlessness of childhood.

The film introduces itself as 'A Picture Book for Grown-ups' and this is what it is - a film that addresses serious adult themes from the point of view of a child.  It is with the children - principally the two main characters Ryoichi and Keiji - that we are compelled to identify.  The adults are portrayed either as fools or sad wretches, all trapped by convention and circumstances in their humiliating humdrum routine.  Life is cruel but few things are more cruel than a child's unthinking censure of his parents.  The indignant Ryoichi has yet to understand how human society is organised and the way in which this impinges on personal freedoms.  He naturally feels a sense of his injustice that his father should kowtow to his boss, the father of another boy he knows he is superior to.   In the gentlest way, Ozu delivers a subtle yet powerful critique of Japan's hierarchical class system, ending what is predominantly a delightful comedy on a sombre and thoughtful note.

Film Synopsis

Yoshi has recently moved with his family to the suburbs of Tokyo.  His two young sons, Keiji and Ryoichi, become the victims of a local bully and are put off from attending school.  When their father discovers his sons have been playing truant, he chastises them.  The boys earn the respect of their peers by getting a delivery boy, Kozou, to beat up the bully.  Ryoichi is then disappointed to learn that his father is employed by the father of a boy in his gang, Taro.  Yoshi tells his son that he must work for Taro's father so that he can feed his family.  Ashamed of their father because he is someone of no importance, the two boys agree to go on a hunger strike...