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Ozu Yasujiro (Japanese:
小津安二郎
December 12,
1903 -
December 12,
1963) was an influential
Japanese
film director.
He was born in Fukugawa,
Tokyo and educated at a boarding school in
Matsuzaka. He worked briefly as a teacher before returning to Tokyo in
1923 to join the
Shochiku Film Company. Initially a cameraman, he worked as an
assistant director within three years and directed his first film,
Zange no yaiba (The Sword of Penitence), in 1927. He went on
to make a further 53 films - 26 in his first five years as a director, and
all but 3 for Shochiku. During
WW II he served in China.
He started out making distinctive comedies before moving onto more
socially aware works in the 1930s, concentrating on family dramas. He
often worked with screenwriter
Kogo Noda; other regular collaborators included cameraman Yuharu
Atsuta and the actors
Chishu Ryu and
Setsuko Hara. His films were most favourably received in the 1950s
with works such as Tokyo monogatari (Tokyo Story, 1953),
considered to be his masterpiece, and Ochazuke no aji (The
Flavor of Green Tea over Rice, 1952), Soshun (Early
Spring, 1956), Ukigusa (Floating Weeds, 1959) and
Akibiyori (Late Autumn, 1960). His last film was
Sanma no aji (An Autumn Afternoon, 1962). He died of cancer
on his 60th birthday and is buried in the grounds of Engaku-ji temple,
Kamakura.
As a director he was eccentric and a perfectionist. He was seen as one
of the 'most Japanese' film-makers, and as such his work was only rarely
shown overseas before the 1960s. He did not use sound until 1935 and did
not film in colour until Higanbana (Equinox Flower) in
1958. His trademark shot was one taken from only three or so feet above
the floor, the viewpoint of a person on a tatami mat. He was also strongly
in favour of a static camera and meticulous compositions where no single
actor would dominate a scene.
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