Ozu's eighth film, shot from the end of February to the beginning of April, 1929. The original title Memory (Omoide) was changed to Days of Youth (Wakaki hi) before the public release. The young director had improved his skill with several short comedies. This is not only his first long feature but also Ozu's earliest surviving film.

The film is set in the north-western part of Tokyo. The film is a comedy about two students: the smart guy Watanabe and the bungling Yamamoto. Akira Fushimi, one of the most famous comedy writers in the Shochiku-Kamata studio, put many excellent gags in this comedy. In those days, Ozu and Fushimi used to prepare outlines of scenarios dining out in Ginza and then chatting at Ozu's house in Fukagawa until dawn.

The most popular parts of this film are the skiing scenes in the latter half, shot in Akakura in the province of Shinshu. Ozu had learned film-making under the director Tadamoto Okulbo, who love d skiing and used to take a ski vacation every winter. Moreover, since the parents of the cameraman Hideo Mohara run the hotel Takadaya in Akakura, Ozu took a ski vacation there every January. The film seems to be an extension of the Kamata studio's filmmaker's usual amusement. Even the hotel Takadaya appears in the film. In this sense we also enjoy Ozu's and his crew's joyful 'days of youth' (Ozu was 25 years old).

Among the players. Junko Matsui could actually ski. However, Ichiro Yuki, who skies well in the film, was an absolute beginner. Needless to say, the best skier was Mohara. This film shows his skills both as a photographer and as a skier.

Skiing was also very Popular at Shochiku's rival company Nikkatsu. For the Nikkatsu-Uzumasa studio in Kyoto, Shigeru Mokudo had made the film Frantic Skiing (Sukii moshin) two months before. As a gag in this Nikkatsu film, the names of scenario-writers of Shochiku were used for the names of the characters.

As a countermove, the names of scenario writers from Nikkatsu were quoted in Days of Youth. For instance, the name Shuichi Yamamoto (Played by Tatsuo Saito) is a mix of Shuichi Hatamoto and Kajiro Yamamoto. There is also a student named Hatamoto in the film (Played by Shinichi Himoto). Bin Watanabe (played by lchiro Yuki) was named after Bin KisaraEi, whose real name is Tsuneshiee Watanabe. Masashi Kobayashi often used the pseudonym Donki Hotei, therefore one character in the film reads the Paperback Don Quijote. And where is the name of Kenji Mizoguchi, the chief of the Nikkatsu writers section at that time? Watch the barber's signboard!

The tenth film, shot from the end of June to the beginning of September, 1929. The shooting took quite long. A rain scene could not be shot because of the unusually good weather. followed by the summer vacation in the studio.

This is Ozu's first film in which big stars appear, Minoru Takada and Kinuyo Tanaka. Maybe this is due to the fact that the director Hiroshi Shimizu, a good friend of Ozu, actually planned to shoot this film himself, after his own story, and then Ozu took his place. The title of this film became a very popular phrase because it represents the social situation of the early Showa era. That carved the name of Ozu not only in film history but also in social history.

After World War 1, the Japanese economy was in a chronic depression and on October Ist, 1929, the number of unemoloyed persons rose to more than 300,000 in the whole country. Especially the intelligentsia had hard times getting a job. The ratio of employment of fresh graduates was only around 40%. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government opened an Employment Security Office for Intellectuals in the same year. Moreover, on October 14th, the stock exchange crash on Wall Street caused a worldwide panic.

The famous gag in this film, using the Sunday Mainichi magazine ('For me, every day is like this'), is based on the bitter reality of that time. In the filmoeraphy of Ozu, this film is regarded as the turning point from the cheerful student comedies to the films about salaried workers. Pumpkin (KaboCha, 1928) of the year before was the pioneer of his salaried worker films, but dominated by a comical touch. After I Graduated, But.... Ozu became the center figure of the shoshimin films, films about the lower middle-class, which form one main stream in Japanese film history.

In Ozu's films, the description of environment is more important than that of characters. The living place of the protagonist is particularly significant. In this story, the protagonist still lives in a rented room when his bride suddenly shows up. We can easily imagine the couple will soon move to a rented house in the suburbs. The transitional character of the film becomes clear. Actually, the protagonist of the next film, The Life of an Office Worker (Kaishain Seikatsu, 1929), is a salaried worker who lives in a suburb.

Ozu gradually expanded his view of society, Therefore. his films began to break away from the sentimental 'Kamatatouch', shaped by Shiro Kido, the head of the Kamata studio. On the other hand, the 'tendency film' (Keiko eiga), which was based on Marxist ideology became popular in this same year. The followers of this movement criticized Ozu's film as 'lukewarm' and 'loitering'.

The twelfth film, shot in November, 1929. OZU remembered that he had finished shooting it in three days. The original story was written by Chuji Nozu, a pseudonym for four collaborators: Ozu himself, Kogo Noda, Tadamoto Okubo and Tadaolkeda.

According to Ozu and Noda, they planned to have plenty ot German beer in a bar named 'FledeFmaus' in Hieashi-Ginza. They got an advance from Shiro Kido, the head of the studio, with the promise to write a screenplay. While drinking and talking, they constructed the outlines of the story. Ikeda made it into a screenplay, and Ozu directed it in short time. In other words, they completed this film quite leisurely.

Focusing on the unique personality of Tomio Aoki, a child actor who also appeared in the preceding film, The Life of an Office Worker (Kaishain Seikatsu, 1929), this film's story (kidnapQers abduct a child and get in trouble with him) is inspired by 0. Henry's Ransom of Red Chief. Possibly Noda or Ikeda suggested 0. Henry to Ozu,

Inferring from the shooting time, this film might have been shot in and around Kamata, close to the studio. Location is less important than in other Ozu films. Even Ozu was sometimes lax, at least in his younger days.

Although this print is also blown up from a short version in 9.5mm like / Graduated, But.... it is closer to the original because this was originally a short film.

According to Noda, in the missing first scene, the Central Meteorological Observatory of Tokyo and a spining wind gauge is shown, then appears the insert title, 'Today, it is such a fine day for kidnapping'. Tatsuo Saito appeares at a long distance and vanishes immediately.

Due to this film, Tomio Aoki was called 'Tokkan Kozo' and became very popular. He was a regular member of Ozu's cast until the end of the war.

The fourteenth film, shot from November, 1929 to February, 1930. The Production was interruPted in December 1929 to make An Introduction to Marriage (Kekkongaku nyumon, 1930).

The original idea is due to Hiroshi Shimizu, a friend of Ozu. Shimizu and Ozu were both born in 1903. Their friendshiP began in 1924, when Shimizu worked as assistant director for Yoshinobu Ikeda and Ozu was an assistant cameraman, and lasted until Ozu's death in 1963.

The story (a young gangster falls in love with a Pure and innocent girl and becomes honest) is extremely ordinary. It might also be a Period drama. Ozu treated it in a westernized style.

At that time, the most modern. 'western' director in JaPan was Yutaka Abe who made films for Nikkatsu, like The Woman Who Touched the Legs (Ashi ni sawatta onna, 1926) and The Five Women around J-flm (Kare o meguru go-nin no onna, 1927). Having worked in Hollywood, he was an exception. Ozu was considered to be the representative westerner among the younger directors. The decor of Walk Cheerfully, the automobiles, buildings, tyPewriters, golf Players, trumPets, hotels, original Posters of foreign films and of boxing, guns, Phonographs, English scribblinEs on the wall, the humorous greetings insPired by Harold Lloyd's The Freshman (1925) etc. constituted an 'American-like' World, far from the JaPanese reality, and Probably far from any reality.

Logically, the Protagonist lives in a westernized aloartment, somewhere in Tokyo.Behind the door, there is no Place for JaPanese reality. This disorientation is very imPortant. In this context, the various national flags in the last scene symbolize the lack of nationality of Walk Cheerfully. The anartments of the Protagonists in Ozu's films are resonant with internationality.

The first scene seems to be at Yokohama Bay, the open window faces America, and the receQtion desk is of strong foreign influence. In this Period, Ozu always used original Posters of American films, a Poster of The Seventh Heaven (1927) apPears in Days of Youth, one of Speedy (1928) in / Graduated, But.... and one of Dur Dancing Daughters (1928) in Walk Cheerfully. Probably, he bought them in Yokohama. Ozu himself loved to dress with imported clothes and bought many Western articles. He was the most westernized director in the Kamata studio.

The fifteenth film, shot from the end of March to the beginning of April, 1930.

Again, the scene is set at a boarding house in a student Quarter. The film was finished in just one week, Ozu using his routine work, a student comedy, with its main places of action being the lodging, the college and the bakery. His level of proficiency in this film (compared to other Japanese films at that time) is amazing, considering the short shooting time. Also the gags became more sophisticated.

The critique praised the high degree of technical skill, but also pointed out his dilettantism and a deadend mannerism. (That kind of reputation clung to him for life.) On the whole, Ozu's completion of the outstanding films An Introduction to Marriage (Kekkongaku nyumon, 1928), Walk Cheerfully, and I Flunked , But.... in this year was greatly appreciated. The Fisa Hyoron magazine published the very first special issue on Ozu's works in July of 1930.

As the title / Flunked, But... indicates, this film is the contrasting story to / Graduated, But.... However, the former film does not make such a deep impression since its protagonist is a student who fails and therefore can extend his delightful coPege life, wNe the protagonist of the latter film cannot find a job after his graduation.

The scene in the lodging when a successful student and a repeater have an opulent dinner, is a prototype of the 'feasts' (like a class-reunion or a family dinner) which appear in his later fi~rns over and over again. Ozu's interest in the presentation of changing emotions, bright-dark-bright, turns now to the observation of transiting human beings.

This is also a memorable film, because for the first time, Chishu Ryu has a more important role, the graduate Hattori. A~thoueh he has appeared in all of Ozu's films up to then since the second Dreams of Youth (Wakodo no yume, 1928), his first. appearances have the status of an extra. (In Days of Youth, he was a member of the ski club.) In I Flunked, But.... he emerges from the crowd of 'also-players'. However. Ryu continued as supporting actor for many following years.

The insert title in the last scene, 'The middle of AID1-11 in the college / The dark shadows of chinquapin trees' comes from 'My Sigh' ('Tameiki') by Haruo Sato, one of Ozu's favorite poems, which starts with 'The middle of May in Kinokuni / The dark shadows of chinquapin trees'.

The sixteenth film, shot from the end of May to the beginning of July, 1930.

Based on the novel From Nine to Nine by Oscar Shisgall, which was published in the periodical New Young Men (ShinSelnen) in March, The story is very unusual for an Ozu film.

The head of the Kamata studio, Shiro Kido, first read the novel and recommended it to the Screenplay Writer Kogo Noda for adaptation. In the Original story, the robbery (by the husband) happens one week earlier than the other events. To make the film more suspenseful, Noda condensed the whole plot to one evening.

Except for the first of the seven reels, in which the husband robs a bank and runs away, the entire film is a osycholoocal drama, set in an apartment. Ozu got the scenario and worked out the continuity. The result is a very detailed, dense drama, under the strong influence of modernism and westernized style.

We have already spoken about the importance of the apartment. Ozu's tendency for westernization appears not only in his films, but also in his life.

At this time, Ozu wrote several articles, using Roman letters and loanwords (one of these articles, 'Strange Tales about Murder' ('Satsujin kidan') is published in Cahiers du Cinema Japon, no.9, 1993). These quotations form a very modern style and similar examples can be seen in his films. Ozu's modernism films (the apartment films) are reminiscent of the Writer Yu Ryutanji and his novels of the same period, such as Mako. Mako is set in an apartment, and loanwords appear fFeQuently in the text. Ozu's films have to be discussed not only in the cinematic context, for instance the influence of the American cinema, but also in the whole cultural context of that time. The importance of the magazine New Young Men has not been recognized yet.

The young and healthy Ozu often insisted on filming all night. For this film, Ozu endlessly repeated his acting instructions for Togo Yamamoto. Once, the cameraman Mohara fell asleep, and as he woke up in the morning, Yamamoto still rehearsed the same scene,

Ozu twice used an overlap transition in the reverse-anele shots of the apartment's door. Ozu did not like this technique,this is one of its rare uses.

In 1952, Koro Ikeda remade this film. Ozu saw a preview and wrote in his diacy'. 'It's troublesome.'

The 20th film, shot in January, 1931.

At the end of the Previous Year, Ozu made Young Miss (Ojosan), written by Komatsu Kitamura, with Sumiko Kurishima and Tokihiko Okada as leading actors. This film achieved both commercial success and critical acclaim. 'This film contends with the best foreign films. The more than 20 years of Japanese film history seem to lead directly to this film.' (Akejj Katano). The next film The Lady and the Beard is the-second teaming up of Ozu, Kitamura, and Okada.

The casting of the famous beau Eipan (Okada's nickname) in a very masculine Part (with beard) was a weird, but successful idea of Kitamura. The audience has the great Pleasure to see his handsome face after he shaves the beard. In the autumn of 1929, Okada had changed from Nikkatsu to Shochiku. The'Lady and the Beard is his third film with Ozu, after That Night's Wife and Young miss. He is not just a beau but also a brilliant actor, on the same wavelength as Ozu. This film was shot in a mutual effort in a mere 8 days (including overnight work).

Komatsu was considered an ace in the Kamata studio for the trilogy He and Tokyo (Kare to Tokyo, 1928), He an~d the Countryside (Kare to Denen, 1928) and He and Life (Kare to ,~insei, 1929), directed by Kiyohiko Ushihara and starring Denmei Suzuki. He published novels and essays and was also famous as a Playwright under Kaoru Osanai's tuition. One of his dramas (staged at the Tsukiji Sho-Gek1jo) shows alignments with the contemporary current of leftist tendencies. In this film, Kitamura used Marx as a cause for gags. This was done very seldomly, since censorship was attentive to ideology, even when used for fun.

The anach~onistic Young man (he Performs sword dances) lives in a westernized apartment with foreign posters on the walls. These paradoxical situations come from the construction of this film. This seems contradictory, but it is the overall Pattern of the film. The contrast of a traditional girl (Hiroko Kawasaki) and a delinauent westernized girl (Satoko Date) and the victory of the tradition resembles Walk Cheerfully. This has to be considered in the general context of popular culture.

The censorship disagreed with the appearance of a Gakushuin nuQiI (played by Tokkan Kozo) in the first scene, since it hints too closely at members of the aristocracy. Before the war, the censorship of the Ministry of Home Affairs dealt severely first with representations of the Imperial family and second with ideology.

The 22nd film, shot from June to August, 1931.

The credit title indicates the name of Komatsu Kitamura for the original idea. However, Kitamura did not write or tell the story. Rather, the screenplay used many different situations from several of his novels that were Published together in December 1930 under the title Middle Class Avenue (Shoshimin- gai).

For example, the hero works in a life insurance company (from The Ambitions of the Office Worker YamadalGekkyutori Yamada-kun no hakl), the children are rebellious because they do not get what they want (DoIll0hina-sama), the daughter of an unemployed father sets sick, and the kimonos have to be taken to the QawnshoiD (Ayako's FatherlAyako no chichi). The episode of the gymnastics teacher of middle-school who opens a restaurant and distributes handbills for Publicity, is taken from Masuji lbuse's novel The Teacher and the Advertisement Sciuad (Sensei no kokokutai). (Although lbuse is not credited. his name ai:)Qears in the screenplay, together with Kitamura.) Kogo Noda skilfully integrated these diverse elements into the coherent story.

The hero of this film does not live in a boarding-house, neither does he live in an apartment, but in a solitary house. He is not single, but has a wife and three children. In other words, he is an office worker living in the suburbs (probably a rented house), who commutes every day to his office (Probably in the center of town). The contrast and tension between the two spaces, I suburbs' and 'downtown', becomes the main theme of this film.

With Pumpkin (Kabocha, 1928). Ozu made his first film about an office worker, followed by The Life of an Office Worker (Kaishain selkatsu, 1929), The Luck Which Touched the LeglLost Luck (Ashi ni sawatta koun, 1930), one film each year. Since the farce Pumpkin, the serious elements increased gradually, also due to the collaboration of Kogo Noda since The Life of an Office Worker. Ten Years his senior, Noda brought Ozu back to reality when he lingered on jokes and gags.

Ozu remembered this Production as quite easygoing, made without a shooting script This seems to be an understatement. Not only did Ozu write an essay on the importance of an elaborated continuity at about the same time, but also the minute construction of the scene where the family claps hands seems to be impossible without a continuity.

The shot of the father, with his child on his back, looking at the stars, is one of Ozu's most beautiful shots.

The 24th film, shot from November, 1931 to the beginning of April, 1932. The shooting was made on intervals. In between, from December 1931 to January 1932, the film Spring Comes from the Ladies (Haru wa gofujin kara, 1932) was made.

In September of 1931, the three beaux of Kamata, Denmei Suzuki, Minoru Takada, and Tokihiko Okada, withdrew from the studio, forming Fuji Ei6a. Tatsuo Saito and Takeshi Sakamoto were also signed up by the seceding group, but finally remained. When the commotion subsided, Saito was back as leading actor in Ozu's crew.

The first scene shows a removal somewhere in the suburbs. If we are attentive to the specific meaning of the housing in Ozu's films, the change of the lodging (or better, of the lodging's form) at the beginning of the film builds up an anticipation that something is going to happen.

This expectation is fulfilled within twelve minutes. Fresh, unknown intruders (the two brothers) disturb the order of the Previously established group. The method of controlling the situation and creating a new order, the frictions and the changes are carefully depicted within the world of children's play.

At that time, many American films with children in the main roles were imported and released, such as Tom Sawyer, Skippy, Forbidden Adventure, Huckleberry Finn, and Sooky. Certainly, this stimulated Shochiku Kamata to make similar films, since the studio disposed of many child actors.

However, after the film Projection in the house of the managing director, the main theme.switches from the children to the tension and the contrast between the suburbs and the center of the city in Ozu's Tokyo, and the film without fail assumes the aspect of a 'film by Yasujiro Ozu.

The scenes after the confrontation of father and sons on the evening of the film Projection completely differ from Fushimi's scenario, which may also be due to the long interruption of the shooting. In the scenario, the situation is resolved soon. Ryoichi follows a march of soldiers and does not come home. His parents are relieved, as the boy finally returns. This significant change indicates the differences between the two authors Fushimi and Ozu. Fushimi remains within the frame of the Kamata style with its humour and its pdce. On the contrary, Ozu largely steps over this frame. The relation between Ozu and Fushimi, his important longtime collaborator of many silent short comedies ended here. They teamed up again only once, for What Did the Lady Forget?. For Ozu, the separation from Fushimi also meant the detachment from a Pastoral, bucolic youth.

The 26th film, shot from early September to early October, 1932.

After the completion of / Was Born, But... Ozu started filming Until the Day We Meet Again (Mata au hi made, 1932). This film depicts the story of a man who is in love with a Prostitute. He is drafted, and the Plot develops around the human relation with his father and his sister. Ozu challenged a new genre, different from the films he had done until then. For this reason, the shooting was under a high tension, and, in result, the expenses were far more than estimated. Therefore, it was decided to make a quick, cheap film, and transfer the extra money to Until the Day We Meet Again. This cheap film was Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth? Therefore, Ozu and Noda considered it best to apply the methods they had used before. This film does not intend to develop new ideas and does not show Ozu's active Participation.

Kogo Noda wrote that he used the Play Old Heidelberg (Alt-Heidelberg) by Wilhelm Meyer-Foerster as a model, which was also made into a film by Ernst Lubitsch, The Student Prince (1927). (In Japan, this play was Performed by Sumako Matsui, Yoshiko Okada, and Akiko Murata on the stage.) This well-known story of a student Prince and a girl working in a tavern was modified, casting Ureo Egawa as a young company President, and Kinuyo Tanaka as a girl working in a bakery. Probably, to advance the film quickly, Ozu used his forte, a student comedy.

For this reason, many elements of Ozu's Previous comedies car~ be reviewed in Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth? (the cheerleaders at the beginning, the cheating at the exams, the usual Posters of foreign films, and the like.) Although the Protagonist lives in a mansion in Kojimachi. and the bakery girl in an apartment, they do not escape from the gravitational field with the kernel formed by students' boardinghouses. Only Aoki (played by Tatsuo Saito) escapes from this surrounding - he lives in a house in the suburbs. The character of Saito's roles changed considerably between films like Days of Youth and / Flunked, But... and films like / Was Born, But .... The deep feelings in Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth? are not expressed by the company President (Played by Egawa), but by Aoki. He was not supposed to have a leading role in this film, but finally, he steals the show from the other Players. This shows that Ozu could not return to the cheerful, carefree world of Days of Youth and / Flunked, But... since this world combined with the feelings expressed in / Was Born, But....

The 29th film, shot from February to the beginning of April, 1933. This is a typical apartment film.

The Japanese Film Library has started its activity in the 1960s. Almost all of Ozu's films up to 1933 had never been shown again after their original release and were buried until their re discovery in the 1970s. Therefore, they were not the object of the studies on Ozu for a long time, and the controversies about the influence of American films on his work started only after this discovery.

Along with Woman of Tokyo, Dragnet Girl represents the height of Ozu's silent film technique. However, some difficulties can be felt concerning the casting. The role of the small tart is not in the line of Kinuyo Tanaka, whose Dancing Girl from Izu (Jzu no odoriko, directed by Heinosuke Gosho, 1933) was released less than three months before. The young idol star Sumiko Mizukubo, who appeared in A Maiden in the Wind (Kaze no naka no shojo, directed by Yasujiro Shimazu, 1932) looks many years younger than Hideo Mitsui, although she is supposed to be elder and resiDonsible. Probably, their star value counted for their appearance in this film. The established opinion, that his films do not attract the public, could not be ignored by Ozu.

Of course, the scenes are full of Western, or better, American taste. Everything was imported, even the cans. However, the dominating modernism element in this film is certainly the boxing.

At first sight, Ozu and boxing seems to be a strange combination, but this is not the case. Ozu did his military service (one year as a volunteer, from December 1924 to November 1925) at the same time as Sadayuki Ogino, Japan's first recognized champion. Afterwards, Ogino entered the Kamata studios as actor and starred in some boxing films.

In his middle-school days, Ozu belonged to the judo club-, of large build and of a strong constitution, he was interested in fighting sports. Unlike the traditional Japanese sports surno and judo, boxing was considered as an international and fashionable sport. The special support of the Imperial Boxing Society (Teikoku Kento Kai) appeared in the credit titles of Dragnet Girl: this society was founded by Oeino.

At the time of the release, Dragnet Girl was not so much appraised as Woman of Tokyo, probably because the latter - unintentionally - reflected the tendency of the time. The difficulty of judging a film rooted in his time becomes clear here.

The 30th film, shot from July to August of 1933. The film has the second title The Record of a Tenement Gentleman First Story (Nagaya shinshiroku datichi wa).

After the completion of Dragnet Girl, Ozu wrote the screenplay for the film College Is a Nice Place (Daigaku yoi toko) with Masao Arata. This is a story about a group of students living in a student boarding house like in the good old days, but at a hopeless situation, having lost the happiness of youth of the former years. This story was considered as too Poor in box-office value and was stored for later use. (Ozu finished this film in 1936.) In this situation, Ozu made Passing Fancy based on a screenplay by Tadao Ikeda. This film started the 'Kihachi series', with the main character called Kihachi, Played by Takeshi Sakamoto.

The main characters live now in tenement quarters in shitamachi, the old Parts of Tokyo, where the spirit of the Edo era is still alive.

In Ozu's work, this is a 180 degree turn. Ozu knows the old parts of town inside out. Born 1903 in Fukagawa, a Part of shitamachl, he moved to his father's hometown, Matsusaka in Mie Prefecture, at the age of nine, but returned to Fukaeawa at the age of nineteen. Tadao Ikeda too lived in ShitayaOkachimachi in shitamachi. These were their everyday surroundings.

The film is Probably inspired by King Vidor's The Champ (1931), the Story of an unsuccesful boxer and his comeback, mixed with a sentimental plot about father and son. Posters of this film hang in the boxing gym of the previous Dragnet Girl. Ozu and Ikeda took the subject of a failed father and an honest son from this story and transferred it to their hometown shitamachi. The development from Dragnet Girl to Passing Fancy, as it appears in the continuation of the boxing elements, shows Ozu's conflict between modernism and internationalism on the one hand, and the shitamachi community and nationalism on the other hand. This has an impact even on contemporary viewers, who at first sight might consider the story of Passing Fancy obsolete.

Kihachi's self-sacrifice for Jiro and Harue (his decision to Be to Hokkaido) seems to be influenced by John Ford's Three Bad Man (1926). The film ends with Kihachi jumping into the sea, but in the screenplay, the story continues until Kihachi reaches home and is welcomed by his friends. In the film, Ozu avoids the too simple happy ending. More important, Ozu criticizes a certain trend of the times, the unconscious impulse to return into the past.

The 31st film, shot from the March to May of 1933. In the existing screenplay, the second title Tokyo Twilight (Tokyo boShoku) is indicated.

The original story was written by Shutaro Komiya, which is one of Ozu's Pen names. The same author's name is given in the screennlay of Tokyo is a Nice Place (Tokyoyoi toko), a film which was started in the following year, but interrupted.

This film consisted of nine reels, but the first and the last reel have to be considered as lost. The story can be completed by the help of the screenplay. The film starts with a quotation from the poet Okura Yamanoue: 'Gold, silver and jewels are nothing compared to the importance of children'.

Ozu himself declared the downfall of the family to be the main subject in this film. However, the theme of the two brothers of different Mothers made the Plot somewhat diffuse. The main subject seems to be the removal from one n1ace to another, the change of the dwelling. The family moves twice. First they live in an elegant quarter (the Place is not indicated, but it could be Kojimachi in Tokyo) and have many servants. Then they rent a house in the suburbs, with no servants. The third Place is even more miserable, showing the gradual decline of the family's lifestyle. In Ozu's work, this film shows the meaning of housing conditions in the most explicit way.

Ozu's films were not good at the box-office. Therefore, it is said that operators in the countryside left out reels to shorten the screening. Maybe due to this, some reviews mention only one removal.

Ozu had been on friendly terms with film business People from the Kansai region (Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe) for a couple of years. The names of the protagonists Sadao and Kosaku are taken from the directors Sadao Yamanaka and Kosaku Akiyama. In these scenes, there are some parodies of Western films. The first is, visible for everybody, the Poster of the French film Pail de carotte (1932). Another one is the old cleaning woman, Played by the actress Choko lida. This hints at a representative film about motherly love, Over the Hill (1920). This film depicts an old mother who is rejected by her children and finishes working as cleaning woman in a home for the a6ed. Ozu used this subject in A Mother Should Be Loved and in The Only Son. Moreover, the overall pattern of The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family is modeled after Over the Hill.

The 32nd film, shot from September to November of 1934.

The existing Screenplay shows a different Chinese character for the title than the one used in the film itself, and it is indicated that this character should be read as 'Ukikusa', and not 'Ukigusa'.

The remaining Print is a silent version, but the film was originally a sound version. This was the second time, after Until the Day We Meet Again (Mata aO hi made, 1932), that Ozu made a sound version. Exceptionally, there was even a main song, 'Journey In the brizzling Rain' ('Shiguretabi'). This song was played in the sc6ne when it rains into the dressing room. Probably the music was considered to increase the commercial value of the film.

Again, the main character is Kihachi. Kihachi is not always the same Person, but all Kilhachis have an identical character, so Ozu explained. This time, Kihachi is an itinerant actor. At last, a protagonist in Ozu's films leaves Tokyo, leading a wandering life without a Permanent residence. Family and family intentions are refused, and even the substitute family, the actors' troupe, breaks up in the end. The Kihachi of Passing Fancy tries to separate from Tokyo, but is brought back by its gravitational Power. The Kihachi in A Story of Floating Weeds escapes from Tokyo, but must wander around fQrever and will never be forgiven in return. In Ozu's films, any Place outside Tokyo and its surroundings is another world, an exile.

Ozu himself wanted to make a film in the countryside, Probably under the influence of King Vidor's The Stranger's Return (1933), which made a deep impression on him. Vidor's film was a very important stimulus and a step towards maturity for Ozu. However, the 1:)Iot of A Story of Floating Weeds was adapted from George Fitzmaurice's The Barker (1928). Compared to Ozu's whole work, this film has strong melodramatic touches. The final clash between Kihachi and his son Shinkichi is taken from Kan Kikuchi's novel Father Returns (Chichi kaeru).

Kilhachi and many of the Players wear kimonos throughout the film. This gives a strange visual impression, since up to then, Ozu's Protagonists not only lived in Tokyo, but all wear Western dresses. Depending on a traditional, antimodern form, this story certainly leads to a time-crossine feeling of secLirity.

The film was damaged by the censors. After a rendezvous with Shinkichi, Otoki comes home and takes off her socks (tabi). This was considered as too erotic.

Ozu himself said that everything went comparatively fine with this film, and that he liked it quite a lot.

The 34th film, shot from June to September of 1934. In April of that year, Ozu started the film Tokyo Is a Nice Place (Tokyo yoj toko), but the shooting had to be interrupted.

This is a sound film (music and sounds), with the origina! songs composed by Senji Ito. Uinzato Mone, the name of the author of the script, is the pan name of Ozu. Tadao Ikeda, and Masao Arata. It is a distortion of the English I without money'. The Protagonist of this film is Penniless, but also Ozu's financial situation was not very Eood- at tha~ time, maybe also due to his father's death in the previous year. In his diary he often wrote about this problem.

Again, this is a Kihachi-film, and again, the hero is wandering around, sometimes staying at a cheap boarding-house, sometimes sleeping in the open. However, even without a permanent residence, Kihachi is rooted in Tokyo's old quarters shitamachi, and the Koto district is his sphere of activity. The iiving conditions are close to those in Passing Fancy, Kihachi having two children. In An Inn in Tokyo, tne Kihachi of Passing Fancy is even more driven into a corne,, even more confronted with reality.

In the first half of the film, the view of the father and his two children, moving slowly in a bleak, desert-like scenery under the mid-summer sun, almost has an effect of a daydream hallucination in slow-motion. On the other hand, the scene of the three, imagining eating food, brings us back to reality.

The documentary Kagamijishi was made during this shooting: Ozu's muster of the first reserve for the army and bad weather again delayed the completion of this film. The actual shooting days were quite few. The quick shooting of An Inn in Tokyo sometimes becomes visible in the second half of the film.

At this time, the removal of the studio to Ofuna was decided. Ozu was requested to make talkies, the insistence of the studio becoming stronger. Ozu himself had the desire to make talkies. Since its first talkie The Neighbor's Wife and Mine (Madamu t-o nyobo, 1931), Shochiku had a contract for the Tsuchihashi Sound System. However, Ozu had Promised his long-time companion, Hideo Mohara, his cameraman since the second film Dreams of Youth (Wakodo no yume, 1928), to wait for the completion of his Mohara sound system. In his diary, he wrote: 'I made Mohara this lone-held promise. If I want to keep this promise, I may have to quit directing. That would be fine with me too.' At the end of An Inn in Tokyo, Kihachi resorts to theft to keep a promise, and is arrested by the Police. The origins of Kihachi's feelings and Ozu's friendship for Mohara are the same.

The 35th film, a documentary. The dancing scenes were shot in June, 1935. The scene in the dressing room was shot in May, 1936.

The Association for the Promotion of International Culture (Kokusai Bunka Shinko-kai), founded in 1934, planned to film outstanding performances of Japanese culture and to present them abroad. Shochiku was requested to do a documentary about the lion dance 'Kagamijishi' of the actor Kikugoro Once. Originally, this dance lasts more than one hour, but considering that this film was to be presented to foreigners, the stage parts were condensed to about 20 minutes.

Previously, Ozu had admired the art of Kkugoro. Fortunately, the actor Hiroshi Tojo of the Kamata studio was a relative of Kikueoro. Therefore, Ozu visited KikuBoro for the first time in June of 1934. They met quite often afterwards. Consequently, when Shochiku received the request to make a film, the director Ozu was asked to do this documentary.

The filming of the stage part started on June 26, 1935, late at night (actually, it already was June 27) and lasted until the morning. Ozu's crew was busy with An Inn in Tokyo, but the shooting was interrupted to make this film. Two Talkie cameras and one silent camera were used. The recording was made using the Tsuchihashi Sound System, since the result of Mohara's studies could not be waited for. (By the way, the recording of Ozu's three sound film was always made by the Tsuchihashi Sound System.) However, technical limits in the synchronous sound recording of that time and the restrictions caused by the leadership of the Kabuki people resulted in Ozu not being satisfied with the cinematic structure of these scenes. However, Ozu's style appears clearly in the scenes outside the stage that were shot later.

After the completion, a preview of this film was held at the Imperial Hotel on June 29, 1936. The guests pointed out the unnatural expressions of the actor playing a woman's part, because it became evident through the lens. Troubles arose around the policy of not releasing the film in Japan and the problem of sending it abroad or not. The fact that Ozu had directed this documentary was almost not considered in these discussions. The intelligentsia of that time and the cultural elite regarded cinema as not important enough to talk about. In fact, cinema was not accepted as art.

At this retrospective, a Japanese version, that was released in Japan after Kikugoro's death in 1949, will be shown. At that time, a greeting by Takejiro Otani, the president of the Shochiku company, was added.

The 36th film, shot from April to September of 1936.

This is Ozu's first talkie feature film. Hideo Molhara's invention, the SMS (Super Mohara Sound) system, was used.

On January 15 of this year, Shochiku closed its studio in Kamata and moved to the new Ofuna studio, which was opened on January 16. The contract between Shochiku and the Tsuchihashi Sound System ended at the end of the previous year. However, while the cooperation with Tsuclhihashi continued without any problems, Ozu decided without further ado to use the Mohara system. Over this, the Tsuchihashi side stiffened its attitude and walked out on the studio. Through the mediation of Shiro Kido, the affair was settled. The incriminating Ozu-Mohara film was shot on a stage in the Kamata studio. The stage had to be rebuilt, since it was already half broken down.

The stage was not soundproof either. Therefore, the shooting started late at night, when the noises in the neighborhood calmed down, and lasted only until the first train in the early morning.

The screenplay was modeled after the film Tokyo is a Nice Place (Tokyo Yoi toko), the shooting of which had been interrupted in the Previous year, adapting it for talkie use. The change of the title occurred to distinguish it from An Inn in Tokyo and College Is a Nice Place (Daigaku yoi toko, 1936). There were no great changes in the cast. The role of Professor Okubo's wife changed from Sachiko Murase to Tomoko Naniwa.

The film is split into two Parts by the indications '1923, in Shinshu', and '1936, in Tokyo'. However, Shinshu is not treated as a characteristic attribute, but generally as the countryside, in contrast to Tokyo. The Protagonist lives in a house somewhere between the old quarters shitamachi and the outskirts of town. The exact location in Tokyo is not as crucial as in Ozu's previous works. In the same way as Shinshu is just somewhere outside Tokyo, Tokyo is just Tokyo in a general way.

In the same logic, the main subject of The Only Son is the metaphorical expression of a double movement, since the spatial movement from the countryside to Tokyo correlates also to a social movement. This double movement can be seen as a characteristic phenomenon of the immoderate modernization.

The disappointment of a mother who sacrified herself to give her son a higher education, in the (unfulfilled) hope that he will advance in his career, is a social Phenomenon of that time.

The 37th film, shot from January to February of 1937. After the completion of The Only Son, Ozu planned to make a film with the title What a Cheerful Guy, This Mr. Yasukichf (Tanoshiki kana Yasukichi-kun). However, Ozu abandoned this story of an old office worker who becomes insane, because there were objections to making it after the dark and hopeless The Only Son. Finally, it was transferred to the director Tomu Uchida (of Nikkatsu), and became Uchida's film Unending Advance (Kagirinaki zenshin, 1937).

Therefore, Ozu made just the opposite. What Did the Lady Forget? is a cheerful and pleasant story, just what the studio had asked for. Ozu wrote the screenplay together with Akira Fushimi, for the first time since I Was Born, But....

The credit titles do not indicate the characters' names, but where they are located - for example 'the doctor from Kojimachi', 'the director from UshiEome', or 'the widow from Denenchofu', 'the niece from Osaka'. The place names (except Osaka) carry a concrete and characteristic meaning. They indicate very high-class living quarters, fixing the social stratum of the protagonists and at the same time the film's universe. Basically, this is the same methodology as in the student films, the apartment films, the suburban films, and in the shitamachi films. The main characters live in a mansion in the residential quarter Kojimachi. If we try to classify this film according to its dwelling situations, it could be called an 'uptown mansion' film. A Mother Should Be Loved also started in the a mansion uptown. However, this setting is made to stress the main theme, the area change and the social descent. On the contrary, What Did the Lady Forget? depicts the coming and going of the ladys from Kojimachi and Denenchofu in a predictable spatial continuation.

After having lived a long time in Fukagawa, Ozu had moved with mother and brother to a house in the residential quarter Takanawa near Shinasawa in February of the previous year. The daily life and the personality of the actresses Choke lida, Mitsulko Yoshikawa, and Sumiko Kurishima were skilfully used in this film.

Ozu is not any more the man who made An Introduction to Marriage (Kekkongaku nyumon, 1930). We may even say that he showed a Lubitsch touch here. The writer Yasunari Kawalbata made the very astute comment that at first it seems that Ozu is hiding himself and his style, but actually, Ozu's taste and likings appear nonetheless.