Ozu recreates a world of petty thieves, confidence men and flappers in this comedy about a delinquent boy who reforms for the love of a virtuous girl. Ozu used silence (well into the sound era) to experiment with rapid editing and camera movements, and develop his special knack for establishing atmosphere. The opening sequence is a dazzling display of action, being the colliding vectors of human and camera movement. The young hoods are masters of signs and gestures, and the camera is their medium. The Ozu tatami shot is already in evidence, and objects are already more than the sum of their clutter, but Walk Cheerfully, while truly beautiful, is rarely contemplative. It's a film about quirks and collective fetishes; a cinematic attitude. Nobody could extract humor from a tapping foot, a fedora placed just so, or a repeated tic as could Ozu in the silents.