Yasujiro Ozu: The Elegance of Simplicity
December 3, 2023–February 25, 2024
One of Japan's greatest filmmakers, Yasujiro Ozu was born in 1903 and died in 1963. To mark the 120th anniversary of his birth and the 60th anniversary of his death, archives around the world are celebrating his work. BAMPFA presents a selected retrospective spanning the course of the director’s career from the silent era to his six crowning films made in color.
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Late Spring
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An Autumn Afternoon
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Dragnet Girl
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A Story of Floating Weeds
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I Was Born, But . . .
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Films - Past
Films - Past
Events
Past Films
I Was Born, But . . .
Yasujiro Ozu
Japan, 1932Copresented by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival
Sunday, December 3 4:30 PMJudith Rosenberg on PianoView DetailsA comedy about a typical wage earner with two delightfully atypical sons. “One of the wisest and most charming films ever made” (Village Voice).
That Night’s Wife & Woman of Tokyo
Yasujiro Ozu
Japan, 1930Copresented by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival
Friday, December 8 7 PMJudith Rosenberg on PianoView DetailsThat Night’s Wife is a crime melodrama inspired by Fritz Lang and American thrillers. As ever, Yasujiro Ozu tests the conventions as he employs them. Screening with Woman of Tokyo, a Depression-era romantic melodrama that is “a subtle riot of discordant formal devices. . . . Ozu never made another film like this one, and neither has anyone else” (J. Hoberman).
Dragnet Girl
Yasujiro Ozu
Japan, 1933Copresented by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival
Sunday, December 10 4:30 PMJudith Rosenberg on PianoView DetailsIn Yasujiro Ozu’s atmospheric American-style crime melodrama, Kinuyo Tanaka brings a wide range of moods and emotions to the role of a gangster’s moll trying to get herself and her lover/accomplice out of their murky world and into “a decent life.”
Late Spring
Yasujiro Ozu
Japan, 1949Wednesday, December 13 7 PMView DetailsChishu Ryu and Setsuko Hara as father and daughter in a deceptively simple, eloquent story of filial devotion and parental sacrifice: this is a near-perfect film, and one of Yasujiro Ozu’s own favorites.
Tokyo Story
Yasujiro Ozu
Japan, 1953Digital Restoration
Voted one of the ten Greatest Films of All Time in the 2022 Sight & Sound Directors’ PollSaturday, December 16 6:30 PMView DetailsThis simple, sad story of the gap between generations in a Japanese family revealed to Western viewers the poetic acuteness of Yasujiro Ozu’s style. “Wonderful. . . . One of the manifest miracles of cinema” (New Yorker).
A Story of Floating Weeds
Yasujiro Ozu
Japan, 1934Copresented by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival
Sunday, December 17 2 PMJudith Rosenberg on PianoView DetailsThis poetic, quietly devastating story finds the leader of a down-at-the-heels theater troupe meeting his grown son, the fruit of a casual affair years earlier. “A picture of great atmosphere and intensity of character” (Donald Richie).
A Hen in the Wind
Yasujiro Ozu
Japan, 1948Digital Restoration
Thursday, December 21 7 PMView DetailsA former POW comes home to Japan to discover that his wife has prostituted herself to pay their son’s hospital bills. “[Yasujiro] Ozu brilliantly and honestly confronts the postwar moment” (Joan Mellen).
Early Summer
Yasujiro Ozu
Japan, 1951Saturday, January 13 6:30 PMView Details“I was interested in getting much deeper than just the story itself; I wanted to depict the cycles of life, the transience of life,” Yasujiro Ozu said of this exquisite, faintly melancholy portrait of a family, with Setsuko Hara as the daughter on whose marriage everything depends.
The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice
Yasujiro Ozu
Japan, 1952Digital Restoration
Thursday, January 18 7 PMView DetailsA series of extraordinarily revealing domestic details forms a portrait of middle-class marriage, domestic tension, and reconciliation.
Early Spring
Yasujiro Ozu
Japan, 1956Digital Restoration
Saturday, January 20 4 PMView DetailsA salaryman’s marriage is threatened when, stifled by routine, he indulges in an affair. Observing the subtle rituals and rhythms of the work day, Yasujiro Ozu explained, “I wanted to . . . let the viewer experience the peculiar sadness of the office man’s existence.”
Tokyo Twilight
Yasujiro Ozu
Japan, 1957Digital Restoration
Friday, January 26 7 PMView DetailsIn his last black-and-white film, Yasujiro Ozu tackles issues of abortion and suicide, depicting the disintegration of a family with unexpected toughness.
The Only Son
Yasujiro Ozu
Japan, 1936Sunday, January 28 3 PMView DetailsIn Yasujiro Ozu’s first sound feature, a small-town widow sacrifices everything so her son can better himself in Tokyo; visiting him, she faces bitter disappointment. “A small masterpiece of haunting grace and economy” (Village Voice).
Equinox Flower
Yasujiro Ozu
Japan, 1958Saturday, February 3 7 PMView DetailsTeenage girls quietly rebel against their traditional parents’ plans. “Gentle and amused in the way that it acknowledges time’s passage, the changing of values, and the adjustments that have to be made between generations” (New York Times).
Good Morning
Yasujiro Ozu
Japan, 1959Sunday, February 11 7 PMView DetailsYasujiro Ozu’s “bad boys” strike again! This reworking of I Was Born, But . . . is a genial comedy of manners centered around an icon of 1950s domesticity: the television set.
Floating Weeds
Yasujiro Ozu
Japan, 1959Digital Restoration
Friday, February 16 7 PMView DetailsGlorious color photography by Kazuo Miyagawa brings new intensity to this remake of Yasujiro Ozu’s 1934 story about a traveling actor encountering his illegitimate son.
Late Autumn
Yasujiro Ozu
Japan, 1960Sunday, February 18 2 PMView DetailsComing full circle from Late Spring, Setsuko Hara plays a widowed mother pushing her unwilling daughter to marry. “Exquisite and not to be missed” (New Republic).
The End of Summer
Yasujiro Ozu
Japan, 1961Imported 35mm Print
Friday, February 23 7 PMView DetailsThis chronicle of a sake-brewing family combines humorous touches with an acute awareness of mortality. “One of [Yasujiro] Ozu’s most beautiful films, it is one of his most disturbing” (Donald Richie).
An Autumn Afternoon
Yasujiro Ozu
Japan, 1962Sunday, February 25 2 PMView DetailsChishu Ryu once again plays a widowed father planning to marry off his daughter in Yasujiro Ozu’s beautiful, bittersweet last film. “Quietly tears your heart to pieces” (Terence Davies).