The Only Son/There Was a Father: Two Films by Yasujiro Ozu
Directed by Yasujiro Ozu
Studio: Criterion
Year: 1936/ 1942
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Running Time: 83/87 minutes
Rating: NR
Audio: Dolby Digital 1.0 Japanese
Subtitles: English
MSRP: $ 39.95
Release Date: July 13, 2010
Review Date: June 27, 2010
The Films
Legendary Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu’s lifelong interest in portraying varying aspects of Japanese familial life finds ready subjects in The Only Son and There Was a Father, two early sound films for him which illustrate both his singular style and his often pessimistic, glass-half-empty view of Japanese domestic life. It’s always illuminating to see the director’s fascination with parents and children conveyed in film after film in view of the fact that he was a lifelong bachelor. These two little seen examples of his art certainly fulfill expectations about the quality of these works based on his more famous films from postwar Japan.
The Only Son – 3.5/5
Thirteen years of intense, menial work allow widow Tsune Nonomiya (Choko Lida) to be able to send her only child Ryosuke (Masao Hayama as a child, Shinichi Hinori as an adult) to get education beyond primary school which she hopes will allow him to become a great man. Surprising her son with a visit in Tokyo after he had boasted about having a government job, she finds that he’s only a night school teacher and living in a slum with a wife (Yoshiko Tsubouchi) and young son of his own to support on a very meager salary. He’s ashamed that all of her sacrifices haven’t produced for him a more successful career he can point to with pride, and she, too, begins to wonder what she did all of it for.
With Japan in the midst of its own great depression when this was filmed in 1936, it’s small wonder that Ozu’s tone for this piece is so nihilistic. To modern eyes and with modern sensibilities about a man’s true worth, the emphasis here only on the monetary and material side of a person’s life seems short-sighted and insulting, especially since Ozu’s script goes out of its way to convey Ryosuke’s intrinsic goodness and generosity, and showing the respect his students, his friends, and his neighbors have for him, attributes that seem pretty meaningless to these people whose only measure of a man’s worth seems to be how much he has in his pocket. Ozu also pictures a very bleak and unappetizing Tokyo, filled with slums, waste factories, and barren landscapes, not the bustling metropolis jammed with inhabitants which one typically thinks of when considering the city. The film has wonderful, nuanced performances by Choko Lida, Shinichi Hinori, and Chishu Ryu who plays the young boy’s teacher whose own journey to Tokyo doesn’t end in economic prosperity but in a rather contented bliss which escapes our main character. Ozu’s trademark static camera filming low angled shots is everywhere in evidence here, broken only by a sequence set in a Tokyo cinema where mother and son go to see a German operetta where within the film a dazzling tracking shot following the heroine through a wheat field seems completely alien to the world Ozu has been so busy crafting, a nifty contrast of the real world to the reel world.
There Was a Father – 4/5
When a student under his care dies tragically on a field trip, Shuhei Horikawa (Chishu Ryu) leaves his teaching job, pulls up stakes with his young son Ryohei (Haruhiko Tsugawa), and then does penance for the rest of his life for a tragedy that he feels was his fault. Part of that penance involves willfully separating himself from his own loving child who, more than anything else, wants to be with his father. The loving but distant relationship extends into adulthood as Ryohei (Shuji Sano) becomes a teacher himself and longs to live with his father in Tokyo, but his father adamantly refuses thinking they both owe it to their country to remain in their current positions and work for the good of the state even though Ryohei is desperately unhappy with the separation from his beloved parent.
Fathers and sons: it’s an age-old cinematic theme, but Ozu’s approach is filled with so much poignancy that the angst could easily be cut with a samurai sword. Unlike The Only Son, however, there’s no feeling of inner disappointment or disillusionment with one’s chosen profession; rather, teaching as a job is embraced as an almost saintly calling, and a memorable sequence where Mr. Horikawa and his best friend Hirata (Takeshi Sakamoto) are feted by their former junior high students is wonderfully staged and among the film’s most tender and beautifully realized moments. Once again, the camerawork is leadenly precise but invariable, and while it’s definitely the director’s trademark, one can’t help feeling even a little camera movement might have added just the right amount of spark to turn a very good film into a great one. The performances, particularly the love-from-a-distance closeness between Chishu Ryu and Shuji Sano, are very moving, the film’s last quarter hour picturing their idyllic week together (the fishing trip as adults eerily mirroring one from decades earlier) easily earning the tears it generates.
Video Quality
The Only Son - 2/5
The film’s theatrical aspect ratio of 1.33:1 is properly represented, and Criterion has slightly windowboxed the image in its usual manner with Academy ratio pictures. While the grayscale rendering is adequate and sharpness at times registers fairly nicely, the film is in very delicate condition with plenty of scratches and quite a bit of print damage throughout. Some portions of the film are worse than others, but while it’s certainly watchable, the salvage efforts by Criterion could not accomplish miracles, and the film looks every minute of its seventy-four years. The white subtitles are easy to read. The film has been divided into 17 chapters.
There Was a Father – 2.5/5
The film is framed at 1.33:1 and slightly windowboxed by Criterion as expected. Like The Only Son, the film was in rough shape and despite their best efforts, the transfer is still loaded with damage of all types. It’s slightly better than the previous movie in its sharpness and with a little less damage, but the transfer will not win any prizes for clarity or slickness. The white subtitles are easy to read, and the movie has been divided into 17 chapters.
Audio Quality
The Only Son, There Was a Father – 2/5
The Dolby Digital 1.0 audio track for each film is awash in reasonably loud hiss and at certain times impenetrable crackle (thankfully, this has no effect on the subtitles). As an early Japanese sound film, one must take for granted The Only Son’s primitive sound equipment and limited recording techniques of the period, so the lack of fidelity isn’t surprising. Made six years later, sound techniques don’t seem to have progressed very far at all in There Was a Father. Still, the sound is clear enough to easily make out The Only Son’stitle and end theme: “Old Black Joe”! Music in There Was a Father still has limited range and that tinny sound of restricted fidelity.
Special Features
The Only Son – 2.5/5
Film scholars David Boardwell and Kristin Thompson discuss the film in the context of Ozu’s later and more familiar movies as well as providing plenty of clips from the movie to illustrate their points. Their 2010 discussion is presented in anamorphic widescreen and lasts 25 ½ minutes.
Critic Tadao Satodiscusses the sociological implications for Japan in the period and how accurately they’re conveyed in Ozu’s movie. The 2003 interview is presented in anamorphic widescreen and runs 19 minutes.
The enclosed 16-page booklet contains the chapter listing, cast and crew lists, some stills from the movie, and a laudatory essay on the picture by Asian film historian Tony Rayns.
There Was a Father – 2/5
Film scholars David Boardwell and Kristin Thompson discuss the film in the context of Ozu’s earlier The Only Son as well as providing plenty of clips from the movie to illustrate their points. Their comments also take into account the war Japan was engaged in during the film’s production and Ozu’s bare commitment to integrating any hint of it into the movie. Their 2010 discussion is presented in anamorphic widescreen and lasts 23 minutes.
The enclosed 28-page bookletincludes the chapter listing, the cast and crew list, stills from the movie along with a valedictory essay on the movie by Asian film expert Tony Rayns, a celebratory piece on leading actor Chishu Ryu by critic Donald Ritchie, and comments on his career as an actor and memories of working with the great Ozu by Chishu Ryu himself.
In Conclusion
3.5/5 (not an average)
These two early talkie efforts by one of Japan’s cinematic masters Yasujiro Ozu will likely be as new to most viewers as they were to me. Though video and audio quality reveal the devastating ravages of time, the films do retain their haunting qualities nevertheless, and fans of the director will be thrilled by their effectiveness in spite of the transfers’ anomalies. The Criterion bonus materials (both video and manuscript) bring additional value to the set earning it a firm recommendation.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
