I Was Born, But... - 1932 - Dir. Ozu

I only know a handful of Ozu, and honestly, while I enjoy his movies, they rarely differentiate themselves in my mind with the exception of Good Morning, which is a Sorta remake of this. I can see the obvious parallel what with Young kids rebelling against their parents. For a while the movie feels a lot like some kind of Japanese Little Rascals what with all the children running around in their tiny shorts making trouble and fighting bullies and making friends and whatnot. It sets everything up very subtly, and ties things up in a really nice way. It's sort of what I've come to expect from Ozu at this point. Very, very, quiet resolutions. As the movie winds down and we hear the father's point of view of his brown nosing, it feels good. He's a fairly maginalized figure in the movie, his kids, co-workers, and boss sort of make a joke out of him and he clearly gets no respect. As he sits and drinks quietly after spanking his kid, fairly disgusted with himself. There's a kind of unspoken bravery in what he's doing. Because you know what he's doing he's doing for the sake of his family and the movie doesn't make a big point of this, but I feel because of the way Ozu assembled it, you just know. EH, ITSAGOODPICTHAH!

I hope one day, when I'm sad, while smoking a cigarette and drinking, I'll look behind me, and I'll look just like this. That is what I hope.