Image Source: tasteofcinema.com
It always takes a long time before the Japanese art form to assault the grandiloquent consciousness of the West. The ethereal and macabre novels of Yukio Mishima—especially the The Sea of Fertility tetralogy or Hōjō no Umi—and eccentric electro-jazz music of The Yellow Magic Orchestra had to wait years before they became known to the upper west side of the globe.
So did Yasujirō Ozu’s timeless films.
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Despite having an early fondness for American films, eschewing the trend of his time was Ozu’s favorite ball game. He—though not boldly—showed in his films how he loathed the conventions that Hollywood dictated. He preferred shooting continuous conversations to eyeline match wherein the audience sees what the on-screen character is seeing, a filmic storytelling he highlighted through breaking the 180-degree rule. A melodrama renouncer, he reconciled the conventionally unbearable continuous scenes present in his films with effectual narrative techniques by using ellipses—which he extensively developed in his 1949 drama Late Spring and his 1953 masterpiece Tokyo Story—or by cutting out enthralling scenes and transforming them into short dialogues instead.
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The camera positioning style—or the tatami shot, the shot and angle that represent the point of view of a Japanese kid, for according to him the world of corrupt moral and social orders can only be seen purely by an innocent kid—became a significant mark of Ozu’s career and filmmaking elegance. Over the years after Ozu succumbed to cancer, many young filmmakers attempted to employ the tatami shot in their films—some succeeded and countless failed—and some just became contented with paying homage to him.
Samantha Pouls, a big fan of the global film industry, is a junior high school student who is interested in the intricate process of filmmaking. This Facebook page can provide more updates of the other activities she loves being involved with.
The Youth and their Aspirations 