Theme
In most of Ozu's films, the theme is always "separation". Whether it's marrying a daughter, getting sick, dying, every film tells a story that begins "together" and ends up "separated" in the broadest sense. The value that nothing can escape separation also makes every reunion or ordinary togetherness at risk. After a little familiarity with Ozu, the audience will have a subconscious expectation of when this harmonious state will be broken when watching his works, and inadvertently enter the world of Ozu.
There is a saying that Ozu has been making the same movie all his life, or that every movie is the same. This is neither right nor wrong. For in these films all sharing the same themes and aesthetics, the rough looks are nothing more than similar; no in the fact that they are actually different paths between the same start and end, each path never repeated (remakes don't count, haven't seen it yet) ), which is like a "digression" and is the most fascinating aspect of Ozu's film theme. Italian writer Carlo Levi commented on "The Biography of Shandy": "If a straight line is the shortest distance between two predetermined and unavoidable points, digressions can lengthen it; and if these digressions become so complicated , so staggered and detoured, so swiftly that they can hide their own trails, so who knows—maybe death won’t find us, maybe time will get lost, maybe we ourselves can keep hiding like this all the time Our ever-changing hiding place." Ozu shifts his path from start to finish in each film: single father marrying daughter versus single mother marrying daughter, blind date versus free love, all so precise and so different. With so many ways to reach the end, this separation must have become the norm, and it has become fearless.
style and structure
When it comes to style preferences, I have to add a personal complex. Personally, I am most obsessed with Ozu for two points: not only his almost strict control and persistence of the picture, but also his resolute choice under this control. Ozu can move the position of props that appeared in the previous shot for the composition beauty of the next shot, so as to obtain the best effect that cannot be replaced by each shot. This choice is about self-confidence and the freedom to choose what you want from yourself. His disdain for "camera characteristics" - fading in and fading out - illustrates what he sees as the focus of film aesthetics, and then excels in this focus. The balance of respect for oneself and respect for the art of cinema results in a beauty that is extremely particular. In the six color films that entered the late stage, color was not only used to express the properties of objects, but more importantly, it was added to the picture as an important element. In "Floating Grass", the use of red accents and the coordination of light and shade have reached their peak.
For every Ozu audience, a very low camera position is an unavoidable element of style. Its origin is said to be an unusually stable composition obtained by accident when shooting upwards to avoid the tangled lines on the ground before finishing work, so it has become a constant element of every movie. The relationship between the extremely low camera position and the Japanese kneeling is open to question, and it does not explain why it is also used in the outdoor-standing world. For example, in "Late Spring", when shooting young men and women on the platform waiting for the train, the camera position was actually low on the rails.
The reasons for the low camera position and stable composition have to be said together with the structure. Regarding structure, Donald Ritchie said in his book that Ozu's films consisted of several different blocks repeated and arranged, and he took it for granted. For example, the same scene and the same angle appear repeatedly in a movie, and several scenes tell a story. Such a structure is used to express change, and it is extremely stable, so human activities and changes are naturally highlighted. Just like in those transitional empty shots, only the flag is blown by the wind between the buildings, or the empty grass dam is ridden by bicycles, the harmony between movement and stillness. Therefore, each scene and angle must be able to hold up the scene itself, the composition must be considered beautiful enough to withstand repetition, the camera position must be stable enough to see changes, and the style and structure should be engaged. I think this should be the reason for the extremely low camera position. and inevitable.
actor
When I first watched "The Taste of Saury" and "Late Spring", I was surprised by the actors' low-key and forbearing acting skills, or to be honest - no acting skills. These actors appear again and again in Ozu's films, playing fixed and slightly different roles. Setsuko Hara is always smiling, the nasolabial folds are stretched to the limit, and he has laughed one after another, but it is a kind of sadness. It can be seen that Ozu's intention to reuse actors and let them perform technically. For Ozu, reusing actors is the same as reusing scenes, serving a timeless theme. For actors, in fact, all Ozu films that each actor participated in should be viewed together. These films constitute the actor's portfolio, and their acting skills are reflected in the differences in dealing with common starting and ending points and different paths. For example, when Lizhizhong played the single father of a married daughter in "The Taste of Saury" and played the father who visited his children with his wife in "Tokyo Story", how to achieve a subtly different feeling.
Lizhizhong and Ozu have collaborated on thirty films, which shows its importance. In "Late Spring", Lizhizhong has a performance that convinced me: In order to let his daughter marry without any burden, the father lied to his daughter that he had already looked for a follow-up, and the daughter played by Hara Setsuko asked the father played by Lizhizhong in tears. "Is it really there?", answering "um", asking "really?" again, answering "um", repeating the same content three times, Lizhizhong said three "um" with the same indifferent smile, The audience's heart was getting heavier and heavier. When the last um was said, the corners of Lizhizhong's mouth twitched slightly. The shocking power shown by this forbearance performance may be able to summarize the reason why many people are obsessed with Ozu movies.
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