Yasujirō Ozu
小津安二郎
Japanese director, 1903–1963. He worked at Shochiku on domestic subjects, keeping the camera fixed low at about the height of a person seated on a tatami mat, moving it almost never, and placing shots of empty rooms between scenes. He was born and died on 12 December.
Career
Ozu joined Shochiku in 1923, making comedies and youth pictures during the silent period and moving gradually towards domestic subjects in the 1930s. He was conscripted during the war, served in China and Singapore, and returned to work in Japan in 1946.
His postwar films are almost entirely domestic. The camera is fixed low, camera movement and dissolves are dropped, and shots of empty space link the scenes. From Late Spring in 1949 he wrote every screenplay with Kogo Noda, and from 1958 he worked in colour.
Suggested Viewing Order
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