I Was Born, But... (1932)

Synopsis: Yasujiro Ozu chooses a typical suburban Japanese family through which to explore complicated themes of innocence, aging and responsibility. I WAS BORN, BUT... examines the rigidity of Japanese... Yasujiro Ozu chooses a typical suburban Japanese family through which to explore complicated themes of innocence, aging and responsibility. I WAS BORN, BUT... examines the rigidity of Japanese society by focusing on a typical suburban working father and his two young sons. The boisterous and opinionated boys challenge their father's strained efforts to ingratiate himself with his boss. Faced with what they see as an insufficient explanation, the two boys stage a hunger strike, attempting to force their father, whom they love, to stand up for himself. Using the boys as a mirror for adult falseness and at the same time as a measure of the extent to which youthful innocence must come to an end, Ozu bases his story in the extremely subtle and banal details of day-to-day bourgeois Japanese life. The comedic elements of the film quietly feed into its ultimately dark and serious themes of youth and adulthood, innocence and corruption. After being punished and eventually empathizing with their father's position in life, the boys (and the viewer) emerge from the experience transformed. [More]

Starring: Hideo Sugawara, Mitsuko Yoshikawa, Takeshi Sakamoto

Starring: Hideo Sugawara, Mitsuko Yoshikawa, Takeshi Sakamoto

Director: Yasujiro Ozu

Director: Yasujiro Ozu

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