The Cinema of Ozu Yasujiro by Joo, Woojeong;

Short description:

This book offers a new interpretation of Ozu Yasujiro’s career, from his earliest work in the 1920s up to his death in 1963, focusing on Ozu’s depiction of the everyday life and experiences of ordinary Japanese people during a time of depression, war and economic resurgence.

Long description:

One of the most well regarded of non-Western film directors, responsible for acknowledged classics like Tokyo Story (1953), Ozu Yasujiro worked during a period of immense turbulence for Japan and its population. This book offers a new interpretation of Ozu’s career, from his earliest work in the 1920s up to his death in 1963, focusing on Ozu’s depiction of the everyday life and experiences of ordinary Japanese people during a time of depression, war and economic resurgence. Firmly situating him within the context of the Japanese film industry, Woojeong Joo examines Ozu’s work as a studio director and his relation to sound cinema, and looks in-depth at his wartime experiences and his adaptation to postwar Japanese society. Drawing on Japanese materials not previously examined in western scholarship, this is a groundbreaking new study of a master of cinema.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments List of IllustrationsList of Tables

INTRODUCTION: Ozu, History, and the Everyday

CHAPTER 1EARLY OZU: Shōshimin Film and Everyday Realism

CHAPTER 2OZU IN TRANSITION: Coming of Sound and Family Melodrama

CHAPTER 3WARTIME OZU: In between Bourgeois Drama and National Policy Film

CHAPTER 4OZU AND POSTWAR: Ozu’s Occupation era films and Tokyo Regained

CHAPTER 5LATE OZU: New Generation and New Salaryman Film

Conclusion Select Filmography Select Bibliography Notes