Kinuyo Tanaka made a big progression across the course of her career, moving from sweet-faced ingenue to Japan's first female director.
Tanaka as "the soda shop girl" in Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth?Ozu takes a hard turn away from his student comedies, embracing major social and political issues in Depression-era Japan, including the plight of women. From prostitutes to...well...more prostitutes and reluctant mob girlfriends, his next three films reveal a filmmaker in transition.
This cycle of three films finds Ozu saying goodbye to making movies about small children or college kids (for the most part). We see his signature lead actor (Chishu Ryu) take on more substantive roles, in addition to the rise of a silent-era comedy star (Takeshi Sakamoto) and the big break for a legendary Japanese actress and filmmaker (Kinuyo Tanaka).
One of the best frames of I Flunked, But..., where a pair of sweethearts have a private moment together.
Kinuyo Tanaka gets some loving close-ups. There were rumors that Ozu was very sweet on her, but she didn't return his affection.
The last of Ozu's 1929 films and the first half of those he made in 1930 reveal a filmmaker in transition. He is in search of his voice in addition to how he can push that individuality out around the edges of the studio system's staid templates.
Sadly, out of the seven movies discussed in this chapter, only two survive in complete form. Fragments of three survive, and yet two more are completely, irretrievablty lost.
From 1930's I Flunked, But...