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.
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...
Seventeen of Ozu's films are irretrievably lost. In fact, none of his first seven films survive. No scripts, stills, or prints are known to exist. This installment of Discovering Ozu looks at what we do know about those seven films and examines Ozu's earliest surviving feature, Days of Youth.
From 1929's Days of Youth, Ozu's earliest surviving feature