In Ozu's final film of 1933, we meet "Kihachi", as portrayed by Takeshi Sakamoto. Kihachi becomes Ozu's own sort of little tramp in the four movies he made in '34 and '35. Unlike Chaplin's iconic creation, Kihachi is always someone's father, an irrepressable screw-up, and a hard-luck guy all around.
A grab I didn't use in tomorrow's Discovering Ozu 7: The Kihachi Cycle. Takeshi Sakamoto cameos in A Mother Should Be Loved.
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).
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