Life is a Series of Moments in Voids

Yasujiro Ozu’s work, like the work of many of the filmmakers that we have seen in class, was ahead of its time. His films were not especially popular when they were released, but they were well-received by Western audiences who wanted a change from typical, formulaic Hollywood films.

The most apparent unique quality of Ozu’s work at first glance is his total disregard of several conventions and traditions followed in mainstream Hollywood films. The 180-degree line is the most noteworthy convention that Ozu disregarded. David Dresser notes that “critics have come to understand that Ozu uses a principle of 360-degree space instead of the 180-degree rule applied in Hollywood” (13). In mainstream film a character walking off screen to the right leads us naturally to expect that the character will be moving from left to right in the next shot. This convention exists primarily to maintain the continuity of an action and to prevent the audience from becoming disoriented, but Ozu’s perspective towards life does not require that he follow this convention. Life is disorienting and as Kyoko says in Tokyo Story, it is “disappointing.” It is a series of moments, not a logical flow of events which is based on the relationship between cause and effect. It is this structure which Ozu employs that leads some viewers to believe that his films lack any semblance of a story or plot.

Kathe Geist argues that there is a Zen-like quality to Ozu’s work. In nearly every indoor shot in both Tokyo Story and Early Summer Ozu has the characters move through, sit in, and interact with each other in virtually empty rooms. In looking at this tendency in Ozu’s work Geist refers to the Zen concept of ma, “a moving void in which time and space interact and define themselves through an action. The frequently empty rooms that characters go in and out of in Ozu’s films suggest ma” (112). Life is a loosely-connected series of moments in empty rooms. The characters who are speaking should not be the center of attention. Ozu’s use of what Geist calls “codas” (scenic beginning and ending shots) “suggests an aesthetic attitude that places the individual as a mere element in the universe, the “void,” rather than at the center of it, as in Western, Greco-Roman thought” (110). In Ozu’s view we are not at the center of our own universe. How sad.

Both Tokyo Story and Early Summer convey Ozu’s belief and resignation that life in post-war Japan is a series of unfulfilled expectations and disappointments. Ozu’s characters must also come to this realization. There are minor disappointments like the boys’ feelings when they expect their father to buy them more tracks for their train set and discover that he has only brought home a loaf of bread. There are also major disappointments like in Early Summer when the parents discover that Noriko has decided to marry her childhood friend, Kenkichi instead of the suitor that they had chosen for her. A recurring theme in Tokyo Story is that parents have expectations about their children and they are naturally disappointed when their expectations are not fulfilled.

In Tokyo Story the parents are disappointed to discover that their grown-up children are barely willing to make time for them. Their children send them off to a hot springs resort and then refuse to take them into their homes when they return. We can see for ourselves that the parents have every right to be disappointed, but they decide that they are unhappy because they are expecting too much from life. In their minds they should be happy just by knowing that their children are “certainly better than average.” They then decide that they are “fortunate” to have such children. In Early Summer Koichi also scolds his mother for expecting too much in life. Life is especially disappointing because of the apparently inevitable tendency for families to drift apart as each member becomes more concerned with their own affairs. In Early Summer Noriko feels guilty because she is splitting up the family and getting married for her own happiness. The fact that Noriko feels guilty for even thinking of her own happiness is a cultural commentary.

Ozu is also making a commentary about the development of Japan through his inclusion of trains and other symbols of progress and modernization. Ozu insists that he included trains in his films simply because he likes them, but Geist argues that trains, bridges, children walking, smoke and other motifs are included to reflect transience and passage (Geist 109). I believe that he included these motifs to remind us that although modernization is somewhat beneficial to society it also pulls us away from that which is the most important thing of all: our family.