Tôkyô boshoku (1957)

Tôkyô boshoku: Directed by Yasujirô Ozu. With Setsuko Hara, Ineko Arima, Chishû Ryû, Isuzu Yamada. Two sisters find out the existence of their long-lost mother, but the younger cannot take the truth of being abandoned as a child.

“Ozuu0026#39;s stock company runs through variations on their unhappy yet loyal relationships to each other: Chishû Ryû as the father who tried his best and failed; Setsuko Hara as the seemingly obedient daughter, and so forth; the middle class home; the little bar around the office. Itu0026#39;s all there and all as familiar as the nailu0026#39;s level view — a bent-down nail, because the nail that sticks up gets hammered down.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWeu0026#39;re told that Ozu is very Japanese and I wouldnu0026#39;t understand, but I find his world very familiar, even if everyone speaks Japanese. Growing up, I didnu0026#39;t understand Yiddish — I still donu0026#39;t — but my parents and uncles and aunts did and held conversation in it when they didnu0026#39;t want us to understand. Sometimes the discussions would escalate to shouting, and when I would ask what was going on, I would be told u0026quot;You wouldnu0026#39;t understand.u0026quot; I understood they were unhappy, and for a child, thereu0026#39;s nothing more frightening.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSo thatu0026#39;s what Ozu seems like to me: the same people, the same problems, the same language so I wouldnu0026#39;t understand — but with subtitles. With the same cast, just like my family. As Wayne said to Howard Hawks, this time, can I play the drunk?”