Shukujo wa nani o wasureta ka (1937)

Shukujo wa nani o wasureta ka: Directed by Yasujirô Ozu. With Sumiko Kurishima, Tatsuo Saitô, Michiko Kuwano, Shûji Sano. An affluent medical professor, Komiya, and his bossy wife, Tokio, are to look after Setsuko, their high-spirited niece from Osaka. Setsuko is a liberated woman who does what she wants, including smoking, even though she is a minor. On Saturday, the professor does not feel like going to his weekend golf game, but his wife packs him off anyway. So he leaves his bag at the apartment of his student Okada, and goes to a bar with a friend. Setsuko traces him there, and insists that he take her to a geisha house. When she gets rather tipsy, the professor calls Okada to take her home, while he sleeps at Okada’s. The wife becomes suspicious of Setsuko when she sees Okada bringing her home, and also of her husband when she discovers that he did not go golfing.

“This is a comedy from Ozu from the mid 30u0026#39;s, which takes a while to get to the heart of the story but, once there, reveals an interesting premise. a niece named Setsuko, who is still a minor (she is probably 20, she is no child) goes to live with her uncle who is a doctor and her somewhat severe aunt. She is quite liberated, she smokes and takes her uncle to a geisha house when he was supposed to be golfing. The aunt eventually finds out and confronts them. This is a slice of life from Ozu when he was still honing his eventual brilliant skills on family stories. Not as essential as his best, it is still good and its only 71 minutes. If youu0026#39;re new to Ozu watch these films first: Late Spring, I Was Born But, Autumn Afternoon and, of course, Tokyo Story. This is a good film, with Ozuu0026#39;s patented long shots and camera angles. I enjoyed watching it.”