Dragnet Girl (1933)

Dragnet Girl (1933). 1h 40m

“ozuu0026#39;s ultimate triumph of style over substance, a slick gangster/juvenile delinquency picture starring a very young kinuyo tanaka. tanakau0026#39;s the girl whou0026#39;s an office worker whose boss has a fondness for sexual harassment (in many ways itu0026#39;s a similar role to the one isuzu yamada played in mizoguchiu0026#39;s u0026quot;osaka storyu0026quot; a couple years later). she meets and falls for a local thug and they turn to petty crime. from what iu0026#39;ve read ozu barely remembers this one, one of the many potboilers he churned out in the 20s and 30s, but it still shows he had fun making it. the film may come as a shock to those who are used to the rather static camerawork of ozuu0026#39;s later films – lots of cool dollies, lush photography, great noir-ish lighting, and a meticulous attention to minor detail. ozuu0026#39;s primary influence at this point in his career seems to be joseph von sternberg, thereu0026#39;s an extraordinary amount of clutter in almost every frame (look at the later films and youu0026#39;ll see that sternbergu0026#39;s one of the few western influences ozu never quite discarded). still, lots of u0026quot;pillow shots,u0026quot; direct closeups, along with some low-level shots for those who like to point out that ozu only ever had one camera position. great fun, even if it is silent and i canu0026#39;t read japanese intertitles (a subplot about a friend in trouble lost me).”