Ozu Yasujirō

born Dec. 15, 1903, Tokyo, Japan

died Dec. 12, 1963, Tokyo

Japanese film director.

He joined the Shochiku movie studio as a cameraman in 1923 and directed his first film three years later. He originated the genre known as shomin-geki ("common-people's drama"), which treated lower-middle-class Japanese family life, with films such as the silent comedies I Graduated, But... (1929) and I Was Born, But... (1932) and the sound drama The Toda Brother and His Sisters (1941). His later films, noted for their detailed character portrayals, pictorial beauty, and quiet, contemplative mood, include Late Spring (1949), Tokyo Story (1953), Early Spring (1956), Late Autumn (1960), The End of Summer (1961), and An Autumn Afternoon (1962). Ozu was considered the most typically Japanese of all directors and received more honours in his own country than did any other director.

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▪ Japanese director

born Dec. 12, 1903, Tokyo, Japan

died Dec. 12, 1963, Tokyo

 motion-picture director who originated the shomin-geki (“common-people's drama”), a genre dealing with lower-middle-class Japanese family life. Owing to the centrality of domestic relationships in his films, their detailed character portrayals, and their pictorial beauty, Ozu was considered the most typically Japanese of all directors and received more honours in his own country than did any other director.

      Reared in Tokyo, Ozu became an assistant cameraman for the Shōchiku Motion Picture Company, Tokyo, in 1923. By the mid-1920s he was a director, but not until the early 1930s did he establish his reputation by such outstanding shomin-geki silent comedies as Daigaku wa deta keredo (1929; I Graduated, But . . . ) and Umarete wa mita keredo (1932; I Was Born, But . . . ). Ten years later Toda-ke no kyodai (1941; The Toda Brother and His Sisters), a consideration of Japanese attitudes toward motherhood, was his first box-office success.

      Ozu made no films from 1942 to 1947. In 1947 Nagaya shinshi roku (The Record of a Tenement Gentleman) initiated a series of pictures in which a further refinement of style was combined with a concern for postwar conditions. Plot was almost eliminated, while atmosphere and detailed character studies became preeminent. He almost totally abandoned such devices as camera movement in favour of straight pictorial shots. Banshun (1949; Late Spring), Bakushu (1951; Early Summer), O-chazuke no aji (1952; The Flavour of Green Tea over Rice), Tōkyō monogatari (1953; Tokyo Story), and Sōshun (1956; Early Spring) exemplify this style and helped to establish Ozu as an internationally prominent director. Such later films as Early Autumn (1961) and An Autumn Afternoon (1962) show Ozu's mastery of the decorative use of colour in motion pictures.

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