Reminder: Ozu's "I Was Born, But ..." is at Japan Society this evening

Japan Society Film Program's

Monthly Classics Series

Presents

I Was Born, But . . . / Umarete wa Mita Keredo

Directed by Yasujiro Ozu

With Tatsuo Saito, Tokkan Kozou, Hideo Sugawara,

Mitsuko Yoshikawa, and Takeshi Sakamoto

Japan, 1932, 100 minutes

35mm, b&w, silent with Japanese and English intertitles

When: Friday, May 6 at 7:00 pm

Where: Japan Society

333 East 47th Street, NYC

Map
Tickets 

In this early silent comedy by Yasujiro Ozu, two precocious young boys get used to their new suburban neighborhood – avoiding classes, battling bullies, making friends – while their father commutes to work every day. When they witness him being subservient and playing a fool for his boss, the boys become ashamed and decide to protest with a hunger strike, declaring, “You tell us to become somebody, but you’re nobody!” This charming and insightful consideration of childhood innocence and social hierarchies is widely acknowledged as the master director’s first great film, later reworked into his 1959 color film Good Morning. Screening one day after Children's Day (May 5th) in Japan.

Ozu's "I Was Born, But..." at Japan Society on Friday, May 6th

Japan Society Film Program's

Monthly Classics Series

Presents

I Was Born, But . . . / Umarete wa Mita Keredo

Directed by Yasujiro Ozu

With Tatsuo Saito, Tokkan Kozou, Hideo Sugawara,

Mitsuko Yoshikawa, and Takeshi Sakamoto

Japan, 1932, 100 minutes

35mm, b&w, silent with Japanese and English intertitles

When: Friday, May 6 at 7:00 pm

Where: Japan Society

333 East 47th Street, NYC

Map
Tickets 

In this early silent comedy by Yasujiro Ozu, two precocious young boys get used to their new suburban neighborhood – avoiding classes, battling bullies, making friends – while their father commutes to work every day. When they witness him being subservient and playing a fool for his boss, the boys become ashamed and decide to protest with a hunger strike, declaring, “You tell us to become somebody, but you’re nobody!” This charming and insightful consideration of childhood innocence and social hierarchies is widely acknowledged as the master director’s first great film, later reworked into his 1959 color film Good Morning. Screening one day after Children's Day (May 5th) in Japan.

ACF 2052: Remembering Yasujirô Ozu

Mariko Okada, Ozu, and Yoko Tsukasa on the set of Late Autumn (1960)

Renowned Japanese director Yasujirô Ozu was born on December 12, 1903 in Tokyo, Japan. He died there on the same day in 1963, his 60th birthday. So today marks the 110th anniversary of his birth and the 50th of his death.

Among his 54 credits as a director are such films as A Story of Floating Weeds (1934, remade by him as Floating Weeds in 1959), Early Summer (1951), Tokyo Story (1953), Late Autumn (1960, and An Autumn Afternoon (1962), his final film. Lovers of Japanese film are most fortunate in that his oeuvre is well-represented in The Criterion Collection.

New Yorker's have an excellent way to commemorate this outstanding figure of Japanese cinema by attending tonight's screening of Late Autumn at Japan Society.

But wherever you are, please join AsianCineFest in taking at least a few moments today to remember this great man who directed so many wonderful movies.