MARCH 5 6 FRI 7 pm, SAT 4:30 pm
GUILD THEATRE
FLOATING WEEDS
JAPAN 1959
DIRECTOR: YASUJIRO OZU Deciding to remake his own 1934 film, STORY OF FLOATING WEEDS, Ozu changed the setting to a seaside town and exploited the palette of Mizoguchi's regular cinematographer, Kazuo Miyagawa, to evoke the spirit of the long-past Meiji era. When the head of an itinerant troupe visits the small town where he fathered a son years before, his current mistress attempts to bring about a confrontation with his former lover and now-adult son. Ozu’s sole collaboration with actress Machiko Kyo (UGETSU, ODD OBSESSION, RASHOMON) results in one of his most engaging and beloved works—considered by many to be the most physically beautiful film of his career. “FLOATING WEEDS is like a piece of music that I can turn to for reassurance and consolation. It is so atmospheric that it envelops me.” —Roger Ebert, The Great Movies. (119 mins.)

MARCH 6 7 SAT 7 pm, SUN 3 pm
GUILD THEATRE
TOKYO STORY
JAPAN 1953
DIRECTOR: YASUJIRO OZU Ozu’s sad, simple story is regularly included in international critic’s top-10 polls and remains his acknowledged masterpiece. Examining the widening gap between Japan’s generations, Ozu tells the story of an older couple’s visit to the city to see their children, who, absorbed with their own lives, treat them with indifference and ingratitude. Shunted delicately off to a resort, it takes illness and the death of the mother to spur painful family reconciliation. “One of the greatest of all Japanese pictures. Ozu’s style, now completely refined, utterly economical, creates a film which is unforgettable because it is so right, so true, and because it demands so much from its audience.”—Donald Ritchie. (134 mins.)

MARCH 12 14 FRI 7 pm, SUN 5:15 pm
GUILD THEATRE
I WAS BORN, BUT. . .
JAPAN 1932
DIRECTOR: YASUJIRO OZU Not so much a children's film as a film about childhood, critic Jonathan Rosenbaum calls Ozu’s caustic, comic commentary on social hierarchies “The greatest film by one of the world’s greatest filmmakers.” A typical suburban wage earner lives in his typical new house with his typical wife and his two small sons, aged ten and eight, who are not typical at all. They see their father buttering up his boss and want to know why, since they can undeferentially beat up the boss’s son. Ozu said of it: “I started to make a film about children and ended up with a film about grown-ups. . . my bright little story came out pretty dark.” The first of the great Ozu pictures, the unsure studio delayed its release for two months and it went on to win the Kinema Jumpo First Prize for that year. (91 mins., silent with music)

MARCH 13 14 SAT 7 pm, SUN 7 pm
GUILD THEATRE
THE ONLY SON
JAPAN 1936
DIRECTOR: YASUJIRO OZU Ozu’s first sound film, THE ONLY SON is an emotionally devastating portrait of a mother and son grown apart. As a child, Ryosuke’s promising scholastic achievement prompts his teacher to recommend that he go on to middle school. The boy’s mother—a working widow who can barely make ends meet as it is—eventually agrees to forsake her own retirement and continue working long hours in order to support her son’s education. Thirteen years later, visiting her son in Tokyo, the old woman is confronted with what she sees as the disappointing reality of Ryosuke’s job as a low-paid night-school teacher. Parental disillusionment is a recurring Ozu theme, but the simplicity and power of THE ONLY SON is singular. Ozu’s “supreme achievement” in the words of film historian Noël Burch. (103 min.)

MARCH 18 20 THU 7 pm, SAT 6 pm
GUILD THEATRE
RECORD OF A TENEMENT GENTLEMAN
JAPAN 1947
DIRECTOR: YASUJIRO OZU “A neglected and truly marvelous Ozu, RECORD has the ineffably sad, timeless quality of his best films. Set in bombed-out postwar Tokyo, the film charts the relationship between a stern, aging widow who does not like children and an abandoned child dumped on her hands. Exasperated by his gracelessness and bed-wetting, the woman becomes increasingly hostile, and devises ways to get rid of the child. Tender, humorous and affecting, RECORD ends on a plangent note that suggest a postwar Japan teeming with neglected children.”—Cinematheque Ontario. “If Ozu had made only this film, he would have to be considered one of the world’s great directors.”
—David Bordwell, Film Comment. (72 mins.)

MARCH 19 21 FRI 7 pm, SUN 6 pm
GUILD THEATRE
WHAT DID THE LADY FORGET?
JAPAN 1937
DIRECTOR: YASUJIRO OZU Following the wrenching THE ONLY SON, Ozu responded with this sparkling comedy that takes him from his usual downtown milieu to the well-appointed dwellings of the privileged classes. The plot revolves around the henpecked Professor Komiya as he's prompted to rebel against his overbearing wife during a visit by his high-spirited niece Setsuko. Reminiscent of the films of Jacques Tati and Ernst Lubitsch, Ozu skewers bourgeois niceties, while the comic disconnect between carefree youth and their often stuffy, intractable elders looks forward to his postwar social comedies such as EQUINOX FLOWER, AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON and THE FLAVOR OF GREEN TEA OVER RICE. “A pivotal work for Ozu. . .exploring Japan’s obsession with cleanliness; its eclectic bric-a-brac; its acquisitive conception of tradition; its bluntness.”—David Bordwell. (75 mins.)

MARCH 20 21 SAT 7:30 pm, SUN 7:30 pm
GUILD THEATRE
BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF THE TODA FAMILY
JAPAN 1941
DIRECTOR: YASUJIRO OZU One of Ozu’s major popular successes, BROTHERS AND SISTERS was also one of his Kinema Jumpo First prizewinners. Following the death of their father, the brothers and sisters of the Toda family find themselves laden with debt. Mrs. Toda, with her youngest daughter in tow, tries to set up residence with one her married children, only to be shunted around from one household to the next. The youngest son Shojiro, returning from work in Tianjin, upbraids his siblings for their selfishness. Ozu's wartime movie is not without its propagandistic aspects (Shojiro's business activity in China is described in the context of economic expansion rather than outright military invasion), but distinguishes itself by a scrupulously detailed depiction of its upper-class milieu and handsome style. (105 mins.)

MARCH 25 THU 7 pm
GUILD THEATRE
THE LADY AND THE BEARD
JAPAN 1931
DIRECTOR: YASUJIRO OZU “Kendo champ Okajima (Tokihiko Okada) is conservative in more ways than one: he sports an unfashionable beard, refuses to wear Western clothes, and clings to old-fashioned conventions when dealing with women. When the love of a demure, kimono-clad office girl prompts him to shave his beard and modernize his ways, he finds himself suddenly attracting the affections of a chic, haughty aristocrat and a tough, brazenly westernized swindler. Ozu would go on to observe again with irony the obstinacy of those who hold onto past traditions in the face of changing values, but the anarchic humor of THE LADY AND THE BEARD may be unrepeatable—a priceless gag (which narrowly escaped the attention of government censors) manages, mischievously, to conflate Abe Lincoln with the equally hirsute Karl Marx. The punchline: ‘All great men have beards!’—Film Society of Lincoln Center. (75 mins, silent with music.)

MARCH 26 27 FRI 7 pm, sat 5 pm
GUILD THEATRE
LATE SPRING
JAPAN 1949
DIRECTOR: YASUJIRO OZU Ozu’s personal favorite, LATE SPRING marked the Ozu debut of Setsuko Hara, in the first of many classic pairings with regular Chishu Ryu. Hara plays Noriko, a loving, uncommonly old-fashioned daughter who refuses to marry so that she can take care of her widowed father, Professor Somiya (Ryu). When Somiya begins to worry that she might grow despondent once he passes away, he devises a ruse to incite her to marry—namely, by pretending to consider remarriage himself. A film of subtle glances and quiet, eloquent gestures, LATE SPRING contains one of the most indelible images Ozu ever put to screen: the sight of Ryu returning to an empty house following his daughter's wedding, sitting alone and peeling an apple. LATE SPRING was awarded the Kinema Jumpo First Prize. “Ozu’s greatest achievement and, thus, one of the ten best films of all time.”—Stuart Byron, THE VILLAGE VOICE. (108 mins.)

MARCH 27 28 SAT 7 pm, SUN 5 pm
GUILD THEATRE
LATE AUTUMN
JAPAN 1960
DIRECTOR: YASUJIRO OZU “People sometimes complicate the simplest things. Life, which seems complex, suddenly reveals itself as very simple—and I wanted to show that in this film.” In this light-hearted reworking of LATE SPRING, Setsuko Hara returns, not as the daughter whose reluctance to marry makes her father anxious, but as a widow who frets over her daughter's unwed status. To the generally somber tone of the earlier film, Ozu adds much comedy in the form of a trio of aging, emasculated businessmen, friends of the family who try to goad the widow into marrying one of them. One of Ozu's loveliest films. “It is easy to show drama in films. The actor’s laugh or cry, but this is only explanation. A director can show what he wants without an appeal to the emotions. I want to make people feel without resorting to drama’.”—YO. (128 mins.)

MARCH 28 SUN 7:30 pm
GUILD THEATRE
A HEN IN THE WIND
JAPAN 1948
DIRECTOR: YASUJIRO OZU In this dark and gripping work a young mother whose husband is off fighting the war, is left to wrestle with the reality of a life teetering on the edge of poverty. When her son become ill and she is without money for a doctor, she desperately turns—for one night—to prostitution, and is able to save the child’s life. But when he learns of his wife’s actions upon his return, her husband reacts with shocking anger and a savage fury. In this unblinking portrait of a tawdry and claustrophobic post-war Tokyo, ripples of violence and despair are palpable in both littered streets and shattered lives. “Harrowing and life-affirming, tragic and hopeful, compassionate and indicting.”—Pascal Acquarello. (83 min.)

APRIL 1 THU 7 pm
GUILD THEATRE
PASSING FANCY
JAPAN 1933
DIRECTOR: YASUJIRO OZU “This lively and accessible film introduces the character of Kihachi, the flawed but lovable proletarian everyman of several Ozu films, always played by Takeshi Sakamoto. Kihachi is always depicted as single but having a son or two; here the son is delightfully played by Ozu's favorite obnoxious youngster, Tokkan Kozo. Factory worker Kihachi's brief affair with a young woman raises his son's ire, but the sparring between parent and child reveals depths of feeling ultimately leading to sacrifice and redemption. ‘This film was inspired by King Vidor's 1931 THE CHAMP...a story of vagabonds abundant with humor and pathos, which Ozu clearly transferred from the American picture to his own.’ —Tadao Sato.”—Pacific Film Archive. (100 mins., silent with music)

APRIL 2 4 FRI 7 pm, SUN 6:30 pm
GUILD THEATRE
EARLY SPRING
JAPAN 1956
DIRECTOR: YASUJIRO OZU Bored with his marriage and the routines of office life, Shoji, a young “salaryman” has a brief affair with the typist he commutes with. The fling estranges him even further from his wife, threatening to snap their already frayed marriage. The numbing routines of everyday office life—the morning commute, the backbiting gossip of coworkers—have rarely been portrayed with the acute attention to detail, rhythm and pattern that sets apart EARLY SPRING. “I wanted to relate a number of seemingly disconnected episodes,” wrote Ozu, “to show the life of a man with such a job...his hopes for the future gradually dissolving, his realizing that. . .he has accomplished nothing. . .[I hoped] that the audience would feel the sadness of this kind of life.” (144 min.)

APRIL 3 4 SAT 7 pm, SUN 4 pm
GUILD THEATRE
EQUINOX FLOWER
JAPAN 1957
DIRECTOR: YASUJIRO OZU A workaholic businessman denounces the unromantic arranged marriage his parents imposed on him, yet he recoils in anger when his own daughter chooses a mate without consulting him. Accused of being inconsistent, he vehemently protests: “Everyone is inconsistent except God... the sum total of inconsistencies is called life!” By the time Ozu is through with this seemingly simple-minded hypocrite, he turns him into a full-fledged, mythologically proportioned, classic fool. Ozu’s first film in color, EQUINOX FLOWER is visually splendid and one of the brightest, wittiest and most perceptive comedies of his career. “Hirayama is as charming a character as Ozu has ever given us . . .The performers are flawless. —Vincent Canby, THE NEW YORK TIMES.
(118 min.)

APRIL 9 11 FRI 7 pm, SUN 5 pm
GUILD THEATRE
FLAVOR OF GREEN TEA OVER RICE
JAPAN 1952
DIRECTOR: YASUJIRO OZU Tired of her placid husband Mokichi's unsophisticated, earthy manners, (including the eponymous treat) spoiled, snobbish Taeko escapes on a hot springs getaway with her wealthy women friends. In her absence, Mokichi encourages her young niece to run away from an arranged date. The unpardonable faux pas provokes Taeko to unleash her full fury, daring any further breaches of propriety. Ozu returned to Tokyo and the social satire of WHAT DID THE LADY FORGET? for this genial, comic examination of the routines of marriage and how well the traditional folk virtues embodied by the unpretentious Mokichi stand up in a flashily modernized, bourgeois setting. “An exquisite, lovely movie, nearly as masterful as TOKYO STORY.”—NEWSWEEK. “A classic Ozu work.”—Vincent Canby, THE NEW YORK TIMES. (115 mins.)

APRIL 10 11 SAT 7 pm, SUN 7:15 pm
GUILD THEATRE
THE END OF SUMMER
JAPAN 1961
DIRECTOR: YASUJIRO OZU "One of Ozu’s most beautiful films, and one of his most disturbing" —Donald Richie. The aging head of a family who runs a sake business in Osaka takes up with his former mistress. His three daughters disapprove, including the youngest, whose marriage has yet to be arranged. What begins as social comedy, played out in lush, late summer environs, suddenly darkens when the randy old man has a heart attack. Ozu’s penultimate film, THE END OF SUMMER is both a classic family saga, in the lineage of such works as TOKYO STORY, and a retrospective of his favorite themes and characters. Ozu’s compositional sense is as exquisite as ever and the film’s late sequences have a moving directness that suggests the director was facing his own mortality.” —Cinematheque Ontario. (103 mins.)

APRIL 14 WED 7 pm
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
TOKYO TWILIGHT
JAPAN 1957
DIRECTOR: YASUJIRO OZU “TOKYO TWILIGHT takes place in a dark, wintry Tokyo, a nocturnal town of smoke-filled bars and seedy mahjong parlors. Chishu Ryu plays a father whose wife left him years ago with a subordinate, and whom he has made his daughters Takako (Setsuko Hara) and Akiko believe are dead. At a time of crisis for both sisters —Takako returning to her family home following an argument with her abusive husband, Akiko seeking an abortion after a futile search for her boyfriend—the long-missing mother makes a visit to Tokyo with her new husband to devastating result. One of Ozu's darkest films that courts melodrama as it paints the picture of a forlorn generation severed from past traditions and bereft of hope for the future.”—Film Society of Lincoln Center. (141 mins.)

APRIL 17 18 SAT 7 pm, SUN 4:30 pm
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON
JAPAN 1962
DIRECTOR: YASUJIRO OZU “Ozu’s last film and one of his most sublime. Distilled and rending, suffused with an autumnal sense of the end of things, but often gently humorous in its satire of contemporary Japan, AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON returns to a favorite Ozu theme: a widower’s decision to marry off his only daughter, despite her objections. It is the last panel in that great fresco, which so completely captures Japan as it, is . . .The simplicity of the picture is the result of a style brought to perfection. Nothing is wanting, nothing is extraneous. At the same time there is an extraordinary intensification in the film—it is autumn again, but now it is deep autumn. Winter was always near, but now it will be tomorrow"—Donald Richie. "Ozu at his most breathtakingly assured" —Tom Milne (113 mins.)