A simple story about a mother's sacrifices to enable her son to get a secondary school education, and his subsequent struggle as an adult to be financially successful in Tokyo.
The heart for Ozu's first talkie is certainly in the right place, but at times I confess it became tedious, even with its short 82 minute runtime. It was also hard to connect to a guy who shows his gratitude to his mother by not telling her when he gets married, or when she becomes a grandma. I felt his shame for not having gotten a better job and his desire to impress her with the city, as well as the pathos of how it's turning out for him (that incinerator shot is practically like dreams going up in smoke), but the film is pretty limited in exploring the emotional spectrum for any of these characters, the women especially.
Instead, the filler material is delicately constructed scenes meant to show how humble these lives are, and how the pain of worry (the mom) and disappointment (the son) are hidden beneath the front of false smiles. Some of it worked, but a lot of it just seemed rather banal to me. Meanwhile, 1936 was a turning point for Japan in several ways politically, which made me perk up at a couple of references to Germany (the film they attend and the travel poster on the wall), but the references are rather faint. Overall, not awful, but only mildly interesting.
The heart for Ozu's first talkie is certainly in the right place, but at times I confess it became tedious, even with its short 82 minute runtime. It was also hard to connect to a guy who shows his gratitude to his mother by not telling her when he gets married, or when she becomes a grandma. I felt his shame for not having gotten a better job and his desire to impress her with the city, as well as the pathos of how it's turning out for him (that incinerator shot is practically like dreams going up in smoke), but the film is pretty limited in exploring the emotional spectrum for any of these characters, the women especially.
Instead, the filler material is delicately constructed scenes meant to show how humble these lives are, and how the pain of worry (the mom) and disappointment (the son) are hidden beneath the front of false smiles. Some of it worked, but a lot of it just seemed rather banal to me. Meanwhile, 1936 was a turning point for Japan in several ways politically, which made me perk up at a couple of references to Germany (the film they attend and the travel poster on the wall), but the references are rather faint. Overall, not awful, but only mildly interesting.