Good Morning
1959 ‘Ohayô’ Directed by Yasujirō Ozu
Synopsis
Two boys beg their parents for a television set, nagging them until all patience is lost. The parents order the boys to be quiet and the boys do exactly that--refusing to utter a word. The boys' silence ultimately puts the whole neighborhood into turmoil.
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Popular reviews
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Ohayō is a gentle, unassuming and incredibly generous slice of inner city Tokyo, crammed full of the most delightfully delivered fart jokes.
Outlining any sort story seems rather presumptuous, kind of like forcing structural rules on Ozu that he clearly wasn’t interested in following. The dvd case would have you believe that Ohayō is about two young boys who go on a silent strike in protest of their parents’ refusal to buy a television set. That happens, but there is so much more going on in the film that it would be hard to claim that that is what the film is “about”. In fact, Ozu manages to capture life in such a way that his film doesn’t need to…
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Exquisite comedy from Ozu, effectively portraying the lives of women and children in post-war Japan. The regular themes are here: family strain, the influence of technological advances, budding romance, and the parent/child dynamic. Yet here, the comic touch is in full force, Ozu missing no opportunity for jokes. The camerawork is consistently excellent, beautifully utilizing depth of field and color to create a visually engaging experience that resonates with real life.
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Wonderful little comedy from Yasujiro Ozu in the late 50s. Funny, delightful, compassionate and well-told, it is a typically excellent serving of the greatness that flourished in Ozu's later career, reminiscent of early films such as I Was Born, But...
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Cracking film about post-war Japan and the recovery aspirations. Centre stage goes to the boob-tube, idiot box; call it what you want.
Recent reviews
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Exquisite comedy from Ozu, effectively portraying the lives of women and children in post-war Japan. The regular themes are here: family strain, the influence of technological advances, budding romance, and the parent/child dynamic. Yet here, the comic touch is in full force, Ozu missing no opportunity for jokes. The camerawork is consistently excellent, beautifully utilizing depth of field and color to create a visually engaging experience that resonates with real life.
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Unstoppable interests of the youth collide with immovable provinces of their elders. Things can't reconcile in good time, as you may have presumed.
What makes Good Morning the exception to something of an Ozu rule -- what makes it a welcome exception, more to the point -- is an unshakeable optimism in the shape of things, the way people will handle the world after those meant to teach have made their departure. (In layman's terms, it didn't have me softly crying for ten minutes following its conclusion, thank you very much Late Spring.) But the man's far too much of a sage to let that be the long and short of it, and something about Morning -- possibly, if not…
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All the attitudes are so American: from the 'Leave it to Beaver' style "Modern Japan" look of the postwar fifties, to the interesting but generally buried story of two flatulent youths giving their parents the silent treatment until they receive a television, to the gossipy wives of men - everyone constantly complaining of being poor but looking rather comfortable. Maybe it was the flatulence in an Ozu movie I had a little trouble with.
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An absolute delight from start to finish. This is only the second of Ozu's films that I have seen after Tokyo Story so what a surprise to have it start with a kid forcing a fart only to shit himself. And it only gets more giddy from there. A joyful tale of miscommunication and the importance of small talk in an age soon to be overcome by the anti-social technology of the television, Good Morning deserves a remake for a new generation of tweeters and hash taggers.
p.s. the little kid in this is impossibly cute.
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I received this movie by accident; I had ordered Masahiro Shinoda's "Double Suicide" and was surprised to instead find a film featuring flatulence and a silent protest to get a T.V. I think I lucked out, however, as this film was excellent. Not a whole lot happens, but I was entertained throughout. The conflict is rather mundane, but is treated with such sincerity that I couldn't help but enjoy it. I definitely want to check out some more Ozu.
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An update, of sorts, of Ozu's earlier 'I Was Born, But...' which sees black and white replaced with glorious 50s Kodak-era colour, silence filled with the everyday chatter and gossip of post-war, suburban Japan.
A sweet, gentle and wonderfully colourful comedy-drama which, though not quite the equal of the earlier film, still has lots to recommend.
It also features the single longest series of fart jokes I've ever seen. Seriously.
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Ohayō is a gentle, unassuming and incredibly generous slice of inner city Tokyo, crammed full of the most delightfully delivered fart jokes.
Outlining any sort story seems rather presumptuous, kind of like forcing structural rules on Ozu that he clearly wasn’t interested in following. The dvd case would have you believe that Ohayō is about two young boys who go on a silent strike in protest of their parents’ refusal to buy a television set. That happens, but there is so much more going on in the film that it would be hard to claim that that is what the film is “about”. In fact, Ozu manages to capture life in such a way that his film doesn’t need to…
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"Two brothers stop talking to force their parents to buy them a TV and cause unforeseen problems. This was a very funny look at Japanese society, manners and change."
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Sweet and touching - Ozu's films feel so effortless.