Synopsis
An errant salaryman's son gets lost until a man from the Tokyo tenements brings him to vendor Tane, who's reluctant to let the kid board.
Record of a Tenement Gentleman
1947 ‘長屋紳士録’ Directed by Yasujirō Ozu
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Alternative Titles
Diary of a Tenement Gentleman, Erzählungen eines Nachbarn, Història de l'home de la pensió, Chi è di un inquilino, Memorias de un inquilino, Жизнеописание 'некоего господина' из барака, Zapiski wlasciciela czynszowej kamienicy, Note di un inquilino galantuomo, Historia de un vecindario, Récit d'un propriétaire, Nagaya shinshiroku, Discurso de Um Proprietário, 셋방살이의 기록
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A walk through the empty landscape of post war Japan. Bizarre Ozu, most of what one expect of him is there, just upside down. Almost an Oshima forerunner.
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Another grinding, unsentimental, cinematic landscape that looks and behaves like Italian neorealism. Hell yes! My kind of shiz. Not as depressing as AN INN IN TOKYO (1935), there's a surprising amount of bitter-sweet comedy to ease the gloom, but it does hit some sobering notes related to child-parent separation that echo Ozu's previous films like THE ONLY SON (1936) and THERE WAS A FATHER (1942). Don't be fooled by how deceptively simple this premise is. On the surface, it's a redemption story of a stone-hearted widow forced to take care of a homeless child and the bond that grows between them. Very touching and beautifully acted. Dig a little deeper, look to the rubbled mis-en-scene, and you begin to see…
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Ozu shot his first post-World War II film after a hiatus of five years at a time of severe economic and social crisis in Japan, reflected memorably in its milieu of a partially destroyed downtown district of Tokyo whose inhabitants are leading transient lives and scratching around for a living.
The story Ozu chooses to convey is a deceptively simple one, that of a lost boy (Hohi Aoki) foisted upon an outwardly heard-hearted woman (that doyenne of Japanese character actresses, Chôko Iida) who, without overt sentimentality, slowly warm to each other over the course of a few days before the return of a hitherto offscreen character concludes proceedings in a bittersweet manner..
This might have been a dreary piece but…
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Welcome to Juno's Flavours of Ozu. An Ozu season created by one of Letterboxd's best members.
Today is Ozu's birthday, and (tragically) his death day. What better time, then, to watch another one of his celebrated works.This is a lovely film. It is suffused with post-war pessimism and actual desolation, a depressed society in so many sense of the word. Yet, it is a tale of how growth and human connection take us out of this. It works better as an allegory, in which the child is a symbol for something new: for an innocent growth and a new direction.
As a literal text, it is charming if overly constructed. Our child doesn't convince as an actual child, more…
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14th Yasijurō Ozu (after Late Spring, An Autumn Afternoon, Equinox Flower, Good Morning, Tokyo Story, Early Summer, I Was Born But..., Tokyo Twilight, Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family, I Graduated But..., Floating Weeds, Late Autumn and A Straightforward Boy)
The bleakest film by Ozu that I've seen so far, Record is pregnant with the trauma of WW2. This film was the first he made after that period and it reflects the deeply shaken faith the Japanese people had in their own society. The lives of a group of tenement dwellers are disrupted by the presence of a little boy estranged from his father. Passed around the community. he eventually winds up with a cranky old lady who really…
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Even with his lesser works, Ozu proves to be excellent director and here the subtle humor with its wonderful details as well as the human drama with its Chekhovian turns truly draws from the things he was always good at and was going to master later. Actually, it's hard to say if it really is a "lesser work" because everything is good in it - perhaps I just made an assumption that could be turned other way around, this obscure gem that took years to find is definitely lesser seen, not necessarily a lesser film. Hell, while thinking about it and writing this, I'm raising the rating from four to five for I honestly cannot realize what could be at fault here. Perhaps only the reason that Ozu was so consistently masterful makes it hard to find "lesser films" and we might find flaws where they actually do not exist. Perfect film I guess.
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Only Ozu could realize the poetry of a piss-stained blanket blowing in the wind.
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In Nagaya shinshiroku, Ozu explores themes such as abandonment, loneliness and the everyday life of a society that is beginning a difficult process of reconstruction with his characteristic sensitivity. Through this simple story of the bond that emerges between a grumpy woman and an innocent-looking child abandoned in post-war Japan, the director invites us to reflect on ourselves, individualism and the importance of being solidary and empathetic not only in difficult times. The story takes a while to settle down and may feel underdeveloped, but it ends up rewarding the viewer with moving moments like the scene at the beach and that of the orphaned children playing in Ueno Park.
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This one is funny, which is probably why I’m rating it higher than the other Ozus. Call me a sucker for comedy, but I also found the story genuinely touching, kind of a reverse Kid With A Bike narrative where the kid is more or less a good kid, and the woman takes him despite being extremely reluctant to do so. Saw a few people cite the ending as somewhat cheap, but I think it works because the narrative is not about the boy finding a mother, but the mother learning to love someone else and thus herself, which can only happen in his absence.
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oh, ozu. your films never fail to either have me weeping like a baby or flat out sobbing by the time they’re over.
his craft and method is just something i have so much love and admiration for. it’s hard to find beauty in life when you’re so consumed and worn out by routine, but it’s films like these that just remind us to stop and smell the roses when we can. ughhh my heart
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Oh my God, that relationship between those two! Every facial expression, every little gesture. It was so incredibly adorable! This is a example of a small picture delivering in a big way. I'd go as par as say it's my favorite Yasujirô Ozu film so far!