There Was a Father (“Chichi Ariki”)
Directed Yasujiro Ozu
Written by Tadao Ikeda, Yasujiro Ozu, and Takao Yanai
1942/Japan
Shochiku Eiga
First viewing/Hulu Plus
[box]The camellia against the moss of the temple, the violet hues of the Kyoto mountains, a blue porcelain cup — this sudden flowering of pure beauty at the heart of ephemeral passion: is this not something we all aspire to? And something that, in our Western civilization, we do not know how to attain?
The contemplation of eternity within the very movement of life. — Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog[/box]
I love the films of Yasujiro Ozu but this one, although exquisitely shot, was slow going for me.
Widower Shuhei Horikawa is raising his young son Ryohei. He teaches at a junior high school in Tokyo. When he takes the class on an outing, some of the boys disobey him by taking rowboats out on a lake. One of the boats capsizes and a boy drowns. Shuhei believes he could have been more forceful in preventing the tragedy and decides he can no longer be responsible for other people’s children. He moves with Ryohei to his home town in the north and begins working on an assembly line.
Shuhei’s total focus is on getting Ryohei a good education. He sends him off to a boarding school for junior high. The boy’s separation from his father leaves a life long yearning in his heart. Later, Shuhei decides he can make more money in Tokyo and even the weekly visits with his son must stop to be replaced by very occasional time together in the summer. The boy graduates from university and becomes a teacher himself. When he tells his father he want to quit and find work in Tokyo so they can live together at last, Shuhei disagrees saying that everyone’s great duty in these times is to put aside personal concerns and concentrate on doing one’s best in his chosen profession.
Even though by the end Ryohei has passed his physical for the draft, this is not treated as a matter of concern and the viewer would otherwise have no clue that total war was in the real life backdrop to this movie. I found Ozu’s transition shots – to household objects, scenery, etc. – to linger longer than usual and to drag down the pace of this movie. The understated love between father and son is quite touching and the ending is very moving but I unfortunately found this one less contemplative than just plain slow.
The viewing experience was admittedly marred by the poor print and sound quality of the version I watched.
Clip – going away
