|
|
List Price: $44.95 Amazon.com's Price: $25.49 You Save: $19.46 (43%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1Audience Rating: Unrated Binding: DVD Brand: Image Entertainment EAN: 0715515029124 Format: Box set, Black & White, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Silent, Subtitled Item Dimensions: Label: Criterion Collection Languages: Manufacturer: Criterion Collection MPN: IMEDECL045D Number Of Items: 3 Publisher: Criterion Collection Region Code: 1 Release Date: April 22, 2008 Running Time: 280 minutes Studio: Criterion Collection Editorial Review: Product Description: Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 04/22/2008 Amazon.com: Tenth in the Eclipse Series, Criterion's effort to reintroduce "lost, forgotten, and overshadowed classics," Silent Ozu includes three early Yasujiro Ozu films that are incredibly entertaining with or without the piano scores offered by Donald Sosin. Ozu, the master of bittersweet family dramas, apparently based later films on these three--Tokyo Chorus (1931), I Was Born But… (1932), and Passing Fancy (1933)--though there is no lack of action, passion, or cinematic revelry in these prototypes. Crafted at Shochiku studios, each film reveals an everyman's struggle to pay bills and raise children. Not only do these movies offer slice-of-life glimpses into 1930s Japan, but they also honor familial roles with humor and respect. It is Ozu's ability to cut from emotional pain to comedy and back again that lends his films such deep humanity. In Tokyo Chorus, a family struggling through unemployment and illness bond during tribulations they face. Shinji Okajima's (Tokihiko Okada) son (Hideo Sugawara) asks for a bike right before Okajima loses his position at an insurance office. Disparities between what is desired and what is provided grow from there. When daughter Miyoko (Hideko Takamine) needs hospitalization, Okajima and his wife stoop lower socially than they wish to make ends meet. The family's determination undercuts their poverty. When Okajima tells his wife, "I feel I'm getting old, I've lost my spirit," she offers to help him pass flyers out to drum up restaurant business where he works. Hilarious scenes, such as when the insurance office workers line up in the loo to secretly peek into cash bonus envelopes, make the most of silent physical comedy. Passing Fancy is similar, though the impoverished father, Kihachi (Takeshi Sakamoto), works to locate a wife to mother his hooligan son. I Was Born But… is the funniest of the three, with its Little Rascals like attention to the child's point of view. It opens with a shot of car wheels spinning in mud, since Mr. Yoshii (Tatsuo Saito) has just moved his family from suburban Azabu to Tokyo. As Yoshii slaves to improve his employment status, comedic scenes focus on his two sons, Ryoichi (Hideo Sugawara) and Keiji (Tomio Aoki), who continuously ward off local bullies while trying to please their dad. When the boys ditch class to avoid getting beat up, the younger remembers that he was "supposed to get an E in calligraphy today." Lying in a meadow, he does his lesson and recruits a passerby to forge a good grade on his paper. Later, after classmates swallow raw sparrow eggs to impress each other, the two stars feed their eggs to the family dog, accidentally sickening him. Scenes become funnier as tensions build between the parents and their rebellious sons. It is amazing how much Ozu can achieve with so little dialogue, which crops up sparingly printed on cards. One may wonder if sound these days even improves our film viewing experience. In the least, Silent Ozu recalls quieter times, when perhaps just as much narrative was expressed. --Trinie Dalton Average Rating:
 Rating: - MOVIES THAT SHOW AMERICAN AND JAPAN ARE ALIKE IN ALOTA WAYSEverything everybody here has said about these superb silent movies is true. Beyond that, these fine films show that silent Japanese films were every bit as good as our American movies then, and that the values, natures and problems in Japan and America then were pretty much the same. (Of course I've haven't yet run into a Chaplain, Keaton or Laurel and Hardy in Japanese silent films. But Oza certainly measures up to our best directors, then and now.) I expect our societies and arts ... Read More Rating: - A delightful glimpse into silent JapanAfter receiving high acclaim for his special cinematic style in directing movies of the `40s and `50s, it's about time the world saw some of Yasujiro Ozu's earlier work in the silent medium, and this excellent set of three films from the early 1930s balances the scales nicely. Best remembered for his realistic portrayals of family life in medium-class Japan, Ozu obviously developed his remarkable insight into human nature and relationships already in the 1920s, as these three family comedies clearly ... Read More Rating: - A resounding scream of silence.From the director of such classics as Late Spring, Tokyo Story, and Floating Weeds, Criterion brings us a 3-disc collection from Japanese auteur Yasujiro Ozo. Although he has not yet reached the wide-spread acclaim of fellow countryman Akira Kurosawa, Ozu is starting to gain the recognition that he rightfully deserves. Ozu began his career as a cameraman, and with hard work and determination he finally ascended the ladder to director. Once his position was earned, Ozu poured his creativity ... Read More Rating: - Short and sweetPicture quality is often patchy, but it's probably the best they could get. That's the only minus, and it's completely cancelled out by the fact that these three lovely films are available. If you're new to Ozu this probably isn't the place to start, but if you've been developing a taste for him for awhile, dive right in. Rating:  - funny!it was my first time to watch a silent movie and i thought this movie was quite fun! this movie is based on the time frame that when Japan's economy grew and more people moved to a big city to work; emergence of white collar workers. the ordinal family decided to move outside the city in order to live closer to father's boss. the story tells us how kids encounter this change and society. in one part, a kid forgot to bring his chopsticks. this was pretty funny and it reminds me my school ... Read More |
