Good Morning (The Criterion Collection)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Chishu Ryu, Haruko Sugimura, Keiji Sada, Kuniko Miyake, Yoshiko KugaBrand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Japanese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 94 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-08-22
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of Good Morning (The Criterion Collection)
Movie Review: Ozu is 5 Stars
If you cannot grasp subtle concepts... if you need a film to lead you around by the nose... if you need lots of moving shots and tricky camera angles... then DON'T WATCH ANY OZU FILMS!!!!!Ozu is one of the greatest and most stubborn directors in my opinion (and in most film critics' opinions). This is one of my favorite films of his.
First about Yasujiro Ozu: Ozu does not move the camera. EVER. It sits 6 to 12 inches from the ground, as if the viewer were sitting on a tatami mat as a casual and silent observer. His actors rehearse constantly and rapidly so that all major emotion is taken out of their scene and they act their scenes as if robotic and emotionless. His underlying themes, messages, and meanings are left for the viewer to fathom. Ozu was pretty set in his ways... he didn't make a color film until the studio forced him, and it was much later than most other Japanese directors. He also clung to silent films well after 'talkies' were out.
This film is about two brothers who are obsessed with television (relatively new in the late 40s, early 50s Japan). They undergo a vow of silence (after being chastised by their father for talking too much) until their parents buy a TV. This creates a lot of understated humor. What I really enjoyed was the gossip and hatefulness that went rampant with the ladies in the neighborhood. One neighbor mistakes the boy's silence as a personal affront and begins spreading rumors.
The acting is superb, especially from the kids (kids are notoriously tough to coach and with Ozu's idiosyncrasies would seem even tougher... but the brothers are superb in this film). The film features the usual suspects, actors contracted to be used in Ozu's films by the studio. I thoroughly enjoy these actors, and after time they do seem to adapt more and more to Ozu's style and demands.
The film also touches a lot on the capitalism of a growing Japan, a theme he touches on repeatedly throughout his filmography. There is also an element of love, another of his repeating themes. An interesting side theme is about communication, how humans spend so much time saying little things (like talking about the weather, etc...).
This is not really a remake of his older film as much as a re-imagining of his older film: (I was born but...).
If you have the patience to watch Ozu, then this is surely on his must see list. The Criterion translation and transfer is superb, as always.
Summary of Good Morning (The Criterion Collection)
Ozu's hilarious Technicolor re-working of his silent I Was Born, But. . ., Good Morning (Ohayo) is the story of two young boys in suburban Tokyo who take a vow of silence after their parents refuse to buy them a television set. Shot from the perspective of the petulant brothers, Good Morning is an enchantingly satirical portrait of family life that gives rise to gags about romance, gossip, and the consumerism of modern Japan.By the time he made Good Morning in 1959, Yasujiro Ozu had completely eliminated camera movement from his uniquely simple but elegant directorial style. He chose instead to emphasize static but meticulously purposeful compositions that rarely, if ever, wavered from their recognizable low-angle perspective. In Good Morning, this observational approach is put to sublime use to establish setting (a late-'50s Tokyo suburb) and to view the world through the eyes of the film's central characters?-two young brothers who take a mutual vow of silence to protest their parents' refusal to buy a TV set. Their father claims that television will create "a million idiots," while their mother is angered by the boys' neglect of schoolwork in favor of watching sumo wrestling on a neighbor's TV.
In Ozu's hands, this sublimely simple conflict inspires a comedic exploration of Japan at the dawn of its electronic age, when consumerism and materialism are in vogue, salesmen solicit their wares in constant door-to-door visits, and even the purchase of a washing machine can prompt neighbors into a frenzy of gossipy speculation. Funniest of all are the conspiratorial brothers, who play an amusing variation of "pull my finger" (proving that even great directors can indulge a fart joke if they choose), and employ their silent strategy with the stubbornness that only children can get away with. Through it all, Ozu develops a handful of intermingling themes of love, communication, goodwill, and the changing of societal traditions. Utterly simple on the surface, Good Morning reveals its complexity in careful proportion, with the affectionate humanity that was Ozu's greatest gift. --Jeff Shannon
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