June 25, 2007
Ozu: His Life and Films by Donald Richie
As mentioned in an earlier entry, I've wrapped up getting through Ozu: His Life and Films by Donald Richie, a fascinatingly detailed exploration into one of Japan's most "Japanese" directors.
Yasujiro Ozu began making films in the late 1920's, beginning first with a period film and ending dozens of films later with a body of highly influential work that is at once deceptively simplistic and plot-less, and at the same time deeply meaningful. His ability to say "No" shaped his directorial style as it evolved through increasing restraint in his cinematography. Even as he succumbed to "talkies" and color (but not the larger format of the "Scopes") he still retained those unique elements that defined his filmmaking style, which came together to reflect on a single common theme: the dissolution of the family.
Richie's book explores the work of Ozu by not simply running through a biography of the director (this is reserved for the last chapter), but instead following the path of the creation of his films from start to finish. A thorough analysis of each step of the way, from script to shooting to editing, is done with dozens of examples from his large body of work to illustrate each point. It's a bit heavy at times, especially having not watched much more than a small chunk of Ozu's films, but it's not a requirement that they all be seen before reading the book as the examples provide well enough description to make their point. In some ways there are spoilers, but an Ozu film really has no such thing.
I found much of the strength of this book to come from the thorough research on the part of Richie with plenty of bibliographic references, his thesis-like speculations on aspects of Ozu's filmmaking choices with plenty of backing evidence, and the analysis of his filmmaking style and methods which seem so counter-intuitive to what we are taught today much less what Japanese directors were doing at the time of his career. It's an informative and entertaining read, providing great insight into the process and methods of a highly influential director.