Popular reviews

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  Review by Melissa Tamminga ★★★★ 6

  “Can your dads take out their teeth like my dad?”

  Jostlings for superiority, shufflings for power, and contests of strength – flurries of action that settle into hierarchies – these games are played out in the neighborhood spaces where boys vie for sparrows’ eggs and in the workspace where men vie for the biggest laugh from the boss. Who eventually becomes general, who becomes lieutenant general, and who becomes the one slain by an invisible bullet firing forth from the finger of another is as arbitrary and ridiculous as it is terribly serious.

  The revelation that a father’s position relies on such arbitrary and demeaning ridiculousness disrupts two boys’ own sense of position and self. Indignant and grand, the boys…

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  Review by Joshua Dysart ★★★★★ 16

  Which is boldest in your memory? Remembering the first time you realized your father was a buffoon? Or the first time you realized the world was divided into stratified economic caste classes that would, to a lesser or greater degree, hold sway over the rest of your life?

  Or was it when it dawned on you that the two might be deeply related to one another?

  Ozu’s soft power is always his ability to delicately pick apart society. Not just his society. Not society as a cultural construct. But all society. Society as a human construct. He often wields this power while being extremely funny, and this time, overwhelmingly, authentically adorable.

  The two brothers are off-the-charts. No sap here, just…

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  Review by Sally Jane Black

  This is a reserved, quiet explication of the anarchic ideas of Zero for Conduct with a core of sorrow. It's astonishing how elegantly this film depicts coming-of-age disillusionment, acknowledges the futility of (being born?) a life in such a world, and still retain a certain feeling of child-like joy in the wide open world. There's more than one shot where both brothers do the same thing, one brother slightly behind the other, walking along in unison, and every time it happened, I just felt my brain bleed in some sort of twisted delight at the visual, even when it was a sad one.

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  Review by Avalyn Wu ★★★★★

  So much of this film is about eating, how it offers escape, how it serves as a means of protest and how it can then offer reconciliation. Perhaps it’s the best these kids can make of being trapped in a class system, where they realize that superheroes don’t exist.

  Seen at Anthology Film Archives in New York City in 35mm

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  Review by Ziglet_mir ★★★★★ 10

  Viewed with the Amazing Edith’s Collab Film Group. I’m mixing it up this week and not giving an actual review, but a Zig original. This film hit deep, and I still don’t think I did it justice.

  
  I Was Born But…

  something in the distance warbles,
  anticipating tomorrow.
  My eyes open and close,
  open and close,
  open and close,
  Eclipsing the horizon;
  Adulthood or war
  as an answer to:

  Will they live the same sorry lives we have?

  Sometimes tears have fallen from my eyes as they open and close,
  open and close,
  a drop wading in a puddle,
  looks West at the Day's long shutter,
  screeching to an end that turns into a newborn's cry.
  It asks:

  Will we be…

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  Review by BrandonHabes ★★★★½ 2

  I was born, but then I grew up and learned that hero worship is a bitch of a thing. I was born, but then I grew up and discovered that real power is not acquired by what I learned on the playground and schoolyards. Power and hero worship are the twin pillars of Ozu's domestic, coming-of-age, cross-examining tale between old and young generations. Keiji and Ryoichi, two young brothers bullied by a gang of neighborhood kids, have a very specific image of how power is gained. 

  If the bullies beat them up, they must find an even bigger bully to beat them up. Power is brute force. Power is outfighting your enemies. Even mythically, power for these boys means eating raw…

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  Review by Jake Cole ★★★★★ 2

  One of the funniest silent comedies, and also one of the hardest-hitting as it completes the shift Tokyo Circus signaled from Lloyd to Chaplin. The camera at last gets low to the ground here, though appropriately less out of any sudden stylistic shift than Ozu's shrewd attempt to film the movie from the perspective of his child protagonists. Both of the boys (all the child actors, really) are outstanding, but it's Tomio Aoki who steals it with his trademark impishness, so defiant that when he even mouths off to adults, at times he seems to intimidate even them (though his peers are always ready with a slap). The way all of the kids cry in this—bodies going stiff as a…

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  Review by san ★★★

  Ozu was very passionate at directing parents, children, and family values from a very young age. Even in his early career, there is a strong theme on generational conflict present. I found it to be a realistic reflection on what parents tend to expect from their kids and vice versa; however, I wouldn’t necessarily compare this to his later, more masterful works.

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  Review by Darren Carver-Balsiger ★★★★½

  A minor masterpiece, I Was Born, But... is a totally genuine and heartfelt look at childhood, youth, and innocence. It's very believable, totally inoffensive, and a perfect capturing of youth. Whilst it seems totally trivial for the first hour (but utterly captivating nonetheless), it culminates in a final act full of harsh truths and realisations, leaving it with a tinge of sadness. In particularly, it touches upon class, wealth, and social hierarchies, but maintains its childish outlook to the end, where happiness and friendship prevail even when the world is not as simple as previously thought. I Was Born, But... is utterly charming and delightful, there might not be much to it, but it's a profound and enjoyable tale.

  Yasujiro Ozu Ranked
  My Top Films of the 1930s
  My Top Silent Films

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  Review by Remobo ★★★★ 7

  See Keiji
  See Ryoichi
  They have just moved to a new town.
  They have to go to a new school to learn.
  Learn, learn, learn.

  See Kennosuke
  He watches his boys very closely to make sure that they grow up smart and strong.
  Watch, watch, watch.
  He works very hard to give them the things he never had, and hopes that they won't ever have to work as hard as he has.
  Work, work, work.

  See the boys at school.
  They don't like school.
  It is hard work.
  Work, work, work.
  They must learn calligraphy.
  They must learn math.
  They must learn the hierarchies of social existence.
  Learn, learn, learn.

  See the boys.
  See father.
  They were having a fun…

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  Review by Graham ★★★½ 2

  The opening sequence is about as far from an Ozu stereotype as you could imagine, with a 20s-style Hollywood silent movie piano plinkety-plonk supporting a slapstick broken-car recovery. This is more Buster Keaton or Chaplin than Ozu.

  I Was Born, But… was created in the early 30s and as such was one of Ozu's first proper feature films, 21 years before the majesty of Tokyo Story graced the silver screen. As a story-boarded silent film it's very different of course, and yet shows the familial, child-like approach for which the director later became known, along with his obvious talent for framing. A director 'in the making' if you will.

  This is a simple tale of growing up that reminds us…

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  Review by Paul Elliott ★★★★

  With strong comedic performances by everyone involved, especially Tomio Aoki and Hideo Sugawara, I Was Born, But... illustrates that it's legendary director Yasujiro Ozu had a firm aptitude for combining elements of light entertainment with his trademark social commentary. He makes delightful use of a great script from screenwriter Akira Fushimi, which although commences as an unruly satire unexpectedly changes gears to incorporate a darker mood. This movie is another beautiful example of Ozu’s proficiencies and temperaments as a filmmaker and discerns him formulating moments of deadpan comedy to slapstick hilarity.