Biography for
Yasujirô Ozu More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

12 December 1903, Tokyo, Japan

Date of Death

12 December 1963, Tokyo, Japan (cancer)

Height

5' 6½" (1.69 m)

Mini Biography

Tokyo-born Yasujiro Ozu was a movie buff from childhood, often playing hooky from school in order to see Hollywood movies in his local theater. In 1923 he landed a job as a camera assistant at Shochiku Studios in Tokyo. Three years later he was made an assistant director and directed his first film the next year, Blade of Penitence (1927). Ozu made 35 silent films, and a trilogy of youth comedies with serious overtones he turned out in the late 1920s and early 1930s placed him in the front ranks of Japanese directors. He made his first sound film in 1936, The Only Son (1936), but was drafted into the Japanese Army the next year, being posted to China for two years and then to Singapore when World War II started. Shortly before the war ended he was captured by British forces and spent six months in a POW facility. At war's end he went back to Shochiku, and his experiences during the war resulted in his making more serious, thoughtful films at a much slower pace than he had previously. His most famous film, Tokyo Story (1953), is generally considered by critics and film buffs alike to be his "masterpiece" and is regarded by many as not only one of Ozu's best films but one of the best films ever made. He also turned out such classics of Japanese film as Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952), Floating Weeds (1959) and An Autumn Afternoon (1962).

Ozu, who never married and lived with his mother all his life, died of cancer in 1963, two years after she passed away.

IMDb Mini Biography By: frankfob2@yahoo.com

Trade Mark

Rigorous use of static camera positioned only a few feet from floor

Recurring theme of changes in post-war Japanese family and society (Tokyo Story (1953), Floating Weeds (1959)).

The presence of the color red in his color films

Characters looking directly into the camera

Shots that violate the 180 degree rule (The rule states that cameras filming a conversation must stay on one side of an imaginary line drawn between two people talking or continuity will be broken).

Shots begin before anyone occupies them

Usually uses a frame within the film frame

Family, marriage, parents, leaving the family and traveling are prominent themes in his films.

Trivia

Retrospective at the 53rd Berlin International Film Festival. [2003]

Retrospective in 2003 at the 27th São Paulo International Film Festival

Biography in John Wakeman, editor, "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945," pp. 850-858. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.

Thirty-four-film Retrospective during 2005 at Northwest Film Forum in Seattle.

Thought of as the world's greatest director by many film critics and theorists alike.

It's often thought that he placed the camera at the eye level of a person kneeling on a Tatami mat. Actually, it's often lower than that, only one or two feet off the ground.

His grave bears no name, just the character 'mu' ("nothingness").

Remained single and childless all of his life and lived alone with his mother, who died less than two years before his own death.

Personal Quotes

I have formulated my own directing style in my head, proceeding without any unnecessary imitation of others.

Watching Fantasia (1940) I understood we could never win the war. "These people seem to like complications", I thought to myself.

About this time [late 1950s], CinemaScope was getting popular. I wanted to have nothing to do with it, and consequently I shot more close-ups and used shorter shots.