Otona no miru ehon - Umarete wa mita keredo (1932)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Yasujiro Ozu

Writers:

Akira Fushimi (scenario)
Geibei Ibushiya (adaptation)

Release Date:

3 June 1932 (Japan)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

Two young brothers become the leaders of a gang of kids in their neighborhood. Their father is an office...

Plot Keywords:

Family Relationships | Innocence | School | Brother Brother Relationship | Train

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Tatsuo Saito	...	Chichi (Father, Yoshi)
Tomio Aoki	...	Keiji (as Tokkan-Kozou)
Mitsuko Yoshikawa	...	Haha (Yoshi's Wife)
Hideo Sugawara	...	Chounan (Older Son)
Takeshi Sakamoto	...	Juuyaku (Iwasaki, Executive)
Teruyo Hayami	...	Fujin (Iwasaki's wife)
Seiichi Kato	...	Kodomo (Taro)
Shoichi Kofujita	...	Kozou (Delivery boy)
Seiji Nishimura	...	Sensei (Teacher)
Zentaro Iijima	...	Asobi nakama (Friend)
Shôtarô Fujimatsu	...	Asobi nakama (Friend)
Masao Hayama	...	Asobi nakama (Friend)
Michio Sato	...	Asobi nakama (Friend)
Kuniyasu Hayashi	...	Asobi nakama (Friend)
Akio Nomura	...	Asobi nakama (Friend)

Also Known As:

Children of Tokyo (USA)
I Was Born, But... (International: English title)
Umarete wa mita keredo (Japan) (short title)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

None

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

Shochiku Kinema Kenkyû-jo

Movie Connections:

Featured in 100 Years of Japanese Cinema (1994) (TV)

Powerful and Heartbreaking Familiar Drama

In the 30s, a low middle-class family composed of the father (Tatsuo Saito), the mother (Mitsuko Yoshikawa) and two little sons (Hideo Sugawara and Tomio Aoki) has just moved to a suburb of Tokyo. The two brothers have some sort of adaptation problem with the kids in their neighborhood, but they feel protected with their beloved father, and they become leaders of the gang of boys. Their father is a clerk in an office, and his director lives in the same neighborhood, and he tries to be promoted in his job being a servile flatterer of his boss. One night, the boys find that his father has a silly behavior in his job to please his boss, and they lose the respect for their father, questioning him why he can not be the director of the company.

This is the first movie of Yasujito Ozu that I have watched, since none of his films has been released on video or DVD in Brazil. This month, a Brazilian cable television is presenting four movies of this great director. I was really impressed with such powerful and heartbreaking fight of classes' familiar drama. I was expecting a movie like François Truffault's "Les Quatre Cents Coups", or Luis Buñuel's "Los Olvidados", or Hector Babenco's "Pixote: A Lei do Mais Fraco". However, the story is not focused in juvenile delinquents, but only low-middle class children and the specific drama of a worker's family, when the little boys do not understand the social hierarchy and why their father is not better than the father of one boy of their gang. The performance of the cast is very natural, and the direction is amazing, having an adequate pace and transmitting the sensations and feelings of the characters without sound to the viewers. My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): "Meninos de Tóquio" ("Boys From Tokyo")