Nagaya shinshiroku (1947)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Yasujiro Ozu

Writers:

Tadao Ikeda (writer)
Yasujiro Ozu (writer)

Release Date:

20 May 1947 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

In post-war Japan, a man brings a lost boy to his tenement. No one wants to take the child for even one night; finally...

Cast

Chouko Iida	...	Tané
Hohi Aoki	...	Kohei
Eitarô Ozawa	...	Father
Mitsuko Yoshikawa	...	Kikuko
Reikichi Kawamura	...	Tamekichi
Hideko Mimura	...	Okiku
Chishu Ryu	...	Tashiro
Takeshi Sakamoto	...	Kawayoshi
Eiko Takamatsu	...	Tome
Taiji Tonoyama	...	Photographer

Also Known As:

The Record of a Tenement Gentleman

Runtime:

USA:72 min | Japan:72 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Shochiku Kinema Kenkyû-jo

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Ikite wa mita keredo - Ozu Yasujirô den (1983)

Very nice

A beautiful little film by Ozu, only 72 minutes long, about a young boy who was apparently abandoned by his father. He shacks up with Tané (exquisitely played by Choko Iida) for the first night, but when she can't find his father, he becomes a permanent fixture in her household. At first, she's bitter and mean about it. A middle-age widow, she believes, shouldn't have to deal with snotty-nosed bedwetters. But eventually her resolve weakens and she finds that she has missed a lot by never having had a child. The plotline is predictable and a little cliche (it's the kind of movie that Vittorio de Sica would be criticized relentlessly by trendy critics if he had directed it), but the breezy style of Ozu makes everything wonderful. It's really funny at times, and always very touching. I think it's the most enjoyable Ozu film, with the possible exception of I Was Born But..., that I've ever seen. 9/10.