User reviews

I saw this film at a special screening at the Museum Of Modern Art in New York City with live piano accompaniment. I'm not sure we needed the piano, this is a really great comedy about two young brothers trying to fit in in a new place. They are faced with two things: Bullies and that they feel their father is a nobody since he works for one of the other neighborhood boy's father. The two brothers are great. The audience, which was a refreshingly large one, laughed freely through the film, as I did.This is my first Ozu film, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It depicts a child's world, what matters to them. It is a great silent film, the pace is good, it never drags. Not to be missed.

One of the very few silent films where you can hear the magic. Ozu directs I WAS BORN....BUT, the story of 2 brothers growing up in a small town Japan. Beautifully filmed with a wonderful, down to earth story of childhood joys and sorrows. Keep in mind, although sad, this was filmed in 1932. Just about every child in this film would grow up and fight (and most likely die) in World War 2. With this in mind, the film with hope and innocence. Still, knowing the possible future, you can't help but see the ending as somewhat sad.

This Ozu's early silent film was made when he was only 29, at a formative age, he has already acquired a keen eye on sieving the callous doctrine of the society's pecuniary pecking order through the lens of two kids' growing dismay and perplex.

Two school-age brothers Ryoichi (Sugawara) and Keiji (Aoki) are moving to suburbs with their parents, a shrewd move of their father Yoshi (Saitô, a virtuoso player jostle between primness and clownishness) to hobnob with his boss Iwasaki (Sakamoto). With a good salary, they can afford a better life here, but the boys have some difficulty to find their feet, especially when they are picked on by school bullies, led by a bigger kid (Iijima), they play truant and laze around, ask an older delivery boy (Kofujita) to forge teacher's signature, all child's play and they would be reprimanded by Yoshi when the lid is blown off. Nevertheless, Ozu applies a very gentle touch and a ludic attention in limning the boys' daily expediency to tackle with their problems (there are not enough sparrow's eggs in the world to beat their bully), and eventually the scale would be tipped when they are wise enough to crack the knack of how to succeed in becoming an alpha dog, even Taro (Katô), Iwasaki's son, has to pay deference to the boys' whims. (a children's game but so rapier-like in its connotation linked to the power struggle in the adult world.)

Then comes a blow, during a friends-gathering in Iwasaki's place, where films of daily vignettes are screened, a galling discovery would inflame the brothers' chutzpah to brazenly question their father's authority, "are you a successful person?", "why can't you be successful?", it is a blow to the brothers' unwitting but vaunted ego, which certainly doesn't tally with their young age, and is a corollary of a society spurred and indoctrinated by sheer competition and capitalism, even for kids, they are possessed with the idea of supremacy, power and hubris, which outstrips the parameter of childish mischief. In retrospect, the film grants us a gander into the frame-of-mind of a pre-WWII Japan, but not prescient enough to pinpoint a more perspicacious outlook, instead, an anodyne finale betrays Ozu's own perspective at that time.

The children in the film are well-trained scamps, endearing to watch, especially Tomio Aoki as the younger brother, transforms the disadvantage of his less photogenic looks into something archly expressive with all the gurning, imitating and feigning, a farceur is in the making. A minor grouch to Donald Sosin's persistent attendant score, a relentless cascade of tunefulness can certainly overstay its welcome. Anyhow, a lesser comedy branded with Ozu's name is still worth visiting, not the least for the sake of his masterful tutelage and coordination of his exuberant pupils in front of the camera.

To say that I Was Born, But…is funny and charming is like saying The Godfather is a crime drama. It is that but much more. Featuring outstanding child performances, this silent film by the great Yasijiro Ozu is both a satire on the rigid structure of Japanese society and a coming-of-age story about children learning to live in a less than perfect world. It is an enduring masterpiece that has maintained its universal appeal over the years.

In the film, eight-year old Keichi (Tomio Aoki) and his ten-year old brother Ryoichi (Hideo Sugawara) come to live in a small town in the suburbs of Tokyo after their father, Mr. Yoshii (Tatsuo Saito), an office clerk, receives a promotion. The transition to the suburbs, however, is not smooth. Neighborhood bullies taunt the boys, but they soon gain the upper hand with the help of a delivery boy (Shoichi Kojufita) who sends the main bully home crying. One of the neighborhood boys is Taro (Kato), the son of their father's employer Mr. Iwasaki (Takeshi Sakamoto) who seems to always be dressed in a black suit, befitting his station in life. The boys' behavior mirrors the adults with their games and power strategies including the very funny "resurrection" ritual.

The two boys' are in awe of their father and consider him great; however, their loyalty is tested when they see him clowning and acting like a buffoon in front of his employer while watching home movies at Iwasaki's home. Mr. Yoshii explains later that as Iwasaki owns the company where he works, he has to treat him with respect. In disgust the boys ask if they will have to bow to their friend Taro, the boss's son, when he grows up. Resentful after a spanking and dissatisfied with the answers they have received to their questions, they go on a hunger strike but it is short lived. After the father talks with them about the meaning of being an employee, everyone learns something about the realities of life.

Ozu seems to endorse acceptance of the status quo but, on reflection, it seems he is merely making observations rather than judgments. He is critical of the father for kowtowing to his employer, yet also sympathetic with the realities the family must face. The children have lost their innocence and must accept the fact that life isn't fair, but they also see that happiness can be achieved by rising above their prescribed status. Sadly, many of the boys shown in the movie had to fight and die in a bloody war only ten years later, in part a consequence of the rigid social structure Ozu satirized in the film.

I like Yasujiro Ozu's work, but, even after seeing some of those works that are generally considered best, I was still skeptical of his minimalist style. But then I saw the New Yorker VHS of the silent I Was Born, But...

Let me just say that it is absolutely amazing. It's a nearly perfect film, with great direction, great writing, great jokes, and great acting. This is easily one of the best film about children ever made. The story revolves around two young boys whose dad has just moved to the suburbs near his boss. The kids have some trouble fitting in, and a gang of bullies accost them at first. But soon they conquer the leader of the gang and supplant him.

Later in the film, the kids are challenged with their perception of their father. They think he's everything, of course, but they soon find out that he is only a salaryman. They watch his boss' movies, which include shots of the father fooling around for the entertainment of his employer. The children are flabberghasted, and rebel against their father. I have said it is a great film about childhood; it is also a great film about parenting, as the father and mother have to deal with their sons' disappointment.

Please, please watch this film, especially if you have been disappointed with other works such as Tokyo Story. In my opinion, I Was Born, But... is a much better film. 10/10.

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")

I reckon this film to be Ozu's best work, although he is well-known for his "Tokyo Story" (which is also magnificent). This is a satirical comedy about human relations. Ozu brilliantly contrasts children's world with adult one. The child actors make splendid performance, entirely different from the players who show wooden faces in the works of Ozu's later years. The children in this movie are innocent and casual. Ozu is often thought to be a serious artist but he is a gag man by nature. He scatters various gags over the film, tactfully handling the child actors. I really admire his comic sense. Yet the trenchant irony underlies the story. Two brothers are outraged by their father for his clownish and subservient actions in his office. However, they finally understand and accept the hierarchy in the adult world. In a way this is a story of their growth but at the same time it is very sad that they lose their innocence.

Ozu's silent films are interesting because they are so much more western in tone than his ever-so-Japanese sound films. The young director of silent films was much more playful than the filmmaker he became. Indeed, I can see the young Ozu hanging out on the street with a young Truffaut talking film and chasing girls. In what would come to be known as a very French-New-Wave kind of way, young Ozu was extremely meta-cinematic, constantly examining the role of his chosen medium in society and wearing his (surprisingly Hollywood-centric) influences on his sleeve. Much of this particular film is a cute-kid comedy, no more, no less. But it has one remarkable scene in which business men screen movies they've playfully, and not always respectfully, made of each other. The illusion of cinema is, for young Ozu, the revealer of reality, rather than its mystifier.

Several days ago I saw a perfect print provided to the PFA by the Japan Foundation, with benshi Midori Sawato accompanying. The performance, of course, was exquisite, if sedate in keeping with the film and Ozu's reputation. Whether by chance or ingenuity the PFA placed Sawato on a raised platform, so you couldn't look at her face without also seeing the film, or the film without seeing her. Her male intonations, though with at least no obvious satire, rival those of Laurie Anderson or Lily Tomlin. But I've been wondering what on earth to say about Ozu. He hadn't discovered yet his low camera angle, and the pacing's not quite as slow as it would become. I'm afraid all that's stayed with me that anyone else might not say, is that, perhaps oddly for a film about a typical family of four, Ozu's camera again and again frames groups of three. I can't remember whether he does this later. Maybe Ozu just liked an image size that makes three optimum. Already, without the formality to come, his frame was beginning to solidify. Don't know. Something to think about is all.

Yasujirô Ozu's "Little Rascals".

This intensely likeable silent comedy follows two young boys who have just moved into a new neighborhood and their struggles fitting in with the group of boys who already live there. Just as they have adjusted, they are invited to the house of a boy who's father is their father's employer to watch home movies. They see in the film's that their dad is of much lower status than they thought and a small revolt happens at home.

This is really a delightful film. It's not quite as great as the searing masterpieces Ozu would go on to make, but really ... what are?

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I rate this movie as being only a step above an Our Gang comedy. It's a 1932 silent with scene after scene of kids going to school, kids coming home from school, kids eating lunch, kids eating at home, kids fighting or poking each other, kids staring at each other ready to fight. These scenes alternate with scenes of the father going to work, coming home from work, changing clothes, going into his boss's office, and all characters putting on their shoes as they come out of their house.

The movie has a serious plot, with plenty of heart, but it is just too boring to have to watch all these non-scenes to get at the plot. I think the material could have been made into a pretty good short, but there's just not enough there for ninety minutes.

I am so glad that I ran into this movie. It left such an impression on me. The way it ended was so suprising. The boy's father was such a nice guy, and how that boy could be ashamed of him like that was really something else. It just left me in tears in the end of the movie. It makes me realize what our parents had to do to make a good living, even if it takes having to sell out your pride. His father did it because he loved his family. There is a lesson to be learned in this, and I would recommend this film in a heartbeat!

An earlier silent gem from Yasujiro Ozu. My first film of him as well. It was a beautiful story of a family moved into suburbs from Tokyo. It mostly focuses on lifestyle and school-life of two small kids. They get rivaled by local kids in the beginning. But soon they become the leaders of the gang. The film is filled with sweet moments, gives a good taste of innocent childhood. They find it hard to accept that an outwitted boy's father is the boss of their father. The parents are beautifully portrayed in the film. How they influence their children and lead them to a better social position in future. It ends with sweet and touching moments, making it difficult for you to forget.

Backgorund score plays a very important role in most movies. It dictates the pace of the movie. It tells us when to laugh an when to cry, when to cower in fear and when to jump with joy. There are many movies which I can't even imagine without their score. Most notable of which perhaps is "The Passion of Joan of Arc". Of course it is also an artificial construct. I have also seen many silent films but all of them have a score added to them.

"I Was Born, But..." doesn't have any sound whatsoever. So this was a first for me. A kind of experiment really to gauge whether I would be able to appreciate the movie. It is one of early movies of Yasujiro Ozu. I am a big fan and I have decided to go all of his movies I can get my hand on. Still I was not sure about this one, as most critics only regard his later films as masterpieces. I shouldn't have worried. This movie still carries the magic of all his movies. And even though there is no score, it is only a minor setback. After sometime you hardly notice the lack of sound. It is very different from other silent comedies of the era. Most of the other silent movies use exaggerated expressions. In contrast acting and expressions here are of sound films except that there is no sound.

"I Was Born, But..." is charming, funny, poignant and nostalgic comedy centered around kids and how they see the adult world. It will surely strike a cord with everybody. I was bowled over by it. Ozu just keeps rising in my estimation.

Who would have thought that a 1932 silent Japanese movie about two little boys would be so entertaining? I found myself mesmerized by their antics, smiling as they made faces and moved about in unison. In the beginning it feels like a very smart version of the Little Rascals, with scenes of bullying and coping with a new school, but it evolves into more than that. The film deals with hierarchy – to their embarrassment, the boys find out their father is subordinate to the father of one of the other boys they know – which has an emphasis in Japanese culture, but boys wanting their fathers to be important is also a universal theme, and the film feels remarkably Western. To watch this film and to consider the American propaganda about the Japanese during WWII is sobering, as is the thought that the child actors would be of age for war in the years to come, but I digress a bit.

There is quite a bit to like here. The acting is fantastic, particularly for the period. At a time when overacting in Hollywood was common, here each and every performance seems pitch perfect. The endearing little boys – played by Tomio Aoki and Hideo Sugawara – are outstanding. I was also impressed by the precision of director Yasujiro Ozu's shots. It's really quite intelligent and charming.

It is really well done and the kids are splendid and every now and again I forgot that as I was picking up subtitles that this really a silent in 1932. It is a bit of a comedy but being it is in Japan sometimes we find it rather cruel. The scamps are amusing but there is so much bullying going on also maybe the grown ups as well. I guess this is a moral here that there are all the people have there place as same the children but I'm not sure if this happens now, maybe in Japan there is some of this still going on. The bullying and some believe that they should all stay their place. So this little film is rather charming but also rather not so good I'm sure.

The film, undoubtedly, has two important facets: aesthetics and message. Regarding the former, it is understandable that for its time it was revolutionary, since Eastern cinema was practically nonexistent. Seeing that culture was, without a doubt, refreshing. However, nowadays, with access to more information, it loses some of that initial impact.

It is in the second aspect, the message, where the true depth of the film lies. Although there are multiple facets to analyze, the main one seems to be related to the definition of success and how this concept is transmitted from generation to generation. The film shows how society evaluates success based on wealth or social status, often influenced by both external and internal ideas. Although having goals is positive, the problem arises when these become a source of unhappiness. By conditioning our happiness to the achievement of external objectives, we stop enjoying the present and subject ourselves to a constant search for something more.

The film suggests that true happiness lies in accepting our reality, learning from it, and reconciling with ourselves. Every small advance, no matter how insignificant it may seem, can be a great achievement if we measure it in terms of personal growth and inner peace. By freeing ourselves from external expectations, we can live in harmony with ourselves and find satisfaction in the journey, not just the destination.

Two young brothers have problems adjusting to life in a new neighbourhood and are dismayed to discover that their father isn't as important as they believed. A charming and insightful silent movie that shows a real affection for its cheeky young protagonists. It's a good movie and I liked it, but I don't feel it's quite the classic so many believe it to be.