Another fantastic family driven silent film by Yasujiro Ozu. The 1932 film “I Was Born, But…” is an excellent film that depicts childhood bullying, family, career and relationship between parents and children. An effective story that works well for this silent film due to its talent, acting and editing. One of the three fantastic silent films included in “Silent Ozu: Three Family Comedies – Eclipse Series #10” from The Criterion Collection. Definitely recommended!
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TITLE: I Was Born, But… (part of Silent Ozu: Three Family Comedies – Eclipse Series #10)
DURATION: 90 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Black and White, Silent with optional score, Japanese Intertitles with Optional English Subtitles, 1:33:1 Aspect Ratio
COMPANY: The Criterion Collection
RELEASED: 2008
Directed by Yasujiro Ozu
Adaptation by Akira Fushimi
Scenario by Akira Fushimi
Music by Donald Sosin
Cinematography by Hideo Shigehara
Edited by Hideo Shigahara
Art Direction by Yoshiro Kimura, Takejiro Tsunoda
Starring:
Tatsuo Saito as Chichi (father – Yoshi-san)
Mitsuko Yoshikawa as Haha (Yoshi’s Wife)
Hideo Sugawara as Ryoichi (older brother)
Tomio Aoki as Keiji (younger brother)
Takeshi Sakamoto as Juuyaku (Iwasaki, Executive)
Teruyo Hayami as Fuji (Iwasaki’s Wife)
Seiichi Kato as Kodomo (Taro)
Shoichi Kofujita as Kozou (Delivery Boy)
Seiji Nishimura as Sensei (Teacher)
Zentaro Iijima, Shotaro Fujimatsu, Masao Hayama, Michio Sato, Kuniyasu Hayashi, Akio Nomura, Teruaki Ishiwatari as The Boys in the neighborhood
One of Ozu’s most popular films, I Was Born, But . . . is a blithe portrait of the financial and psychological toils of one family, as told from the rascally point of view of a couple of stubborn little boys. For two brothers, the daily struggles of bullies and mean teachers is nothing next to the mortification they feel when they realize their good-natured father’s low-rung social status. Reworked decades later as Ozu’s Technicolor comedy Good Morning, it’s a poignant evocation of the tumult of childhood, as well as a showcase for Ozu’s expertly timed comedy editing.
Yasujiro Ozu is one of the world’s beloved directors. Having made many films since the 1920’s up to his final film “An Autumn Afternoon” in 1962, his works have been appreciated by viewers and critics for his family comedies but also his serious family storylines such as “Late Spring”, “Early Summer” and “Tokyo Story” (to name a few).
The Criterion Collection has been one of the major forces in America of bringing Ozu’s films stateside and not just the popular films, Criterion Collection has now offered a few of his silent films and late films through their Eclipse Series line with “Silent Ozu-Three Family Comedies” and “Late Ozu”. Although not receiving the Criterion digital remastering or restoration (nor do they include special features), the fact that Ozu fans can now watch these classics with English subtitles is fantastic. And also, the silents include an optional score by Donald Sosin (a pianist known for his work for silent film scores).
I recently started started my viewing of “Silent Ozu – Three Family Comedies” and absolutely enjoyed “Tokyo Chorus”, this time around, I watched “I Was Born, But…” (a.k.a “Otona no miru ehon – Umarete wa mita keredo”).  The Eclipse Series #10 box set also includes two other Ozu silent films “Tokyo Chorus” from 1931 and “Passing Fancy” from 1933.
As for “I Was Born, But…”, the film was Ozu’s 24th film and the first of his six films to win a Kinema Junpo Critics Prize. The film received a loosely made remake in Technicolor by Ozi for the 1959 film “Good Morning” and is regarded as his most popular silent film that continually received circulation since its release.
“I Was Born, But…” focuses on a family from Azabu who has moved to a new home in the Tokyo suburbs. The Yoshi family which include the two parents – Kennosuke (played by Tatsuo Saito) and his wife (played by Mitsuko Yoshikawa), the older son Ryoichi (played by Hideo Sugawara), young son Keiji (played by Tomio Aoki) and their dog.
Life in a new neighborhood is not easy for the children as Keiji quickly learns when the neighborhood kids start picking on him. Keiji quickly goes to his brother Ryoichi and tells him how the kids stole his toy and his bread and immediately Ryoichi goes to confront the children but he is outnumbered and the worst part is one of the neighborhood kids is taller and a little older. And thus, Ryoichi loses the fight.
To make things worst is the kids keep showing up at their front yard taunting both Ryoichi and Keiji and now both fear of going to school as they worry about being bullied. So, for the first week of school, they lie to their parents and pretend they are attending school while the truth is they just sit and have fun at a nearby field. Eventually, their father finds out from their teacher that they haven’t showed up to school which angers their father. Their father continually reminds them that if they can go to school and study hard like he did, they can make something of themselves.
As time passes, eventually things get better for the boys, especially as Ryoichi and Keiji start becoming the toughest in the neighborhood but when they start getting into the discussion of who’s father is better, both brothers don’t understand why their father does everything Taro’s father tells him.
The kids realize for the first time that Taro’s father is much more powerful in status than their father and he is an executive of the company that their father works at and his father is just an employee.
For a child’s perspective, specifically for Ryoichi and Keiji, where they have always thought their father was strong and smart because he went to school and received good grades, Ryoichi can’t bare the thought that their father has a weaker professional status than Taro’s father and is disgusted by that. There is no way Ryoichi would allow Taro to be the boss of him and so, he can’t understand how his father would let Taro’s father be the boss of him.
“I Was Born, But…” continues Ozu’s well-known storylines of focusing on the Japanese family and in 1932, for a film that would seem complex to cover for a silent film, Ozu successfully pulls it off with good storytelling through actions and emotions and definitely is another wonderful film to be included in this Eclipse Series set.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“I Was Born, But…” is featured in 1:33:1 aspect ratio. The film is black and white and as mentioned earlier, Eclipse series are films that do not receive the CRITERION COLLECTION treatment of restoration and remastering. Thus, the scratches and slight warping of the original film are very visible. The good news is that the film, despite being nearly 80 years old is still watchable and are very enjoyable.
As for audio, this is a silent film but there is an option to have a piano score played by Donald Sosin play throughout the film.  Similar to “Tokyo Chorus”, Sosin does a fantastic job, as the piano score actually does work with this film and fits the mood throughout the entire film.
Subtitles are in English and are shown during scenes after a dialogue and shows the Japanese intertitles.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Eclipse Series DVD’s unfortunately do not come with any special features. But with each DVD, there is a single page information (on the interior DVD cover which can be read since the DVD slim cases are clear) on the film.
When it comes to Ozu’s silent films, “I Was Born, But…” is among Yasujiro Ozu’s most popular and is the earliest Ozu print in regular circulation. As mentioned earlier, Ozu successfully pulls of this film that could be seen as complex but with good pacing, storytelling and acting, are we convinced of the relationships between brothers and family as well as the fear the kids have towards the bullying neighborhood kids. And even nearly 80 years later, this storyline continues to be prevalent today as many families are no different today than how the Yoshi family are in this film.
The film was loosely remade in 1959 for Ozu’s “Good Morning” but as their are similarities, both films are quite different from each other. In “I Was Born, But…”, the children are quick to confront their father about his career situation and what makes it so stingily hurt is that the father knows that the children are right. Even if you give your all in school, it doesn’t mean you’re going to be a high level executive and there is this strong connection with the children in this film (especially since television or major technology is not in the forefront of the film). Whereas in “Good Morning”, the two sons confront their father that other kids own a television set except them and the kids go on a hunger strike to get their parents to recognize their anger. There is still a family connection but you notice that in “Good Morning”, technology has started to seep into the family culture and you see the children more drawn towards the television set away from their family.  So, both films do have its similarities but also their differences especially of suburban Japan within that 27-year time span.
But what is most interesting is that for Ozu cinema fans, we know how he takes the concept of family especially between parent and children so seriously during the 1950’s and later, so to see something that happened decades earlier in silent form and see where it first started, for fans is quite a treat. Where in his later films, the dialogue is quite important to feel the pain between parents and children, even in these silent films, surprisingly the viewer can feel the sting through the children’s harsh words to their father.
This is the second of the three silent films that I have watched in this set thus far and both “I Was Born, But…” and “Tokyo Chorus” have been nothing but excellent. If you are a Yasujiro Ozu fan or curious about Japanese silent films, “Silent Ozu: Three Family Comedies – Eclipse Series #10” is an excellent set worth owning!