A silent Yasujiro Ozu film from 1931 that is relevant today as it was then. An educated father who is unemployed, trying to make ends meet and provide for his family. One of the fantastic silent films included in “Silent Ozu: Three Family Comedies – Eclipse Series #10” from The Criterion Collection. Definitely recommended!
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TITLE: Tokyo Chorus (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 and Story by Komatsu Kitamura and Kogo Noda
Screenplay by Kogo Noda
Cinematography by Hideo Shigehara
Edited by Hideo Shigehara
Set Decoration by Minzo Kakuta, Tsunetaro Kawasaki, Beijiro Tanaka, Yonekazu Wakita
Costume Design by Kurenai Saitou
Makeup Department: Iyono Kikuchi
Starring:
Tokihiko Okada as Shinji Okajima
Emiko Yagumo as Tsuma Sugako (wife)
Hideo Sugawara as Sono Chounana (son)
Hideko Takamine as Sono Choujo (daughter)
Tatsuo Saito – Omura Sensei
Choko Iida – Sensei no Tusma (Mrs. Omura)
Takeshi Sakamoto – Rou-Shain Yamada (old employee)
Reiko Tani – Shachou (boss)
Combining three prevalent genres of the day—the student comedy, the salaryman film, and the domestic drama—Ozu created this warmhearted family comedy, and demonstrated that he was truly coming into his own as a cinema craftsman. The setup is simple: Low wage–earning dad Okajima is depending on his bonus, and so are his wife and children, yet payday doesn’t exactly go as planned. Exquisite and economical, Ozu’s film alternates between brilliantly mounted comic sequences and heartrending working-class realities.
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.
I recently started started my viewing of “Silent Ozu – Three Family Comedies”, starting with “Tokyo Chorus” (Tokyo no Korasu) which was released in 1931. The box set also includes two other films “I was Born, But” (Umarete wa mita keredo) from 1932 and “Passing Fancy” (Dekigokoro) from 1933.
As for “Tokyo Chorus”, Ozu’s 22nd film is considered to be a turning point in the career of Yasujiro Ozu as the film would feature his mature style.
“Tokyo Chorus” is a comedy/drama black and white silent film about Shinji Okajima (played by Tokihiko Okada). The film kicks off with Shinji as a teenager, and we get to see how he was a rebellious teen when it came to his relation with his teacher, Omura sensei (played by Tatsuo Saito).
And then we are taken to his present family life in which he has a loving wife Sugako (played by Emiko Yaguma) and three children which includes his son (Hideko Sugawara), his daughter Miyoko (Hideko Takamine) and a baby. His son has wanted a bike but his parents have not bought him one (Shinji is not exactly making much money at his insurance sales job). But with his father’s bonus coming up, Sugako tells her son that possibly Shinji can finally buy his son a bike and Shinji promises that he will.
While at work, everyone is getting their bonus (and trying to snoop and find out how much everyone else has made) but Shinji finds out that one of the employees (played by Isamu Yamaguchi) is being fired because of his age (and that the people he’s sold life insurance to have died not long after he sold it to them). Shinji is upset that the man is getting fired and decides to argue the situation with the company president (played by Reiko Tani) and because of that, Shinji ends up being the one getting fired.
On the day that Shinji’s son has bragged to his friends that he is getting a bike, his father shows up with a scooter instead. Upset with his father for breaking his promise, his son sulks and starts acting bad in which his father disciplines him with multiple spankings.
When Sugako arrives, she is shocked that her son is crying but more shocked that Shinji is now unemployed. But Shinji, a man of honor decides to buy his son a bike as he had promised but then we see time passing by and Shinji, an educated man being too overqualified for jobs and is unable to find work.
We see the Okajima family struggling but then complications hit the family when one of the children is very ill. With no money, what will Shinji do in order to make sure his child gets proper medical care? And will he be able to find a paying job before its too late?
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“Tokyo Chorus” 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 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 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. And the piano score actually does work and fits the mood of the entire film. But I do wonder how the original musical score for the film was but not sure if a live orchestra was played during the theatrical screening of the 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.
“Tokyo Chorus” is my first classic Japanese silent film and the fact that it was directed by Yasujiro Ozu made me want to purchase the “Silent Ozu – Three Family Comedies” box set. And as expected, even for a silent film, Ozu is able to capture the Japanese family life including the quirks. For example, in one scene, his son who tends to fight with his sister is seen hitting her in the head and she starts crying. Or another scene in which the son tries to climb a clothes shelf and when Shinji comes to pull him off, his records fall down and break.
Because these films were silent, it was so important to communicate visually with the audience and with the son’s antics and his wife’s facial expressions, you don’t need any dialogue to understand what is going on in the film.  The way the characters are shot, the emotions they bring to the camera and just the overall pacing of the film is done wonderfully.
Kids are behaving like kids and the parents, played by Tokihiko Okada and Emiko Yaguma do a great job communicating their happiness, sadness and frustrations.
Overall, a wonderful film that is part of the “Silent Ozu: Three Family Comedies – Eclipse Series #10”. I definitely look forward to watching the next two silent films in the collection. If you are a big fan of Yasujiro Ozu’s work and have wanted to see his silent work, definitely give this box set a try!