Post-WW2 of course with his cohorts Sakamoto in Ryu in support but it’s really a simple story of Kinuyo Tanaka (superb) who has to prostitute herself to pay for the hospital bills of her son while her husband is away at work Shûji San– though in less time than Tanaka—is equally excellent—but this is narrative—and Ozu has loftier artistic goals in mind with the way he weaves the story
The editing is magnificent- he opens in an alley and then a short establishing shot montage (with a quick shot of laundry swinging on some houses) of a town which includes a large metal building set piece. He closes the film with a perfect bookend of the same sequence in reverse
The pillow shots or cutaways are a plenty here and seem to be picking up steam in his work over the years
I love the row of bottles along the bottom of the frame of the unsavory woman who suggests prostitution—it’s a character statement as well
It’s a half neorealism (poverty take as matter of fact- mostly with a slight grin) and half melodrama with that set up
Plenty of grand-father clocks, the trademark hall shot with the bike in it
It’s not part of the cutaway brilliance but there’s a long scene that’s fantastic where Tanaka stares into the mirror realizing what she has to do to pay the bills
It’s methodically edited with the cutaways, some reoccurring and some new in perfect union and theme and variation— form and rhythmic
Gorgeous use of metal on the ground to structure some framing—you even see characters walking through it
Another simple but gorgeous shot of a row of three chairs in the office so carefully eschew
Big accident of her pushed down the stairs is set up formally when he knocks a bottle down the stairs earlier—it reminds me of the stool and how Eastwood earns the big dramatic scene by showing it again and again (that’s part of film form) in million dollar baby
[…] A Hen in the Wind – Ozu […]