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sabotai · 02-23-2018, 04:02 PM

I was Born, but... gets bumped because it was released in 1932.

東京の合唱 (1931)
English Title: Tokyo Chorus

Directed By: Yasujirō Ozu
Starring: Tokihiko Okada, Emiko Yagumo
Length: 90 min.
Genre: Silent Drama / Comedy

The movie starts out with a group of children messing around during morning drills at school. The teacher making it clear every time he write a note in his notebook over bad behavior.

Flash forward to adulthood now. The biggest trouble maker of the group works for an insurance company and is married with 3 children. His oldest wants a bike and is promised it because his father will be getting his bonus at work. At work, one of the older employees is fired, just 1 year before he earns his pension, because he had a few life insurance policies cashed in shortly after they were taken out. Outraged, our main character goes into the manager's office and stands up for the employee. He ends up being fired, too.

Unable to buy his son a bike, his son acts out and is inconsolable. Tokyo is going through a economic slump and work is hard to find. His daughter even gets sick and has to be hospitalized for a brief time. The family resorts to selling some of their cloths to pay the bills. They did end up keeping their promise to their son, and found a way to buy him a bike.

The father ends up running into his old school teacher. He no longer teaches and instead owns a small restaurant. He offers our protagonist a job, and promises to help him find work as a teacher. The work is humiliating to our protagonist. He wants around the streets of Tokyo holding a banner and passing out flyers. Even worse, his wife sees him and is mortified (her being unaware that he's helping his old teacher). When our protagonist explains the situation to his wife later at home, she understands, and even offers to join him in helping his old teacher at the restaurant.

The movie ends with a bit of an open ended ending. The old teacher comes through, and finds our hero a job. The catch is that it's in a rural town far from Tokyo. They agree to take the job, but their facial expressions are very conflicted. It's hard to tell by the ending if they actually took the job or if they stays in Tokyo and continued to help out the old teacher.

I liked the movie, but I think my enjoyment was more about seeing a window into 1930s Tokyo than the movie itself. All of the professionals walked around in western style suits and hats, but when they weren't working, they wore traditional Japanese clothing. Most of the streets in Tokyo were still dirt roads. It looked like a weird fusion of modern (for the time) western culture and traditional Japanese culture.

Prior to watching this, I watched the 10 surviving minutes of a movie called "I Graduated, But..." which was released in 1929 (also directed by Ozu). In it, I could see a Harold Lloyd "Speedy" poster on the wall of the main character's house. He also wore a hat similar to that of Lloyd's.

In a little of 2 decades, Ozu will direct a movie called Tokyo Story (1953), which is regarded as one of the best Japanese movies ever made, and I'll be watching as many movies of his as I can until then to see how his style evolved. This particular movie (Tokyo Chorus) is known for being the first film of his where he used a low-angle camera frequently.

My Rating: 7/10
IMDB User Rating: 7.4/10 (1k votes)
Rotten Tomatoes: 4 critics rated fresh, 81% of Audience (3.7 / 5 ; 454 votes)

02-23-2018, 04:02 PM	#219
sabotai General Manager Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: The Satellite of Love	I was Born, but... gets bumped because it was released in 1932. 東京の合唱 (1931) English Title: Tokyo Chorus Directed By: Yasujirō Ozu Starring: Tokihiko Okada, Emiko Yagumo Length: 90 min. Genre: Silent Drama / Comedy The movie starts out with a group of children messing around during morning drills at school. The teacher making it clear every time he write a note in his notebook over bad behavior. Flash forward to adulthood now. The biggest trouble maker of the group works for an insurance company and is married with 3 children. His oldest wants a bike and is promised it because his father will be getting his bonus at work. At work, one of the older employees is fired, just 1 year before he earns his pension, because he had a few life insurance policies cashed in shortly after they were taken out. Outraged, our main character goes into the manager's office and stands up for the employee. He ends up being fired, too. Unable to buy his son a bike, his son acts out and is inconsolable. Tokyo is going through a economic slump and work is hard to find. His daughter even gets sick and has to be hospitalized for a brief time. The family resorts to selling some of their cloths to pay the bills. They did end up keeping their promise to their son, and found a way to buy him a bike. The father ends up running into his old school teacher. He no longer teaches and instead owns a small restaurant. He offers our protagonist a job, and promises to help him find work as a teacher. The work is humiliating to our protagonist. He wants around the streets of Tokyo holding a banner and passing out flyers. Even worse, his wife sees him and is mortified (her being unaware that he's helping his old teacher). When our protagonist explains the situation to his wife later at home, she understands, and even offers to join him in helping his old teacher at the restaurant. The movie ends with a bit of an open ended ending. The old teacher comes through, and finds our hero a job. The catch is that it's in a rural town far from Tokyo. They agree to take the job, but their facial expressions are very conflicted. It's hard to tell by the ending if they actually took the job or if they stays in Tokyo and continued to help out the old teacher. I liked the movie, but I think my enjoyment was more about seeing a window into 1930s Tokyo than the movie itself. All of the professionals walked around in western style suits and hats, but when they weren't working, they wore traditional Japanese clothing. Most of the streets in Tokyo were still dirt roads. It looked like a weird fusion of modern (for the time) western culture and traditional Japanese culture. Prior to watching this, I watched the 10 surviving minutes of a movie called "I Graduated, But..." which was released in 1929 (also directed by Ozu). In it, I could see a Harold Lloyd "Speedy" poster on the wall of the main character's house. He also wore a hat similar to that of Lloyd's. In a little of 2 decades, Ozu will direct a movie called Tokyo Story (1953), which is regarded as one of the best Japanese movies ever made, and I'll be watching as many movies of his as I can until then to see how his style evolved. This particular movie (Tokyo Chorus) is known for being the first film of his where he used a low-angle camera frequently. My Rating: 7/10 IMDB User Rating: 7.4/10 (1k votes) Rotten Tomatoes: 4 critics rated fresh, 81% of Audience (3.7 / 5 ; 454 votes)