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Old 10-14-2018, 01:07 PM   #274
sabotai
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Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: The Satellite of Love
出来ごころ (1933)
Dekigokoro
English Title: Passing Fancy




Directed By: Ozu Yasujirō
Written By: Ikeda Tadao, Yasujirō Ozu (under his alias James Maki)
Starring: Sakamoto Takeshi, Fushimi Nobuko, Obinata Den, Iida Chouko, Kozo Takkan
Length: 101 min.
Genre: Drama

1934 Kinema Junp Awards: Winner for Best Film


Kihachi (Sakamoto Takeshi) works at a brewery with his friend Jiro (Obinata Den), and is a single parent to his son, Tomio (Kozo Takkan). The movie starts, as Ozu's films often do, with a comedic scene. This one involves the three at a rōkyoku theater. An empy wallet gets passed around as person after person sees it, looks inside, finds it empty and then tosses it away. Eh, this was a miss for me.

The plot begins soon after as they and find a young woman, Harue (Fushimi Nobuko) begging. Kihachi takes a liking to her, while Jiro does not. Kihachi sets her up at his friend's restaurant. Kihachi makes several attempts to get Harue to notice him, but she tells him that she sees him like an uncle. Eventually Otome, the restaurant owner, asks Kihachi to help her set Harue up with Jiro. Kihachi agrees. But Jiro, who has been nothing but an asshole towards Harue, rejects the idea. And keeps being cold towards Harue.

After Kihachi's son becomes very sick, Jiro has a sudden change of heart, but he borrows money to give to Kihachi to pay his medical bills. To pay back the money, he decides to go to Hokkaido for higher paying work. Kihachi stops him and takes his place, leaving his son in the care of Otome. On the boat to Hokkaido just as it leaves, Kihachi realizes he's making a mistake in leaving his son, jumps off the boat and swims back to shore. The end.

The really liked most of the movie, but it got off to weak start and I thought the last Act, Jiro's sudden change and Kahichi running off to Hokkaido, felt like a non-organic way to build drama at the end.

I really like Takeshi's performance as Kihachi. He was a regular in Ozu's movies. He played Kennosuke's boss in I Was Born, But... and he played the old employee that Okajima stands up for in Tokyo Chorus. Over the next two years, he'll play a character named Kihachi in 2 more Ozu movies, but it's not really a trilogy. It seems the actor and the character name is the same, but the story, family situation, etc. are all different.

My Rating: 7/10
IMDB User Rating: 7.5/10 (1k votes)
Rotten Tomatoes: N/A Critics, 72% of Audience (3.7 / 5 ; 145 votes)
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