2013 Mill Valley Film Festival

The 2013 Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF) was from October 3 to 13.  I was able to see two films at the festival

Like Father, Like Son starring Masaharu Fukuyama; directed by Hirokazu Koreeda; Japanese with subitles; (2013) - Official Website
Tokyo Family starring Isao Hashizume, Kazuko Yoshiyuki & Masahiko Nishimura; directed by Yoji Yamada; Japanese with subtitles; (2013) - Official Website

I saw Like Father, Like Son at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael and Tokyo Family at the CineArts Sequoia in Mill Valley.

As has become my custom when in San Rafael, I stopped by Sol Food before Like Father, Like Son.  The food was delicious as usual.  Recently, Sol Food opened a location in Mill Valley.  I looked for it after Tokyo Family but couldn't find it.  For reference, it is at 401 Miller Ave.  The San Rafael locations on Lincoln and 3rd Street (The Big Place) and 4th (The Small Place) are within a short walk of the Smith Rafael but the Mill Valley location is quite far from the Sequoia which is at 25 Throckmorton Ave.

The first weekend of MVFF conflicted with Hong Kong Cinema.

I took a weekday off from work to run errands and ended up seeing three films (including Like Father, Like Son).

MVFF had a sidebar series called Focus: Three Generations Japan.  The series consisted of four Japanese films:  Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro, I Catch a Terrible Cat, Tokyo Family and Like Father, Like Son.  I wanted to see I Catch a Terrible Cat but the only screening that fit my schedule was at rush when I attempted to get tickets.  Not wanting to risk making the trip to Marin County only to be left on the sidewalk, I passed on I Catch a Terrible Cat.  This also reminds me that I completely whiffed on a Hayao Miyazaki series at the PFA this summer.  Miyazaki directed From Up on Poppy Hill which I enjoyed.

Like Father, Like Son uses a plot device which I have seen before but manages to keep the story fresh.  Ryota Nonomiya (Masaharu Fukuyama) is a driven salaryman who is raising his six year old son Keita (Keita Ninomiya) in his own image.  Writing this, I just realized the child actor's name is the same as his character's name.  To Ryota's consternation, Keita is not cut from the same cloth as him.  He soons learns why.  The hospital calls and informs Ryota and his wife Midori (Machiko Ono) that babies were switched at birth and that there is high likelihood that Keita is not their biological son.

Once the DNA tests confirm Keita's not the Nonomiya's son, the hospital arrange for a meeting between the families.  Yudai and Yukari Saiki (Rirî Furankî and Yôko Maki) have the Nonomiyas’ son, Ryusei (Hwang Sho-gen) and vice versa.  Although swapping sons is not a requirement, the hospital administrators most families decide to do just that.  Apparently this switcheroo was not unheard of in Japan in the past.

This news actually comes as a bit of relief to Ryota.  Unable to motivate his son to satisfactory heights, Ryota now has a built-in excuse (it was in the genes) and an option to upgrade sons.  In fact, he hatches an idea which would make a eugenicists proud.  He keep Keita and adopt Ryusei since the Saikis are always short of cash.  Offended by the suggestion, the Saikis categorically reject his offer and Ryota "has no choice" but swap sons despite his wife's misgivings.  Ryota doesn't seem too shook up about it either.  In a heartrending scene, he informs Keita that he will live with the Saikis, he continue to practice piano if he wants to and most importantly, Keita is not to call the Nonomiyas ever again.

"Swapped at birth" is a premise that only the most untalented filmmaker could mess up.  Hirokazu Koreeda (also spelled Kore-eda) is the opposite of untalented.  His previous films I Wish (2011) and Nobody Knows (2004) have explored the separation of children from their families so this theme must have some resonance with him.  Kore-eda does something different.  Whereas the aforementioned films were told from the children's point of view, Like Father, Like Son is Ryota's story.  He has to lose Keita to appreciate him which is obviously cliche but under the capable direction of Kore-eda, the film never feels cliche.

Some films are like Caesar Salads.  The classic Caesar Salad is a thing of beauty.  Simple and delicious.  It's presence on so many menus is a testimonial to its popularity.  Some restaurants try to get fancy and put their own spin on the Caesar with varying results.  Others attempt the classic version and succeed.  Finally, there are places that attempt the classic and screw it up.  Like Father, Like Son is like a classic Caesar Salad.  It's well prepared and despite being exactly what I expected, it was pleasurable to consume.

Like Father, Like Son will be released in the US theaters in January. I recommend seeing it.

Tokyo Family is a remake of Yasujirō Ozu's Tokyo Story (1953) which is frequently cited as the best Japanese movie ever made.  The director of Tokyo Family is Yoji Yamada who was an assistant director on Tokyo Story.

Yamada faithfully follows the plot of Tokyo Story with a few exceptions.  Further solidifying Tokyo Story's exalted standing, Tokyo Family doesn't achieve the same effect.  I will assume the reader is familiar with Tokyo Story so I will not summarize the plot to Tokyo Family.

The changes from the original which I refer to include a modern day setting.  Tokyo Story was set in contemporary times also but 1953 is much different than 2013.  Whereas the specter of WWII was ever present in Tokyo Story, it's the fallout from the Fukushima disaster (figuratively and literally) and generation long economic malaise which cast their shadow in Tokyo Family.  By extension, the youngest son is now alive if not well.  In the original, he had died during the war.  Now, he is underemployed and a disappointment to his parents.  The legendary Setsuko Hara played Noriko, the dead son's widow in 1953.  In 2013, Noriko is the son's girlfriend and her kindness is not just gratifying to the parents but also gives a sense of confidence that their son will be fine...if he hangs onto this fine woman.

In 1953, Ozu handled the mother's death off screen which was consistent his hallmark elliptical storytelling.  Yamada gives the woman a deathbed scene although she remain unconscious.  However, the family members show their grief with more emotions than their 1953 counterparts.

Not surprisingly, Tokyo Family gets the short end of the stick in direct comparison to Tokyo Story.  Obviously that's an unfair comparison.  I wonder how the film is received by the sadly sizable population who have not seen Tokyo Story.  The strongest comment I can make about Tokyo Family is that it reinforced my already high opinion of Tokyo Story.

Sight and Sound's Top 10 Greatest Films

While I'm still composing my thoughts about the films of the 2012 San Francisco Silent Film Festival, I wanted to write a little about Sight and Sound's Greatest Film survey.  Published by the British Film Institute (BFI), Sight and Sound conducts a survey of critics, academics, etc. regarding the greatest films.   The survey is conducted every decade (2012, 2002, 1992, etc.).  I won't comment on the films which made the list or their relative ranking or even the films omitted.  Instead, I was amazed at how many of the top 10 films are available for viewing in the near future or have been screened in the recent past.

The Top 10 Greatest Films according to Sight and Sound are:

10.   8½
 9.   The Passion of Joan of Arc
 8.   Man With a Movie Camera
 7.   The Searchers
 6.   2001: A Space Odyssey
 5.   Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
 4.   The Rules of the Game
 3.   Tokyo Story
 2.   Citizen Kane
 1.   Vertigo

At the Castro Theater alone, you can see four of the top 10 this month!  Citizen Kane screens tonight at 8 PM.  Sunrise plays next Sunday (August 12) at 3:20 PM and 7 PM.  2001 has a two day run on August 26 and 27.  Vertigo plays over the Labor Day Weekend in 70 mm.

The Rules of the Game screens November 27 at the PFA as part of their Grand Illusions series.

I saw The Searchers last summer at the Castro.  I saw Tokyo Story two summers ago at the Viz.  I've seen The Passion of Joan of Arc twice in the past few years, most recently in December 2010 at the Paramount Theater in Oakland.

Man With a Movie Camera was accompanied by the Alloy Orchestra at the 2010 SF Silent Film Festival. I can still remember that memorable performance as the frenetic pace of the music perfectly matched Vertov's quick editing technique.

I seem to recall 8½ playing at the Castro in the last year or so.  If there was a screening at the Castro, I didn't attend it nor a 2009 screening at the PFA.

I've seen all 10 of the films; 6 of them since I started this blog.  I know I've seen Vertigo & Citizen Kane on the big screen prior to starting the blog.  The two films I have not seen on the big screen are 2001 and 8½.  I remember 2001 as one of the first films I watched when my family got a VCR in the 1980s.  I was fascinated by it and have watched it several times since then.  I can't recall when I saw 8½; I suspect it was on television.  

The entire Top 50 film list can be seen here as well as the Top 10 list from a survey of 358 directors including "Woody Allen, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Quentin Tarantino, the Dardenne brothers, Terence Davies, Guillermo del Toro, Martin Scorsese, Olivier Assayas, Michael Mann, Guy Maddin, Francis Ford Coppola, Mike Leigh, Aki Kaurismäki..."

Kurosawa, Ozu & Mizoguchi (Part 2 ot 3)

As I mentioned, I saw four Ozu films at Viz/New People in June.

The Only Son directed by Yasujirō Ozu; Japanese with subtitles; (1936)
Record of a Tenement Gentleman directed by Yasujirō Ozu; Japanese with subtitles; (1947)
Early Spring directed by Yasujirō Ozu; Japanese with subtitles; (1956)
Tokyo Story directed by Yasujirō Ozu; Japanese with subtitles; (1953)

Ozu is known for a few techniques in his film. First is the "Ozu shot" or "tatami shot" which is a static camera shot at an upward angle from the ground. The effect is as if you are lying on the floor looking up at the characters on the screen. In addition, Ozu rarely edited the scenes. Frequently, during a conversation, a film will cut to a medium close-up headshot of the person speaking. Ozu didn't do that; Ozu usually had both (or more) people talking in the same shot without any edits. As a result, Ozu's shots average longer in duration than most filmmakers. The effect is to make the story flow at a more relaxed or measured pace.

Ozu frequently uses a narrative technique called ellipsis where major events are not filmed or shown. Rather, they referred to by the characters. An example would be if a character dies. Instead of filming a death scene, Ozu will film a scene at the funeral or more likely, two characters will reminisce about the funeral or complaining about having to go to the funeral.

§§§

The Only Son is Ozu's first sound film. The 35 mm print which was screened looked as if it were the original.

The plot involves Tsume, a widow who sends Ryosuke, her only child to Tokyo in 1923 for secondary education. She works at a silk factory and can't afford to educate her son any further. Earnest pleas from the boy and his school teacher carry the day. Ryosuke promises to study hard & become a great man.

Thirteen years later, Tsume decides to visit her son in Tokyo. She quickly discovers that all is not as he has been reporting back to her. Ryosuke's not a salaryman but a low paid night school teacher. Also, he has a wife and daughter he's never mentioned to his mother. The school teacher that convinced Tsume to send Ryosuke to Tokyo also made the journey to achieve his glory. Fate hasn't been kind to him either as he is now small restaurateur.

Eventually, Ryosuke and Tsume have a confrontation. Ryosuke is disappointed by his own accomplishments or lack thereof. He wishes he never moved to Tokyo. Tsume responds with her own secret - to pay for his education, she sold her house and lives at the factory dorm. She gave everything up for his education. Although she can't come out and say it, she is disappointed in her son.

When a neighbor's boy is injured, Ryosuke gives his family's last yen to the boy's mother to pay the hospital bill. Tsume sees this and says she is proud of her son. However, the film ends with her alone at the silk factory with a look of grief & disappointment after telling her co-workers that her son is a "great man."

This early Ozu film is prototypical - sentimental, wistful, centered around family and lacking a happy ending. It didn't presage the greatest director in Japanese history but it was certainly an effect tearjerker.

§§§

Record of a Tenement Gentleman centers on an abandoned boy who I suppose is the eponymous character. Chouko Iida who played Tsume in The Only Son returns as a Tané, hard-hearted widow who gradually accepts the boy as her surrogate son. Being Ozu, it couldn't end that way. The father of the boy shows up and takes him back. Only then does Tané fully realize how close she's grown to the boy.

The plot of the film was very simple. Filmed in 1947, Ozu uses the war's aftermath as narrative device. It's easy to understand how a boy could be separated, orphaned or abandoned by his parents. What becomes of these children? They'll have a hard life unless some kind-hearted person takes them in. Ozu constructs the crusty widow with a heart of gold but never shows it. Only when she cares for the boy does her own humanity bubble to the surface.

This film was my least favorite of the four films I saw. The ending was too predictable and the character not fully developed. Tané and the boy seem more like caricatures navigating well-worn narrative paths. Instead of paint-by-numbers it was film-by-numbers although in the hands of Ozu, I was still able to be manipulated into caring about both Tané and the boy.

§§§

Tokyo Story is generally considered Ozu's masterpiece. Shukichi (Chishû Ryû) and Tomi (Chieko Higashiyama) Hirayama, an elderly couple, decide to visit their adult children in Tokyo. It requires a day long train trip but they've never been to Tokyo and haven't seen their children for quite awhile. Their eldest son is a doctor and their eldest daughter runs a hair salon. Their children's work and family obligation don't leave much time to reconnect. Ironically, it is Noriko (outstanding performance by Setsuko Hara who I thought looked a little like Dorothy Lamour), their middle son's widow, who makes time in her schedule to entertain the Hirayamas.

Realizing they are imposing on their children's lives, the Hirayamas cut their vacation short and return home via train. The wife, Tomi, takes ill on the train and shortly after arriving home, the youngest daughter who lives with the Hirayamas, sends a telegram to her siblings that their mother is seriously ill. All the children (except the youngest son in Osaka) and Noriko arrive to keep a vigil. Upon their mother's death, all the children have to quickly leave to resume their lives. Again, only Noriko takes extra time to stay with her father-in-law and sister-in-law.

Shukichi comments on the irony that his late son's widow has shown him more kindness than his own children. Similarly, Kyoko (the youngest daughter) complains to Noriko about her siblings selfishness. Noriko, seemingly selfless, deflect criticism of her in-laws stating they have busy lives to lead. Eventually, Noriko has to return to Tokyo as well and leaves Shukichi and Kyoko to their lives.

This film is amazing for its richly textured characters and performances. For example, the eldest daughter Shige (Haruko Sugimura) can be quite shrill and inconsiderate. I didn't like her but there was a scene where it is revealed that Shukichi had a drinking problem when Shige was growing up which explains a lot. This kindly, elderly gentleman was not always so kind or old nor was he was always a gentleman. With just a few words of dialog, Ozu communicated an incredible amount of backstory which explains some of the distance between parents and children.

More complex is the character of Noriko. Eight or nine years after her husband's death, she still hasn't remarried. One wonders why this attractive and kind woman doesn't remarry. It's implied that she can't fully move past her husband's death although comments by the Hirayamas lead one to believe her husband was an alcoholic and a handful. Despite her kindness, Noriko admits that she barely keep going at times and there is something incredibly sad that she can't or won't find companionship.

Tokyo Story is a masterpiece because Ozu weaves together quite a bit of humor and melancholy on so many different subjects - growing old, drifting apart, being alone, city life vs. rural life, Japanese post-war society, etc. The film never feels like an allegory and perhaps its primary intent is just an examination of an elderly couple and their relationship with their children.

§§§

Looking at Ozu's filmography, he seems to prefer the seasons when titling his projects. He has directed films titled Late Spring, Early Summer, Late Autumn and Early Spring. Do the seasons refer to periods of one's life? I don't know having only seen Early Spring.

The plot involves Shoji (Ryō Ikebe) and Masako (Chikage Awashima) Sugiyama, a young married couple. Shoji commutes via train to an office job in Tokyo every morning. He has made friends with his fellow commuters. They are a tight-knit bunch with which Shoji spends much of his free time. You can't really blame him as his wife is somewhat cold towards him. Although it is never directly mentioned, it seems that the death of their child several years prior combined with their inability or unwillingness to have another child has created a rift between them.

On a hiking trip with his friends sans Masako, Shoji and Kaneko aka Goldfish (Keiko Kishi) hitch a ride to the top of the trail. This leads to an affair between the two. Masako quickly begins to suspect something is amiss but either pride or indifference keeps her from confronting her husband. As Shoji and Goldfish carry on their affair, their friends begin to suspect what's really going on. Shoji for his part, treats the affair casually and would have preferred not to have engaged in it to start with given the inconvenience of having to deal with the increasingly needy and emotional Goldfish. One night, Goldfish is confronted by her friends regarding the affair. She denies the accusations but flees to Shoji's house. This affront forces Masako to confront Shoji about the affair. In anger, Masako leaves Shoji to live with her mother and divorced sister.

In the background of this story of adultery is Shoji's career path. One of his co-workers and best friend who started at the company at the same time as him has been sick for months. His declining health is used as an excuse for Shoji's absences from Masako. Eventually the man dies. Shoji has been avoiding the man but visits him on what turns out to be his final night. Separately, Shoji has been offered a new job within the company at a remote factory/mining location. The job will allow him to advance up the corporate ladder but the small town he must move to is a far cray from Tokyo and its bustling suburbs.

By the time Shoji accepts the job, he and his wife are estranged. Shoji has broken it off with Goldfish and indeed Goldfish has put the affair behind her as well. However, Masako is not easily placated. Shoji's efforts to reconcile fail and he is resigned to living in the small town by himself and perhaps divorce or permanent separation from his wife. In a surprising (and for me disappointing) ending, Masako shows up unannounced at Shoji's flat in the small town. Having had a change of heart, it appears Masako is ready to forgive and perhaps their marriage will be stronger than before.

The plot I just recounted is a dissection of a strained marriage but in the hands of Ozu it becomes a examination of the salaryman and the breakdown of the Japanese family unit. Shoji's long absences for work & commute contributes to an emotional distance between Shoji & Masako. The lack of children (even today Japan has the lowest birth rate in the world) influences the Sugiyama's marriage in negative ways. Using a scene where Shoji's war buddies gather for beer, Ozu clearly shows that the generation that fought the war was now the the generation of the salaryman...if one was lucky enough to be a salaryman. Shoji's army buddies tell him how envious they are of his job and its steady salary.

I interpret Ozu's film as a criticism of what Japan had become 10 years after the war - Westernized with Western style problems associated with long commutes, big corporations and failing marriages. The great thing about Ozu is that he doesn't state these things in a heavy-handed manner. He always focuses on the family and lets the peripheral action affect the main characters. Nothing is ever good or bad per se, Ozu lets the audience view the effects and interpret it for themselves.

§§§

Having seen many more Kurosawa films than Ozu films, I was partial to Kurosawa's muscular form of storytelling. Kurosawa paints with broad strokes and vibrant colors and grabs your attention. Having seen these four from Ozu, I have a better appreciation for Ozu's more subtle characterizations and multi-layered stories. Continuing the metaphor, Ozu paints with an eye for detail and muted colors that fade into each other. His films require more focused attention to appreciate. They are two very different directors who film appeal for different reasons. I won't rank the two against each other but say that you can't go wrong watching either auteur's films.