Woman of Tokyo
Director: Yasujiro
Ozu
Year: 1933
Rating: 5.0
Silent Film.
An Ozu quickie. It comes in at 47 minutes
and it is hard to know where it fits in and what the point was. Other than
his film studio Shochiku having an open slot and telling Ozu to make a film
in ten days. He, Koga Noda and Tadao Ikeda wrote up the script and delivered
the film in nine. Both Noda and Ikeda would help Ozu script many films in
the future. It is a very moralistic tale told straight up with no real
opportunity for complexity of plot or character. It is pure soap opera suds.
Chikako (Yoshiko Okada) is the older sister
to Ryo (Ureo Egawa) and is financing his way through university. Ryo is involved
with Harue (Kinuyo Tanaka who is in Ozu's next film Dragnet Girl), who also
lives with her older brother. The two of them go see a Lubitsch film on a
date. Ozu loved many American films. It was a film from Thomas Ince back
in 1915 titled Civilization that Ozu says made him decide to become a director.
Chikako works as an office girl and after work does translation work for
a professor. Supposedly. But Harue hears from her policeman brother that
Chikako is under investigation for working in a night club and prostitution.
Harue tells Ryo and tragedy ensues. Much too quickly though for it to have
any real impact to it. The main problem is that in such a short period we
feel nothing for the characters - they feel like symbols with Ozu telling
us either don't be a prostitute or don't judge someone who is. I am not really
sure.
