IMDb RATING
7.7/10
2.3K
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In postwar Japan, an abandoned boy nobody wants to take care of grows a relationship with a cynical middle-aged woman.In postwar Japan, an abandoned boy nobody wants to take care of grows a relationship with a cynical middle-aged woman.In postwar Japan, an abandoned boy nobody wants to take care of grows a relationship with a cynical middle-aged woman.
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Did you know
- TriviaThis was the first movie made by director Yasujirô Ozu after returning to Japan from his wartime army service abroad. After the surrender, he had been held for half a year in a British POW camp near Singapore, where he had been stationed. Legend has it that he was late in returning to Japan (in February 1946) because, although he was scheduled to be repatriated earlier, another Japanese soldier was desperate to go home, and Ozu let this other man go in his place.
- Quotes
Tamekichi: [curious about Tashiro's work, which involves fortunetelling] Does fortunetelling work?
Tashiro: Of course it does. Nothing works better.
Tamekichi: Really? The other day you left home wearing rain boots, but the day turned out to be sunny.
Tashiro: Weather isn't my specialty. The weather forecast on the radio works well for that.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Story of Film: An Odyssey: Birth of the Cinema (2011)
Featured review
Slightly different from the Ozu's I've seen before, but still a rather wonderful little film. Its his first film after the war. Only Ozu could film the desolate streetscape of a devastated Japan and make it seem so homely and normal. Every scene is magnificently composed - the first few shots, showing ramshackle homes framed by a wirescape of crooked electric cables sets the scene perfectly. Even the simplest domestic scenes are presented so beautifully they give a dignity to the ordinary people represented in the film.
The story is (as usual with Ozu) as simple as can be. A small flea-bitten boy, a stray, follows a man home, and a small group of neighbours argue amongst themselves what to do with him. He is left with a bad tempered widow. What happens is familiar - he slowly melts her heart. But how its done is not so familiar. The boy is never shown as particularly lovable - he's a quiet bedwetter 'pees like a horse' as the woman says. There is little or none of the saccharine you'd expect from other film makers, Japanese or otherwise. Its just shown very straight, with no sentimentality. Oh, and its a comedy - some lovely, very funny scenes. The acting is fantastic. One particular scene, where the neighbours accompany a singer with a rhythm tapped with chopsticks on places is brilliant, it alone is worth getting the DVD to see it.
The only let down is the ending, which becomes a little preachy. But its forgivable in the context, just 2 years after the end of the war, where Ozu perhaps felt he should give the audience a bit of a message (although as all scripts went through rigid censorship at the time we can't be certain it was all his idea). There is an obvious 'we should all be nicer to each other' message in the movie, and it doesn't shirk for a moment from the poverty at the time, despite the light hearted tone. Its hard to put yourself in the shoes of the contemporary audience, but they must have been heartened to see people so real to their own experience on the screen, with no false optimism or over-dramatic pessimism, just a very real slice of life.
The story is (as usual with Ozu) as simple as can be. A small flea-bitten boy, a stray, follows a man home, and a small group of neighbours argue amongst themselves what to do with him. He is left with a bad tempered widow. What happens is familiar - he slowly melts her heart. But how its done is not so familiar. The boy is never shown as particularly lovable - he's a quiet bedwetter 'pees like a horse' as the woman says. There is little or none of the saccharine you'd expect from other film makers, Japanese or otherwise. Its just shown very straight, with no sentimentality. Oh, and its a comedy - some lovely, very funny scenes. The acting is fantastic. One particular scene, where the neighbours accompany a singer with a rhythm tapped with chopsticks on places is brilliant, it alone is worth getting the DVD to see it.
The only let down is the ending, which becomes a little preachy. But its forgivable in the context, just 2 years after the end of the war, where Ozu perhaps felt he should give the audience a bit of a message (although as all scripts went through rigid censorship at the time we can't be certain it was all his idea). There is an obvious 'we should all be nicer to each other' message in the movie, and it doesn't shirk for a moment from the poverty at the time, despite the light hearted tone. Its hard to put yourself in the shoes of the contemporary audience, but they must have been heartened to see people so real to their own experience on the screen, with no false optimism or over-dramatic pessimism, just a very real slice of life.
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Història de l'home de la pensió
- Filming locations
- Tokyo, Japan(setting of the action)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 12 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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By what name was Record of a Tenement Gentleman (1947) officially released in India in English?
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