Yasujiro Ozu - I Was Born, But... (1932)

Yoshii and his family move to a Tokyo suburb, to the same neighborhood as his boos. His two boys are initially terrorized by the school bully, and run truant. Eventually, they beat up and usurp the bully's place, lording it over all the boys, including the boss' son.





Mr. Yoshii (Tatsuo Saito), an office clerk, has moved his young family into a new neighborhood in the suburbs, strategically located just a few blocks from his employer, Mr. Iwasaki (Takeshi Sakamoto). One afternoon, while playing outdoors, Yoshii's younger son, Keichi (Tomio Aoki) catches the attention of the neighborhood children, among them, Iwasaki's son, who proceed to tease him. His older brother, Ryoichi (Hideo Sugawara), comes to his rescue, but soon, the two find themselves outnumbered, and only narrowly escape when Mr. Yoshii passes by on the street. Fearing retaliation, the brothers decide to become truants, but are sent back to school by their father with the stern reasoning, "Don't you want to go to school and become somebody?" Unable to escape their inevitable encounter with the school ruffians, Keichi befriends the delivery boy from the sake shop (Shoichi Kojufita) and persuades him to confront the gang's self-appointed ringleader and teach him a lesson. After the bully runs away in tears, the other children soon turn their allegiance over to the brothers, who are quick to test their solidarity by having them obey a "resurrection" command. Soon, the vanquished boy returns with his father, and the children begin to argue their respective cases on whose father would be best suited to challenge the bully's father. However, the brothers' idolatry for their father is tested when they visit the Iwasaki home, and find their father as the subject of home movies humiliating himself in front of the camera for the benefit of his boss.

Yasujiro Ozu creates a comic, witty, and incisive portrait of hypocrisy and social inequity in I Was Born But.... In contrast to the insular gendai-geki (contemporary life portrait) drama that would characterize Ozu's later films, I Was Born But... is rooted in the children's learned social behavior and acceptance of compromise in a non-ideal environment: the delivery boy's refusal to censure Iwasaki's son because of his family's patronage; Mr. Yoshii's doting attention to the young boy as he keeps interrupting his sons' attempt to "resurrect" him; the father's clownish behavior in the home movies. As the boys' attitude towards their father turn from magnanimous hero to embarrassing fool to sympathetic human being, Ozu presents a subtle, yet poignant observation on the children's rite of passage as they move away from the safe and predictable rules of home life towards the illogical and often unjust hierarchical social customs of the real world. (Acquarello, Stictly Film School)







He nacido, pero...
La familia Yoshii se traslada a vivir a un suburbio de Tokio para que el padre esté más cerca de su trabajo. Los dos hijos deben adaptarse a la nueva escuela, pero se encuentran con la hostilidad de un grupo de chicos entre los que está Taro, el hijo del señor Iwasaki, jefe de su padre. Reacios a ir a la escuela, consiguen vencer en una pelea a la banda enemiga con la ayuda de un vendedor de licores. Se hacen amigos de Taro y éste les enseña una películas de aficionado en que el padre de los niños hace payasadas para complacer a su jefe, padre de Taro. Los niños se enfadan con padre y empreden una orginal huelga infantil.



Gosses de Tokyo
Vers 1930, une famille s'installe dans la banlieue de Tokyo : les deux parents et les deux fils, de 10 et 8 ans. Des garnements, évitant l'école et brocardant leur père.
Autour de la maison, les deux frères s'affrontent à une bande d'enfants, à son chef notamment. Mais ils parviendront plus tard à le vaincre, en le faisant battre par plus fort que lui, et prendront la tête de la bande.
A la maison, les deux fils se confrontent à leur père. D'abord pour une note maquillée à un devoir. Puis parce qu'ils ont honte de lui, petit employé trop servile auprès de son patron et voisin, manquant à leurs yeux "d'importance" sociale. D'où une vive dispute entre eux et lui, suivie par un refus de se nourrir des deux fils. Mais la crise familiale passera vite...





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