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2 January 2019: I Was Born, But...

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I Was Born But...
Yasujirō Ozu, 1932, 100 min
Silent with a recorded score by Donald Sosin

“Hailed by film critic Donald Richie as “a masterpiece,” I Was Born But… was financial and critical hit in its original release (winning the Kinema Jumpo poll as best Japanese film of the year) and remains a favorite of such Ozuphiles as director Wim Wenders and writer Phillip Lopate. In this darkly funny look at the conflict between parents and their offspring, an office clerk moves to the suburbs with his wife and two sons. Bullied by the other kids, the two boys turn into truants and begin to see in their father’s toadying ways with his boss the seeds of a life of flunkeyism. Their impatience with their parents and the hypocrisy of the adult world leads them to an intriguing form of civil and social disobedience.” – Harvard Film Archive


Part of our season on Yasujirō Ozu