Eine Laune

(1933) Passing Fancy/ Dekigokoro SILENT DRAMA

Co-written and directed by Yasujirô Ozu that opens with a group of people sitting around listening to the speaker talking about the latest news. By the time it was over, the movie then focuses on the single father, Kihachi Kimura (Takeshi Sakamoto) his son, Tomio Kimura (Tomio Aoki) who is on the third grade; his best friend and neighbor, Jiro (Den Obinata) and the old lady, Otome (Chôko Iida) who kind of lives with them. When one day, a young lady, Harue (Nobuko Fushimi) who dresses like a geisha is wondering around homeless, with Kihachi taking her under his wing. We then learn more about them and their daily lives. For instance, Kihachi and his best friend, Jiro both work in a factory and do not enjoy it, and that Tomio consistently have to wake them up every morning to go to work, in which they sometimes often show up late.

The movie starts out routinely, and it did not become interesting until the father, Kihachi began arguing with his son, Tomio. The argument regards that his dad is not the most ideal father because he does not know how to read, and that he often drinks at the bar after he comes home. In other words, he is often an embarrassment to his only son. And the more I know more about the father, the more I wanted to know about what happened to his wife, which could be anything! Or what was his wife like, and how come she is not with him anymore- how did she ever put up with him. The father's life began to intrigue me, and I did not get enough of that as much as I hoped. The movie resonates on some areas, while does not work on others, such as the father, beginning to express interest on Harue! For some reason, I almost dozed off, I guess it's a consistent theme when an older man begins to express interest to a younger lady. I also kind of hoped how the father is able to go through his life without reading and writing. Like, can he at least know how to spell his name!

Dekigokoro (Passing Fancy), is one of Ozu's 3 masterpieces from 1933. It stars the second of cinematic Ozu's "alter egos", Takeshi Sakamoto. Sakamoto typically plays a down and out working class father. Here, he is especially dense, to excellent comic effect. Tomio Aoki (in probably his most significant child role) plays a kid who seems to be considerably brighter than his father -- and who does more to keep the household running. Aoki is (of course) quite funny. But he also does an excellent job of showing a child's response to unwanted change. He and his father have long depended solely on each other -- but now his father has his eye on a young woman who has moved into their slum neighborhood. Aoki very much resents his father's interest in the woman -- and resists her attempts to win his affections.

This is an extremely visual film, with lots of completely "wordless" humor. The film starts out with an extended scene in a music hall (Chishu Ryu performing as the "singer") in which first a lost wallet circulates, and then a flea (or fleas). Probably not as great a family drama as the prior "I Was Born But" or the subsequent "Tokyo Inn", but nonetheless quite enjoyable.

"Passing fancy" (1933) is the latest of the three "silent Ozu's" that I have watched recently (the others were "Tokyo chorus" (1931) and "I was born ... but" (1932)) and the most recent one. Despite the coming of sound Ozu still adheres (just like Chaplin) firmly to the silent tradition. In his view silent film was on his way to reaching perfection and this was threatened by the still infant and imperfect sound technology. "Passing fancy" has many slapstick elements. See for example how characters in this film scratch their buttocks to express uncertainty and discomfort.

"Passing fancy" is of al three silent Ozu's the one with the most contrast to his later oeuvre.

It is about a young son and an adult father in stead of about an adult son and elderly parents. The father is single. The father is working class and not middle class.

Apart from the father-son relationsship there is also a love triangle in this film. In his favourite pub one night there appears a young lady. The father inmediately falls for her charms, but his younger colleague does not trust the lady. Of course the lady herself prefers the younger colleague. The father does ridicule himself courting someone half his age and in the proces neglects his son. Halfway the film one wonders if the father is raising his son or the other way round.

At the end the father, who is pretty good in fooling himself, has ultimately to come to two conclusions. In the first place that he is too old for the young lady (who calls him "a nice uncle", at first much to his chagrin) and in the second place that he has been a lousy father.

Takashi Sakamoto plays the somewhat naive and not very clever father in such a sympathetic way that the next year he returned as the main charecter in Ozu's real breakthrough film "A story of floating weeds".

This rarely screened silent gem shows Ozu rather early in his career. It presents the story of a poor factory worker trying to raise his son despite many obstacles and hardships. The biggest obstacle of all is the father himself who, though well intentioned and charismatic, makes one mistake in judgment after another. The father manages to get through all his many trials and tribulations thanks to the support (not always warmly) given by his friends and neighbors.

The most interesting thing for me about Passing Fancy is the way it uses a quite hard boiled, gritty realism and coarsely drawn, boorish characters to elicit very tender feelings in the viewer. The mixture of humor and pathos that advances the plot would be impossible for lesser directors or a weak cast to pull off, but in the hands of this troupe the whole enterprise succeeds wonderfully. Somehow, you may find yourself tempted to cry despite the near-total absence of sentimentality.

The acting is excellent all around, but the young boy deserves special mention. To Japanese, particularly at the time, the boy's behavior must have seemed shockingly inappropriate and unfilial, but his antics and facial expressions are very funny.

It is hard to believe that this is one of three movies that Ozu directed in 1933 alone. If the opportunity arises to see this movie, make every effort to see it.

Takeshi Sakamoto and Tokan Kozzo team up memorably yet again as an unemployed illiterate drunk and his resentful son, in this sentimental study of working class father-son relationships. As in I WAS BORN BUT... and TOKYO CHORUS, Ozu explores how children measure their self-esteem in their parents.