Anecdotes

His grave bears no name, just the character 'mu' ("nothingness").

Invented the 'pillow shot' which is basically a manner of cutting from a character's sufferings to an unrelated still life.

Died on his birthday.

Remained single and childless all of his life and lived alone with his mother, who died less than two years before his own death.

"Floating Weeds" cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa said that Ozu had a certain style of directing. The camera was always placed low, close to the floor. He never used cranes, a moving camera, bird's eye shots. Once or twice he tried them early in his career, but he abandoned them. When he edited, he never used overlaps, wipes, fade-ins. He was determined to create a sense of ordinary, everyday life without tricks or mannerisms. To Ozu the camera was never more than an uninvolved observer. It was never part of the action. It never commented on the action. It was through the repetition of short cuts moving back and forth from one character to another that Ozu created a sense of real life.

Invented the "tatami shot", in which the camera is placed at a low height, supposedly at the eye level of a person kneeling on a tatami mat.

Was considered by Japan's film authorities to be "too Japanese" to be understood by Western audiences.

According to renowned film critic Roger Ebert, "to love movies without loving Ozu is an impossibility".

Thought of as the world's greatest director by many film critics and theorists alike.

Wim Wenders shot a documentary film called Tokyo-Ga to explore the world of Ozu.

Was chosen the tenth greatest director of all time by the BFI's Sight & Sound poll of Critics' top ten directors.

In the 2012 Sight&Sound poll of film directors' choices of "greatest film of all time", his film Tôkyô monogatari (1953) has topped the list.

Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki showed his admiration for him by saying, "Ozu-san, I'm Aki Kaurismäki from Finland, I've made eleven lousy films, and it's all your fault".

When he saw the film Civilization (1916) in 1917, he decided that he wanted to be a film director.

Those who admire his work include Andrei Tarkovsky, Abbas Kiarostami, Martin Scorsese, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Aki Kaurismäki, Claire Denis, Jim Jarmusch, and Wim Wenders.

The centenary of his birth was commemorated by Shochiku Film Company by producing the film Café Lumière. (2003)

He began his career as an assistant cameraman.

He was a smoker who died of throat cancer.

He apprenticed under Torajirô Saitô.

Retrospective in 2003 at the 27th São Paulo International Film Festival

It's often thought that he placed the camera at the eye level of a person kneeling on a Tatami mat. Actually, it's often lower than that, only one or two feet off the ground.

Retrospective at the 53rd Berlin International Film Festival. (2003)

Thirty-four-film Retrospective during 2005 at Northwest Film Forum in Seattle.

In addition to using the same actors and actresses as often as possible he ever worked with two cameramen, Shigehara Hideo and Atsuta Yuhara.

Biography in John Wakeman, editor, "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945," pp. 850-858. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.