I'm in awe of Ozu, in case you haven't noticed yet. This particular film can be found on the "Student Comedies" set released by the BFI. It's very much influenced by Harold Lloyd, and it's magical.
Light years ahead of "Wakaki hi" (1929) that was released the year before, Ozu manages to capture here not only the intense emotional fluctuation of anticipation and disappointment and the student environment where these feelings are deeply rooted in pride and communal pressure to succeed.
While "Wakaki hi" (1929) has its darker, rawer moments, here Ozu extends this sense of loss quite dramatically. In fact, I sympathized with the main character to such an extent that most of the film was agonizing in the dread he was brooding in.
This, however, is Ozu's strength. There's brilliant comedy there, but it's the more brilliant because of his deep understanding of human emotion. The contrapuntal relation of the ebb and flow of laughter and sorrow flows naturally here and shows what a great filmmaking master Ozu was from the "begin-ning" (considering his earliest films are now lost).
