Ozu, Yasujiro

Ozu, Yasujiro,

1903–63, Japanese film director. Ozu began working at a Tokyo studio in 1923, became an assistant director in 1926, and directed his first feature in 1927. He made 35 silent films before turning to sound in 1936. His films concentrate on the Japanese middle class. He was adept at portraying conflicts between old and young, and parent and child, and at depicting changes in Japanese society and in the nature of family relations, and is known for using a relatively static camera and for long shots taken from a low angle. Ozu's Tokyo Story (1953) is considered both his masterpiece and one of the finest works ever produced by the Japanese cinema. Among his other works are Late Spring (1949), The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice (1952), Floating Weeds (1959), and An Autumn Afternoon (1962). Ozu, Akira KurosawaKurosawa, Akira
, 1910–98, Japanese film director, scriptwriter, and producer, b. Tokyo. He is regarded as one of the world's greatest directors. In Rashomon (1950), he introduced Western audiences to Japanese film.
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, and Kenji MizoguchiMizoguchi, Kenji,
1898–1956, Japanese film director. Mizoguchi made more than 80 features, but some 50 from the silent film and early sound years have not survived.
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 are considered the greatest filmmakers of Japanese cinema's golden age.

Bibliography

See D. Richie, Ozu: His Life and Films (1977); D. Bordwell, Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema (1988); K. Yoshida, Ozu's Anti-Cinema (2003).