Early Ozu: Shōshimin Film and Everyday Realism

This chapter examines the early phase of Ozu’s cinema, from 1927 to 1932, in the context of the development of Japanese cinema into a modern entertainment form. The first part examines the production strategy of Shochiku, especially in regard to the concept of Kamata-chō as the studio’s fundamental tenet, which was developed in the course of Shochiku’s effort to adopt a modern, Westernised cinematic style through the realistic depictions of urban everyday life, although the modernity had to be in constant conflict with more archaic forms and styles such as shinpa. In the second part, the genre of shōshimin (middle class) film is discussed as Ozu’s attempt to further complicate the format of Kamata-chō by developing its existing representation of modern everyday life into a critique of modernity. This point is examined by analysing Ozu’s two representative shōshimin films of the era, Tokyo Chorus (1931) and I Was Born But… (1932), in comparison with the work of other Shochiku directors, such as Shimazu Yasujiro.