Being poor and pure
I mentioned earlier that Yuasa-ya, which Toranosuke served as the branch manager, was a wholesaler that handled seafood and fertilizers. However, due to the store being damaged by the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, the head family of Ozu closed down the wholesale business and later turned to the real estate business. The head family was a large landowner who owned approximately 32,000 square meters of land in the Fukagawa area, and Toranosuke was in charge of managing it.
However, with Toranosuke's death, the issue of succession to the business arises between the Ozu family and the head family. According to Ozu's diary, on November 17, 1935, the year after Toranosuke's death, the head family came to Tokyo to discuss the matter. The discussion must have taken place in a hurry. Two days before that, elder brother Shinichi had returned to Tokyo alone, leaving his family at Ito, Izu where he was traveling.
As a result of discussions, the Ozu family was removed from the head family business. The eldest son, Shinichi, is a bank clerk, the second son, Yasujiro, is a movie director, his two younger sisters are already married, and the only one left is Nobuzo, who is a minor. The Ozu family was asked by the head family to vacate their mansion in Kamezumi-Town, Fukagawa-Ward. Things progressed rapidly after that. Ozu's diary on December 15th states that his elder brother looked for a house in the Kyodo area in western Tokyo. The following day, in Ozu's diary on the 16th, there is a description of a rented house in the Omori area, and two days later, Ozu goes out to see the place.
During this period, Ozu's diary increased in writings related to money.
The fatigue of the day after day piles up , and I feel deep down how hard it is to be a movie director.
If I had some money, I'd quit being a movie director at any time. (July 2, 1935)
At this time, Ozu was making “An Inn in Tokyo” and “Lion in the Mirror” (1936).
There is a saying, “There is no medicine for fools”.
But try making a fool have money. He is well-accepted by society as a clever man.
There is a saying, “You should not leave your descendants property”.
However, there is no father who lacks recognition as much as he does.
Saigo Takamori, who said he would not leave his descendants property, but who did leave them, was an outstanding person (August 31, 1935)
Can someone please give me 3 million yen?
I'll instantly become a hero.
If 3 million yen is a bit of a lot of money, just 30,000 yen is fine.
I spend my life playing right away.
I'm not kidding, I'm serious. (September 7, 1935)
If Kusunoki Masashige (Samurai leader who was loyal to the Imperial Court in the 14th century )were alive today, he would not say, “I will destroy anyone who opposes the Imperial Court”. But he'll say, “I want to be rich”. (September 11, 1935)
I want to be poor and pure. (October 29, 1935)
And, on New Year's Eve that year .
This year has been an absolutely terrible year.
I want to be poor and pure in the coming year.
Even if I am extremely poor, I can still be happy.
What I want to do is waste money, what I want are some money. The spring evenings I want to yell at. (March 15, 1937)
In “Days of Youth”, a student from a rural area living in a boarding house in Tokyo sends a telegram to his father in his hometown asking, “Please send me some money. If you don't have money, please send it to me even if you borrow it”. According to Ozu Hama, this telegram is actually a literal quote from a telegram sent by Ozu, who was working as a substitute teacher in a mountain village, to his father Toranosuke.
During his father's lifetime, Ozu received a monthly salary as a young director at Kamata Studio, but he used his position as the carefree and irresponsible second son to get his father to buy him a high-end camera. In Ozu's own words, he sucked at his father's shin to the hilt (he was thoroughly dependent on his father). The carefree nature of his youth seems to be reflected in the young hobbyist living in Geisha's house in “Treasure Mountain” (1929), but in the wake of Toranosuke's sudden death, Ozu and his family immediately find themselves in financial trouble and are forced to face harsh realities.
Was Kihachi, an unemployed man in “An Inn in Tokyo”, wandering through a reclaimed industrial area, a projection of Ozu himself at that time? I wonder if the two children he takes with him ware his mother, Asaye, and his younger brother, Nobuzo. Ozu, who was in dire financial straits, can be seen in the grudging descriptions of his late father in his diary.
Around this time, Ozu had a dream.
In the middle of the night, my late father appeared in my dream. I woke up and had trouble getting back to sleep, so I took Dial0.2. (September 16, 1935)
Perhaps reflecting the economic hardships of the time, there is a scene in “A Story of Floating Weeds” in which a strolling performing troupe decides to disband and sells its theatrical equipment to a second-hand goods store in order to make allowances for the members of the troupe. “The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family” also depicts a scene where calligraphy, paintings and antiques are auctioned off to settle debts left by their late father. It is possible that Ozu, both of whom creatively dramatize reality, was inspired by his own financial hardship and the reality that he would have been forced to liquidate his assets to overcome it.
In his diary on February 16, 1935, he wrote, “My brother Shinichi's wife and her children (Ozu's two nieces) have not come home.” Did the family's fortunes suddenly change after Toranosuke's death, causing discord within the family? According to Ozu Hama, Ozu's mother Asaye and Shinichi's wife had a bad relationship to begin with. Perhaps inspired by this, “The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family” includes a conversation in which an elderly mother and her eldest son's wife (Miyake Kuniko) do not get along well.
In any case, under these circumstances, on Setsubun (the day before the first day of spring) in February 1936, Ozu left Fukagawa, where he had lived, taking his mother and younger brother with him. His elder brother Shinichi also moved to Setagaya in western Tokyo with his wife and children. This is the dissolution and separation of the seven members of the Ozu family.
Ozu's new home was a rented house with a large garden on a hill at 28 Takanawa Minami-Town, Shiba Ward. According to Kishi Matsuo, it was located at the seventh telephone pole on the slope in front of Shinagawa Station, and was usually a quiet residential area. Nearby, at No. 30, lived the couple Iida Choko and Mohara Hideo, who had been cameramen for the Ozu team since “Dreams of Youth”.
The month before Ozu moved into this new home, Shochiku had closed Kamata studio and moved to Ofuna. Ofuna was a film studio equipped with a stage for talkie, and at the same time, Mohara was also researching talkie technology on his own, setting up a temporary recording studio and projection room in the storehouse behind his house.
Ozu's style is to coldly observe any adversity and creatively dramatize it into a movie. Ozu did not forget to calmly observe the financial hardships that followed Toranosuke's death, the family troubles that followed, and even the adversity of the family's separation. The result was his screenplay, “The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family”.
The top priority for this script was to avoid complaints from the authorities, learning from the fact that the screenplay for the previous film, “The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice”, was rejected by Home Ministry censors and production stalled. According to Ozu's explanation, this was a movie that pretended to be a kind of film about motherly love, with safety first in mind.
According to co-screenwriter Ikeda Tadao, “The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family” is a script that is somewhat reminiscent of Chekhov's world, depicting the decline of the upper class with a sense of Western chic. However, it is said that Ozu's own true self is reflected in the development that the second son, who was thought to be the most insensitive and unfilial in the family, was actually the most devoted and loyal son. In other words, the main character of this movie, Toda Shojiro (Saburi Shin), is modeled after Ozu himself. The fact that Shojiro is set as a Leica camera enthusiast shows Ozu's strong feelings for him.
Shojiro's younger sister (Takamine Mieko) is disappointed when her fiancé suddenly informs her that his engagement has been canceled after her wealthy and famous father suddenly passes away. Seeing his sister like that, Shojiro looks at her shyly and says: “What about a guy like me, who is a little dark-skinned but has a sturdy build, is kind, and doesn't look very handsome?'' This line sounds as if a joke that Ozu himself would say.
