I am struck by what a horrid old lady Chôko Iida is. Logically I can't blame her. She is not used to children when she has semi-orphan Hôhi Aoki dumped on her, for no clear reason. She scolds the boy for being a boy and for being so stubborn in denying he ate some dried persimmons. When it turns out he didn't (although I think the fellow who claimed he did it might have simply been trying to get the kid out of trouble), she is upset with him because he won't accept her apology. He does not act in the formal manner and rhythms of the adults she is used to and this irritates her.
I get it, even though she mistreats the boy and he runs away. She resents him for this too. then he is brought back and she becomes grandmotherly, although she constantly asks for him to praise her good behavior. When his father comes to collect him, she decides to go adopt a child.
Ozu directed this movie six years after his previous one -- he had been drafted in the interim and the sort of movie he would direct was this sort of small-scale character study. Unfortunately, the implied character change in Miss Lida strikes me as implausible. I think it may have seemed that way to Ozu. The final shot, where presumably she will look for an adoptive son, of of a statue with a bunch of youngsters lolling around, smoking cigarettes and other such anti-social behavior. It's a plea for people to help out these children. Only, please, not the old lady in this movie.
It's far too sentimental a movie for the usually clear-eyed Ozu. Perhaps this was the movie he had to direct in order to be approved for work by the occupying American forces. In any case, his work in his chosen genre would quickly become marvelous.
I get it, even though she mistreats the boy and he runs away. She resents him for this too. then he is brought back and she becomes grandmotherly, although she constantly asks for him to praise her good behavior. When his father comes to collect him, she decides to go adopt a child.
Ozu directed this movie six years after his previous one -- he had been drafted in the interim and the sort of movie he would direct was this sort of small-scale character study. Unfortunately, the implied character change in Miss Lida strikes me as implausible. I think it may have seemed that way to Ozu. The final shot, where presumably she will look for an adoptive son, of of a statue with a bunch of youngsters lolling around, smoking cigarettes and other such anti-social behavior. It's a plea for people to help out these children. Only, please, not the old lady in this movie.
It's far too sentimental a movie for the usually clear-eyed Ozu. Perhaps this was the movie he had to direct in order to be approved for work by the occupying American forces. In any case, his work in his chosen genre would quickly become marvelous.