FilmBuff

No, I am not having an existential crisis.  Well, maybe I am, but that's not related to the subject of this post.

I decided to check out Yasujiro Ozu's 1932 silent classic I Was Born, But... last night at the IFC Center.  Having not seen any of Ozu's work, I was pretty excited about the opportunity to catch this film on the big screen.  That said, I didn't have tremendous expectations in terms of how much I would actually enjoy the movie.  Instead, I went in thinking that I would cross it off my list of films that I needed to see.

I'm very glad to report that I couldn't have been more mistaken.  Born, which was preceded by Ozu's short A Straightforward Boy, was an incredibly engaging portrayal of two Japanese boys coming of age as they enter a new school and deal with bullies and other prepubescent social issues.  Their family dynamic is shaken when the boys ultimately learn that their father isn't the successful businessman they believed him to be. 

In addition to laughing out loud throughout, the film worked for me on a number of different levels.  What I couldn't get over was how relevant this pre war silent Japanese film was to today's consumer driven, fast paced society.  The social issues presented in the school yard brought me back to my own elementary school experiences, and the notion of how one measures success and how that relates to the family dynamic becomes all the more relevant in today's too big to fail, financial overhauled world. 

I highly recommend catching I Was Born, But... before it is washed over by other Ozu films this Friday.  I will definitely be back over the course of the month to get a deeper understanding of his work.