RED BEARD (1965)

[Update 05/30/16: this review sucks.  I will try to redo it soon.]

Set in the 1800's, Yuzo Kayama is a young doctor fresh out of school.  He plans on making a ton of duckets being a doctor to the shogunate, but is sorely disappointed when he's assigned to a public clinic. He immediately butts head with the head doctor, Dr. Kyojo Niide (Toshiro Mifune), also known as Red Beard. At first the new doctor just sits in his room drinking and pouting, but then he starts to loosen up as he hears the heartbreaking stories of the poor and observes their sad lives up close.

Over time, his heart thaws and after six months of guidance by Red Beard, the young doctor becomes not only a great doctor, but a great man, who is more interested in helping people who truly need help than making money by catering to the rich.

Simplistic view, yes, but still a beautiful movie.  It's also the last film of Kurosawa's great period and his final film with Mifune.

THERE WAS A FATHER (1942)

Another touching film by Yasujiro Ozu. This time the story is about a single, widowed father (Chishu Ryu in his first starring role) who has a son. He's also a teacher and after a accident at the beginning of the film that leads to a boy's death, the father is so overcome with guilt that he quits his job. He still wants the best education for his boy, so he sends him off to school while he, the father, works in Tokyo. The boy is heartbroken, but he does his best and eventually gets a job as a teacher himself.

For his entire life, the boy has longed for a closer relationship with his father and eventually when he himself is an adult they grow closer and are able to spend time together, but by now the father is old and well past the prime of his life.

To me, THERE WAS A FATHER is a even sadder film than it's DVD companion THE ONLY SON, because even though the father, I'm sure, loves his son very much it seemed to me that he was selfish in quitting his job. At the beginning of the film, everything appeared to be very happy, but once he quit his job it threw his son's life into turmoil and when he just dumped him off at the school and moved away that was extremely cruel. The little boy has already lost a mother and now his father abandons him?! I don't have any children, but when you become a parent you are responsible for that child and just because a horrible accident happened and one of your pupils died it doesn't mean you should quit your job and scar your kid for life. You gotta man up, put on your big boy panties and do what's best for your child.

Back to the film though, it's beautifully shot (a lot of the exterior shots could be put on postcards) and the performance by Ozu regular Ryu is very good. His version of an old man (Ryu was 38 at the time) is much more believable than Toshiro Mifune's in I LIVE IN FEAR (Mifune was 35). Of the two films in this wonderful set by Criterion I think I liked THE ONLY SON better just because the separation between the child and the parent was against the parent's will. Then, of course, at the end the mother saw the separation as not being worth it (which is the saddest moment in the film), even though I disagree, to a point, with that because she was sad that her son didn't grow up to be "great", just normal.

The picture on the DVD is passable, but I was really surprised at the amount of crackling and audio noise was going on, but since this is the first time these films have been available in America I'll just gladly shut up and be grateful that they are finally here for me to enjoy. For a better, more educated, essay on THERE WAS A FATHER look here.

THE ONLY SON (1936)

I know I said back in my UN CHIEN ANDALOU review that Bunuel was The Greatest Director of All Time, but the more films I watch by Yasujiro Ozu the more I think I might have been wrong. Bunuel was a different style of director, but I've seen some of his films that were less than stellar and a few that even bordering on bad. Ozu on the other hand, I've yet to see anything by him that wasn't stellar and more than a few that are masterpieces. None of this is to disparage Bunuel though, being the #2 Greatest Director of All Time is still pretty good.

THE ONLY SON was made in Japan in 1936, but the story is universal and still touching today. In 1923, Tsune is a widowed factory worker in a small town. She wants her young son, Ryosuke, to get an education and become a great man so she sacrifices everything she has (even selling her homestead and living in a tenement at the factory) to send Ryosuke to Tokyo so he can go to school.

1936. She hasn't seen her son in thirteen years so she goes to Tokyo to see him. Once there she's heartbroken to see that he's just a night school teacher living in a small house with a wife and baby. She hides her sadness and makes the best of the visit, but still inside she is devastated that her boy, who she gave up her entire life for, is just average.

Anything wise that I could say about THE ONLY SON has already been said in Tony Rayns' brilliant essay here, but I'll go ahead an throw in my two cents and say that I liked this film a lot. It's probably too slow for most people, but if you give it a chance I think you'll like it. The final (wordless) scene is heartbreaking.

Double feature with THERE WAS A FATHER.