BFI: 32 Ozu Films

[Michael Kerpan]

Nagaya shinshiroku is indeed a wonderful film -- I wonder if anyone will ever be able to give it a proper English title, instead of the current accidental mis-translation. (Judging by IMDB, it looks like all the various international titles are translations of the English mis-translated title -- and not translations of the actual Japanese title).

[HerrSchreck]

I doubt that will ever happen, since it would more likely to be a source of confusion rather than clarification. Although every here and there it does happen-- The Bicylcle Thief to Bicycle Thieves for example . . . but that's for one of the most revered films ever made which topped Best Of lists for decades.

Japanese films are often titled in ways that have less to do with literal translations of their Japanese titles, but have a certain verve and crackle and capture the attention succinctly. Even the goofy kaiju films:
Godzilla vs The Sea Monster: Gojira, Ebirâ, Mosura: Nankai no daiketto
Godzilla vs Gigan: Chikyû kogeki meirei: Gojira tai Gaigan
etc

[movielocke]

what's the title better translate to?

[Gregory]

A Who's Who of the Tenements (Bordwell)

[swo17]

The main characters of the film are an old lady and a little boy. Where did anyone get "gentleman" from that?

[Michael Kerpan]

The main characters of the film are an old lady and a little boy. Where did anyone get "gentleman" from that?

Donald Richie came up with the title. He acknowledges that he wasn't yet totally familiar with looking things up in kanji dictionaries when he tackled this title -- he says he treated this as "nagaya shinshi roku" rather than "nagaya shinshiroku".

"Nagaya" = "tenement house / row house".

"Shinshi" - "gentleman".

"Roku" = "record, transcript".

On the other hand, "shinshiroku" = "who's who / directory".

[swo17]

I kind of like the ring of The Tenement Directory. Or does that sound too much like a Jason Bourne movie?

[knives]

Sounds more like a MacGuffin. Either way expect next summer for Matt Damon to look for...The Tenement Directory [really poorly choosen guitar riff].

[whaleallright]

I had no idea that the English title was not an "imperfect translation" but an outright mistranslation. The film is sufficiently obscure that I don't think it would do any harm to simply alter the title to A Tenement Directory--a title that has a pleasing cadence to it.

Ozu titles suffer from mistranslations so often that it's a wonder that the title of his best-known film is actually correctly translated into English.

[MichaelB]

I doubt that will ever happen, since it would more likely to be a source of confusion rather than clarification. Although every here and there it does happen-- The Bicylcle Thief to Bicycle Thieves for example . . . but that's for one of the most revered films ever made which topped Best Of lists for decades.

...and which was also widely known as Bicycle Thieves in other English-speaking countries from the year of its first release, so it was a relatively painless change to make. Mind you, back in the 1990s I overheard an American visitor to the BFI bookshop asking if Bicycle Thieves was a sequel to The Bicycle Thief...

The Ozu translation issue is something that the producer of this series is well aware of - An Autumn Afternoon being another good example where the English title doesn't bear any resemblance to the Japanese. But she thought the most sensible course of action was to retain the familiar English title while making it very clear very early on in the booklet how the Japanese title should be correctly rendered in English - that way, she avoided confusing potential purchasers while still maintaining sufficient scholarly rigour.

Record of a Tenement Gentleman isn't as well known in the UK as An Autumn Afternoon, but it did get a theatrical release under that title in the early 1990s, so I expect it'll be retained.

[bigP]

March 18th release date for The Gangster Films set

[antnield]

[reaky]

Has there been any confirmation of whether or not the BFI has the rights to The End Of Summer? MoC are releasing Floating Weeds; might the rights to the later film be with them?

[MichaelB]

You'll have to ask them!

Incidentally, I've got my hands on a checkdisc of Floating Weeds, and if it wasn't for the MoC menus you'd assume that it was part of the BFI collection: it looks pretty much exactly as I was expecting. Crucially, the colours are much closer to the Artificial Eye grading than to the more contentious Criterion version (see grabs here), so would appear to be much more in line with Ozu's typical approach to Afgacolor.

None of this came as a surprise, since James White supervised a fair number of the BFI's Ozu releases and now freelances for MoC - so he's more than familiar with the relevant issues. Especially since he fixed the colour on Good Morning, and seems to have had similar views regarding Floating Weeds.

[reaky]

I'm really looking forward to the MoC, though I'm holding on to my Criterion for A Story of Floating Weeds and the two Donald Richie commentaries.

[reaky]

You'll have to ask them!

So I did, and have been informed "The End of Summer is not one of the titles we have under license."

Fingers crossed for another MoC.

[manicsounds]

I'm really looking forward to the MoC, though I'm holding on to my Criterion for A Story of Floating Weeds and the two Donald Richie commentaries.

You mean 1 commentary. He only did the commentary for the silent film.

[reaky]

My mistake - Roger Ebert did the (excellent) commentary on the 1959 film. Coincidentally, I received my MoC Floating Weeds dual-format this morning.

[AK]

You'll have to ask them!

So I did, and have been informed "The End of Summer is not one of the titles we have under license."

Fingers crossed for another MoC.

I would be very shocked had some other distributor sneaked in and snatched that instead of MoC. But I'll keep my fingers crossed as well.

[reaky]

I can't imagine that Artificial Eye would have held on to one of their Ozus and not the other, so yes.

[peerpee]

FLOATING WEEDS was from Kadokawa (like GATE OF HELL). THE END OF SUMMER is with Toho and decent HD materials did not exist a year ago.

[reaky]

Is "a year ago" in contrast with "now", Nick? Is there something in the offing with End of Summer that you can share?

[zedz]

"A year ago" was when Nick worked for MoC. "Now," you'd have to ask MoC, presumably.

[MichaelB]

Full specs announced:

The Ozu Collection
The Gangster Films
Three silent films by Yasujiro Ozu

The latest volume in the BFI's celebrated collection of the works of Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu (Tokyo Story), released on 18 March 2013, focuses on his gangster-genre films. This 2-disc set contains Walk Cheerfully (1930), That Night's Wife (1930) and Dragnet Girl (1933), all coming to DVD for the first time. Each film is presented with a newly commissioned score from Ed Hughes. Also included is the only surviving fragment of Ozu's A Straightforward Boy (1929).

Ozu honed his craft in the early 1930s, a time when young Japanese directors were experimenting with cinematic conventions. In these rare, silent works, Ozu mixes a Hollywood-infused dynamism with elements of his later unique and poetic style.

Disc One

Walk Cheerfully (Hogaraka ni ayume)
When Kenji 'the Knife' Koyama, leader of a gang of hooligans, falls for the beautiful and virtuous Yasue he faces a tough decision: go straight to win her heart or carry on with his life of petty crime and easy luxury. With its expressionist lighting - reminiscent of Sternberg's Underworld - and distinctive characterisation, Walk Cheerfully sees Ozu combine international cinematic influences with comic touches all of his own.

Japan / 1930 / b&w / silent with music, English subtitles and intertitles / DVD9 / 92 mins / original aspect ratio 1.33:1

Disc Two

That Night's Wife (Sono yo no tsuma)
In desperation over the illness of his daughter, young father Shuji turns to crime to pay the medical bills. Enter Detective Kagawa (played by Togo Yamamoto) for a tense nighttime stand-off with Shuji's wife, Mayumi. That Night's Wife demonstrates Ozu's masterly handling of drama as the film reaches its emotional climax.

Dragnet Girl (Hijosen no onna)
By day sweet-faced Tokiko (played by Equinox Flower's Tanaka Kinuyo) is an ordinary typist but come nightfall she's a glamorous fun-loving gangster's moll. When her boyfriend Joji starts to stray, Tokiko is forced to confront the effects of her dissolute lifestyle. Hugely popular when it was released, Ozu's Dragnet Girl remains one of Ozu's most endearing silent films.

Japan / 1930 + 1933 / b&w / silent with music, English subtitles and intertitles / DVD9 / 63 mins + 96 mins / Original aspect ratio 1.33:1

Special Features
• A Straightforward Boy (1929, 13 mins): a kidnapped boy gets the better of the baddies in this surviving fragment of the film, directed by Ozu, which shot its child star Tomio Aoki to fame;
• Ozu: Emotion and Poetry (2012, 10 mins): an extract from Asian cinema expert Tony Rayns' 2010 lecture on Ozu's early work;
• Illustrated booklet with newly commissioned essays from Tony Rayns and Michael Kerpan.

Product Details
RRP: £29.99 / cat. no. BFIVD951 / Cert PG

[AidanKing]

Nice to see an essay by Michael Kerpan after the excellent essay by Nick Wrigley in the melodramas set. Another reason for looking forward to this.