Ozu Yasujiro, circa. 1956 Ozu was born on December 12, 1903 in Tokyo. He and his two brothers were educated in the countryside, in Matsusaka, whilst his father sold fertilizer in Tokyo. In 1916 he began middle school at Uji-Yamada (now Ise) and was an unruly pupil who loved mischief, fighting, drinking alcohol, and keeping a photo of actress Pearl White on his desk. Drinking was a habit he gained early in life and one that he was to keep. Ozu developed a love of film via school truancy, his fascination apparently sparked by a Matsunosuke historical spectacular at the Atagoza cinema in Matsusaka. It was around this time that Ozu's script collaborator Kogo Nada recalls Ozu's love of the films of Lillian Gish, Pearl White and William S. Hart as well as later, Rex Ingram and King Vidor. [Kogo Nada, "Ozu to iu Otoko" (A Man Called Ozu, Kinema Jumpo Tokushu, 1964]. Ozu chose to watch The Prisoner Of Zenda at the cinema instead of taking the entrance examination to the prestigious Kobe Higher Commercial School where his elder brother Shinichi attended. However, perhaps regretting his missed college opportunity, he later paid for the college education of his younger brother Shinzo. On location Despite having few qualifications, Ozu secured a position as an assistant teacher in a small mountain village some distance from Matsusaka — a post for which a college diploma was not needed. Little has been written or spoken about Ozu's time teaching in this community except it is known he drank almost continually. Friends came to visit him and stayed for extended drinking sessions for months on end. Eventually, his father had to wire him money to pay off his drinking debts and, after a decade away, Ozu went back to Tokyo to live with his family. Ozu's uncle, aware of his nephew's love of film, introduced him to Teihiro Tsutsumi, then manager of the Japanese film studio Shochiku. Not long after, Ozu began working for them — against his father's wishes — as an assistant cameraman. He didn't exactly 'land on his feet' when he began work in the movies: in 1923 Japanese movies were not considered 'respectable' or 'proper' employment and there was a consequent shortage of enthusiastic, bright young men involved in their production. Even Ozu's father initially refused his son's wish to work in the movies and had to be persuaded otherwise by the uncle. Mother and son, late 1950s Ozu's work as assistant cameraman involved pure physical labour, lifting and moving equipment at Shochiku's Tokyo studios in Kamata. Hiroshi Sakai, a cameraman for whom Ozu worked, remembers Ozu during summer shoots wearing only shorts and carrying the heavy Berhauer camera on his shoulder. He also remembered Ozu sat at the feet of director Kiyoko Ushihara asking questions about movie-making, in particular "What should cinema of the coming generation be like?" (Sakai cannot remember Ushihara's reply). Ozu apparently revelled in his early days at Kamata — feeling contented and free. He once said that he was happy because he was strong, and lugging the camera took all his strength. He also knew that in his new company he had the opportunity to get ahead, but "the real truth is that I didn't want to. As an assistant I could drink all I wanted and spend my time talking. As a director I'd have to stay up all night working on continuity. Still, my friends told me to go ahead and give it a try." After becoming assistant director to Tadamoto Okubo, it took less than a year for Ozu to put his first script forward for filming. It was in fact his second script The Sword Of Penitence, his only period piece, which became his first film as director in 1927. Ozu was called up into the army reserves before shooting was complete, and upon seeing the film stated that he would rather not call it his own. No negative, prints or script exist of The Sword Of Penitence — and, sadly, only 36 out of 54 Ozu films still exist. Ozu's career falls loosely into two halves, divided by the Second World War. His breezier early works are unafraid to acknowledge the influence of Hollywood melodramas or to dabble with farce. Such films contrast greatly with his later masterpieces, which portray a uniquely contemplative style so rigorous that it indirectly renounces almost all conventional film grammar. Yuhara Atsuta and Ozu The films of Yasujiro Ozu examine the basic struggles that we all face in life: the cycles of birth and death, the transition from childhood to adulthood, and the tension between tradition and modernity. Their titles often emphasise the changing of seasons, a symbolic backdrop for the evolving transitions of human experience. Seen together, Ozu's oeuvre amounts to one of the most profound visions of family life in the history of cinema. Yasujiro Ozu died on his sixtieth birthday, December 12, 1963, after a painful battle with throat cancer. Continue to Ozu's Style. Further reading - Donald Richie's Ozu, David Bordwell's Ozu & the Poetics of Cinema, Yoshida Kiju's Ozu's Anti-Cinema, and others at the In Print page.