Good news for Ozu fans

[Don Brown]

>From this morning's Japan Times:

Shochiku Co., a major movie distributor and film producer, will run a 
yearlong project to mark the centennial of the birth of director Yasujiro 
Ozu.
Shochiku said special showings of his works, focusing on family life in 
contemporary Japan, and commemorative events are planned for international 
film festivals in Berlin in February, Hong Kong in April and New York in 
October.

Thirty-seven of Ozu's films will be screened at the National Museum of 
Modern Art in Tokyo starting next November, and a two-day commemorative 
international symposium will be launched a month later in Tokyo's Yurakucho 
district, Shochiku said.

Actress Shima Iwashita, who starred in many of Ozu's pictures, was at the 
kick-off news conference for the project. She recounted how, when she went 
abroad, she was swamped with questions about Ozu's movies and was struck 
each time by the greatness of his work.

Shochiku said that Ozu's films will be on the market next September on DVD.

Screenings and exhibitions will be held in 16 areas of Japan. including 
Mie, Kanagawa, Hiroshima, and Nagano prefectures, that are closely 
associated with Ozu or his work.

Ozu directed 54 films and is best known for the 1953 "Tokyo Monogatari" 
("Tokyo Story"), which depicts family life amid the corrupting influence of 
postwar society.

A Tokyo native, Ozu was born Dec. 12, 1903. He died on Dec. 12, 1963.

His films include "Banshun" ("Late Spring"), made in 1949; the 
autobiographical "Chichi Ariki" ("There was a Father"), made in 1942; and 
"Higambana" ("Equinox Flower"), made in 1958.


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