Early Film Question: Ozu's Father/Ex-Teacher-Figures in "Tokyo Chorus" (1931), and "There Was

[Michael Kerpan]

Michael -- I got the impression that the teacher in Tokyo Chorus only set out on his new "career" after he _had_ to retire from teaching.

Michael K

--- On Sat, 1/22/11, mccaskem at georgetown.edu <mccaskem at georgetown.edu> wrote:

> From: mccaskem at georgetown.edu <mccaskem at georgetown.edu>
> Subject: Early Film Question: Ozu's Father/Ex-Teacher-Figures in "Tokyo Chorus" (1931), and "There Was
> To: "KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu" <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
> Date: Saturday, January 22, 2011, 5:28 PM
> In Ozu's "Tokyo Chorus" (1931), there
> is a teacher early in the film, Omura 
> Sensei (Saito Tatsuo), who looks like a caricature of the
> father, former teacher 
> Horikawa Shuhei (Ryu Chishu), in Ozu's "There Was A Father"
> (1941).
> 
> In "Tokyo Chorus," Omura Sensei starts out as a humorous
> figure. He gives up 
> teaching in order to make a decent living running a small
> carry-out/dine-in 
> restaurant, but keeps in touch with his students, and is
> ever more respected by 
> them, as he faces his new life with dignity.
> 
> In "There Was A Father," Horikawa Sensei takes
> responsibility for the accidental 
> death of a student on a school excursion, resigns, and
> becomes an office 
> worker. But he keeps in touch with his student, and is ever
> more respected by 
> them, as he faces his new life with dignity.
> 
> These figures very vaguely remind me of the ex-teacher
> turned writer in 
> Kurosawa's "Maada-da-yo," but that film was based on the
> life of an actual 
> person, Uchida Hyakken, I believe.
> 
> http://www.criterion.com/people/45001-uchida-hyakken
> 
> Are these Ozu ex-teachers just handy stereotypes of
> venerated ex-teachers that 
> turn up in many Japanese films, or did Ozu have some
> special reason for these 
> portrayals of father-figure ex-teachers? Did he use this
> kind of figure in other 
> films of his?
> 
> Saito Tatsuo, by the way, also played the role of a teacher
> - serious, comic, or 
> tragic - in a number of other films, including the roles of
> Prof. Katae in 
> Shimizu's "Ornamental Hairpin" (1941), of Prof. Uchida in
> Ozu's "The Munekata 
> Sisters" (1950), and of a wacky professor, in the largely
> and probably justly 
> forgotten US Occupation film "Geisha Girl" (1952), by the
> Breakston & Stahl team   
> (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162342/combined#comment).
> 
>  
> Regards,
> 
> Michael McCaskey
> Georgetown Univ.
> 
> PS 
> 
> George Breakston, the director, also directed a number of
> other bad productions
> 
> http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0106423/
> 
> but "Geisha Girl" seems to have been his only film set in
> Japan.
> 
> C. Ray Stahl, writer and co-director, wrote several other
> bad scripts, including 
> "Oriental Evil" (1950), and produced the bad film "Tokyo
> File 212" (1951), both 
> set in Japan.
> 
>