Silent Ozu — Three Crime Dramas (1930-1933) [Criterion Collection]

Director: Yasujirô Ozu

The great Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu is best known for the stately, meditative domestic dramas he made after World War II. But during his first decade at Shochiku studios, where he dabbled in many genres, he put out a trio of precisely rendered, magnificently shot and edited silent crime films about the hopes, dreams, and loves of small-time crooks. Heavily influenced in narrative and visual style by the American films that Ozu adored, these movies are revelatory early examples of his cinematic genius, accompanied here by new piano scores by Neil Brand.

Eclipse Series 42: Eclipse Series 42: Silent Ozu—Three Crime Dramas:
- Hijôsen no onna / Dragnet Girl (1933)
- Hogaraka ni ayume / Walk Cheerfully (1930)
- Sono yo no tsuma / That Night's Wife (1930)






Director: Yasujirô Ozu
Writers: Tadao Ikeda, Yasujirô Ozu (story) (as James Maki)
Stars: Kinuyo Tanaka, Jôji Oka, Sumiko Mizukubo

Tokiko is an office typist who is more pleased at catching the owner's son attention than he knows. That's because her real boyfriend is Joji, a washed up boxer turned gangster and her employer is a great opportunity to milk him for them both. However, when Kazuko, the innocent sister of Hiroshi, a hopeful new member of the gang, comes to Joji to plead with him to send Hiroshi away, the gangster is warmly affected by her. However, Tokiko is jealous and determined to win Joji back no matter what the cost while Joji has his own decisions to make about his life.






Director: Yasujirô Ozu
Writers: Tadao Ikeda (screenplay), Hiroshi Shimizu (story)
Stars: Satoko Date, Kanji Kawahara, Hiroko Kawasaki

In Yasujiro Ozu’s Walk Cheerfully, which gracefully combines elements of the relationship drama and the gangster story, small-time hood Kenji, a.k.a. Ken the Knife, wants to go straight for good girl Yasue but finds that starting over isn’t as simple as it sounds. This was the Japanese master’s first true homage to American crime movies, and it is a fleetly told, expressively shot work of humor and emotional depth.






Director: Yasujirô Ozu
Writers: Kôgo Noda, Oscar Schisgall (based on)
Stars: Mitsuko Ichimura, Tokihiko Okada, Chishû Ryû

In noirish darkness, a man commits a shocking robbery. But, as we soon learn, this seeming criminal mastermind is actually a sensitive everyman driven to desperation by the need to provide for his family. Unfolding over the course of one night, Yasujiro Ozu’s That Night’s Wife combines suspense with the emotional domestic drama one associates with the filmmaker’s later masterpieces, and employs beautifully evocative camera work.