The only son

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Movie
German title The only son
Original title 一 人 息 子 , Hitori Musuko
Country of production Japan
original language Japanese
Publishing year 1936
length 82 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Yasujirō Ozu
script Kōgo Noda ,
Yasujirō Ozu
production The Takayama
music Senji Itō
camera Shōjirō Sugimoto
occupation

The only son ( Japanese 一 人 息 子 , Hitori Musuko ) is a Japanese film by director Yasujirō Ozu from 1936 . It is Ozu's first sound film and the first in which Chishū Ryū appears as an actor.

action

In the province of Shinshū , the poor widow Tsune Nonomiya was persuaded by Ōkubo, the teacher of her son Ryōsuke, to allow her son to continue school after completing primary school. She has to work hard to have the money to do it. Teacher Ōkubo is bid farewell: in 1935 he decided to go to Tokyo. The son finishes school and decides to go to Tokyo as well to get further.

When the mother visits her son in Tokyo a year later, she learns that he is married, lives in a tiny apartment on the outskirts of the city and has a young son. He gets through life as a teacher at an evening school and has to borrow money from his colleagues in order to be able to pay for a decent meal for his mother. Together they visit the teacher Ōkubo, who, also no longer at school, struggles with a snack bar and at least brings up four children with his wife. This is followed by a visit to the cinema, to which Ryosuke has invited his mother. You see a German sound film, called "Talkie" in Japan, with a pretty blonde singer and a lover. The mother, who is not interested in the foreign film, falls asleep.

On a walk on the outskirts of the city, the mother reproaches her son: she expected that he would have made more of his life. In the evening at home there is another conversation: she explains that she sacrificed everything to him and had to sell the house, that she continues to work in a silk mill, and that she now lives in miserable factory accommodation.

During the visit, the son's wife sells her good kimono in order to raise money for the mother's visit. A child in the neighborhood is injured while they are heading out to have a nice afternoon. The son spends the money on hospital treatment. The beautiful afternoon is canceled, but the mother expressly praises his attitude. The mother then leaves, not without leaving some money for the son.

Back in her hometown, the mother in the silk mill is asked by a worker about her visit to Tokyo. The mother says with pretended pride that her son has become something great. The film closes with a glance at the mother who is crying against the wall of the factory courtyard.

Time reference

Not only was the film released in September 1936, it was essentially set in that year. It is the time when Japan and Germany came closer to each other. It is no coincidence that a poster with the title “Germany” hangs in the son's apartment and shows an equestrian statue. The blonde German woman from the film also hangs as a poster in the son's apartment.

The mother is guided through Tokyo, finds the old temples beautiful and is impressed by the crowd. None of this is shown. Only the poor residential area on the outskirts of the city is shown.

The release in Germany only from the age of 18 is surprising, since the film does not contain any morally problematic scenes, unlike e.g. B. Tokyo at twilight , which is approved for ages 12 and up and which, among other things, is about a loose love affair and abortion.

Remarks

  1. ↑ In Japan, foreign films were and are not dubbed, but - because it is cheaper - provided with subtitles.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ It is about the Schubert film " Leise flehen Meine Lieder " with Hans Jaray and Marta Eggerth .

literature

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