Once upon a time there was a father

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Movie
German title Once upon a time there was a father
Original title 父 あ り き
Chichi ariki
Country of production Japan
original language Japanese
Publishing year 1942
length 94 minutes
Rod
Director Ozu Yasujirō
script Tadao Ikeda,
Takao Yanai,
Ozu Yasujirō
music Kyōichi Saiki
camera Yūharu Atsuta
cut Yoshiyasu Hamamura
occupation

Once upon a time there was a father ( Japanese 父 あ り き , Chichi ariki , English: There Was a Father ) is a Japanese film from 1942 . Directed by Ozu Yasujirō , who was also responsible for the script together with Tadao Ikeda and Takao Yanai. The film was very well received by critics and the Japanese government and was a hit at the Japanese box office. He received second place at the award ceremony of the Kinema Jumpō Prize . - The film is only partially of poor quality and occasionally corrupted scene transitions.

action

After the death of his wife, Shūhei Horikawa lives alone with his son Ryōhei in a Japanese provincial town. With a certain severity he pays attention to the upbringing of the primary school pupil. As a teacher he teaches geometry there . He and his class go on a trip to Tokyo. While he was playing a Go game there during a break, one of his students had a fatal accident on an unauthorized boat trip.

Although his supervisor, Professor Hirata, tries to talk him out of it, he blames himself for this breach of duty of supervision that he immediately gives up his job. He believes that he is unsuitable as a teacher, precisely because he had not succeeded in making the prohibition sufficiently understandable beforehand. And even as a father, he would not want to entrust his child to such a teacher.

Shūhei takes the boy to his hometown Ueda by train , where he visits a clergyman who is still close to him. When doing handicrafts together, he finds the leisure time to reflect. His wife and father are buried here. Shūhei's father had sold the parental home to finance the son's education.

Ryōhei can enjoy the time of fishing together on the river here. Here the father explains to him that he has decided to send him to boarding school in order to enable him to study, but that they will continue to see each other on the weekends. A short time later, however, the father explains to him that he will go to Tokyo, as he hopes to find better work there. As always, Shūhei tries to convince the son of the decision. However, he is so disappointed that he finally begins to cry. For the first time the father shows a slight severity and forbids him to cry. Then he conscientiously hands over the pocket money, socks and all other things that he will need for the near future.

When Ryōhei was 25 years old, he took a job as a teacher at a school in Akita after completing his studies , while his father now lived in Tokyo and took on a supervisory role in a textile factory. In this city he happened to meet his former superior, Professor Hirata. The encounter shows the bond and affection between the two men. The two spend time playing Go and Hirata, who also lives without a wife, invites Shūhei to his home with his two children.

Ryōhei misses living with his father. He suggests giving up his post and moving to Tokyo, which Shūhei refuses because he doesn't want his son to fail as a teacher as he does. Regular visits last several days. Because of his great love for his father, Ryōhei regularly accepts the father's will when the latter does not accept his wishes.

After a class reunion with one of his former classes, Shūhei proposes to his son, who has been classified as fit and will soon have to do military service, to marry Hirata's daughter. Shortly thereafter, Shūhei had a heart attack. Ryōhei, Hirata and his daughter Fumi are sitting at the hospital bed. Shūhei addresses his last words to Hirata: “I entrust you with my son. I'm counting on you ... ” Ryōhei can be seen crying.

Ryōhei will marry the woman, Fumi, whom his father recommended to him during his lifetime. In the final scene, Ryōhei says to Fumi, “I have dreamed of living with my father since I was a child. When I was able to realize it, he died. I was allowed to live with him for a week. It was the best time of my life. He was a good father. "

Fumi begins to cry violently.

background

  • The film is about the single father, a topic that Ozu picks up again and again later.
  • In the settings, details of everyday life and working life in the Japanese environment are repeatedly focused: the lessons of teacher Shūhei, the occupation with sewing and printing in the monastery and work in the textile factory.
  • The film also shows Japanese manners: sympathy, the expression of affection - in the complete absence of physical closeness. In the entire film there are only three scenes in which physical contact can be seen.
  • The film was shot during the Pacific War , so Ozu can't avoid the patriotic either. The father urges his son to fulfill his duties unconditionally and points out an exhibition by the painter Watanabe Kazan (1793–1841), who was persecuted for being loyal to the emperor and who ultimately committed suicide. On the other hand, at the beginning of the film there is a stone rubbing of a well-known poem from the Tang period , written by Zhang Ji : "The moon is setting, crows cawing ..." which hangs in Horikawa's classroom. With this he takes a clear position against the degradation of China, which has been common since the beginning of the war.
  • Even before he went to China as a soldier for some time, Ozu wrote a first draft for this film in 1937. When he returned to Japan, he wrote several more drafts.

criticism

"This [...] film gains its value [...] not only from its deep story, but above all through its touching images and Ozu's handling of stylistic elements and changing narrative tempo."

- insidemovie.de

"Ozu accompanies his characters for decades and tells with great urgency about their suffering, born of the will to sacrifice and the fulfillment of duty."

- Cinema

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Donald Richie : A Hundred Years of Japanese Film . P. 105.
  2. ↑ a b Donald Richie: Ozu . P. 229.
  3. ↑ Once upon a time there was a father  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Review from insidemovie.de . June 2009, accessed June 7, 2009@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.insidemovie.de  
  4. ↑ There once was a father to cinema .com, accessed January 25, 2009