Product Description

Ozu's hilarious Technicolor re-working of his silent I Was Born, But. . ., Good Morning (Ohayo) is the story of two young boys in suburban Tokyo who take a vow of silence after their parents refuse to buy them a television set. Shot from the perspective of the petulant brothers, Good Morning is an enchantingly satirical portrait of family life that gives rise to gags about romance, gossip, and the consumerism of modern Japan.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26494 in DVD
• Brand: Image Entertainment
• Released on: 2000-08-22
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: Japanese
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 94 minutes

Amazon.com
By the time he made Good Morning in 1959, Yasujiro Ozu had completely eliminated camera movement from his uniquely simple but elegant directorial style. He chose instead to emphasize static but meticulously purposeful compositions that rarely, if ever, wavered from their recognizable low-angle perspective. In Good Morning, this observational approach is put to sublime use to establish setting (a late-'50s Tokyo suburb) and to view the world through the eyes of the film's central characters—-two young brothers who take a mutual vow of silence to protest their parents' refusal to buy a TV set. Their father claims that television will create "a million idiots," while their mother is angered by the boys' neglect of schoolwork in favor of watching sumo wrestling on a neighbor's TV.

In Ozu's hands, this sublimely simple conflict inspires a comedic exploration of Japan at the dawn of its electronic age, when consumerism and materialism are in vogue, salesmen solicit their wares in constant door-to-door visits, and even the purchase of a washing machine can prompt neighbors into a frenzy of gossipy speculation. Funniest of all are the conspiratorial brothers, who play an amusing variation of "pull my finger" (proving that even great directors can indulge a fart joke if they choose), and employ their silent strategy with the stubbornness that only children can get away with. Through it all, Ozu develops a handful of intermingling themes of love, communication, goodwill, and the changing of societal traditions. Utterly simple on the surface, Good Morning reveals its complexity in careful proportion, with the affectionate humanity that was Ozu's greatest gift. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Yes, funny but look below the surface!
This is a study in layers of meaning, layers so fine they are almost transparent. On the surface this is a comedy of misunderstandings, stereotypes, and intergenerational conflict. Below that this is a photographer's film. I think the color is intentional - Ozu used agfa stock which had a slightly unreal quality to it. Each shot is carefully composed, and once you're into it, quite beautiful. Below that, the running comment is how language is as important to life as passing gas. Even deeper, life is changing quickly - the economy is changing right under the parents' noses - beatniks, salesmen, American electronics, unemployment, forced retirement. Pretty heavy stuff for a scatalogical comedy. Finally, optomistically even, Ozu suggests that for love, language is relatively unimportant, and action is the real substance of character - be it helping a friend start over, smiling while being a stern father, or choosing to ride the train with a potential mate, even if you can't afford to marry. A comedy that is high art - with fart jokes - how can you go wrong?

Delightful Sitcom Bears Ozu's Depth and Then Some
Flatulence seems to be an odd way of lending a framework to a film, but leave it to filmmaking master Yasujiro Ozu to use it as a metaphor for the meaninglessness of "small talk" between people who cannot be candid with one another. The title of this 1959 movie, "Ohayô (Good Morning)", is indeed the salutation but also from Ozu's perspective, a symbolic expression of how the Japanese avoid confrontation and put a strong value on etiquette. One of Ozu's late period color films, this is a very cute comedy which on the surface, seems like an extended episode of "Leave It to Beaver" especially in exhibiting the speedy Americanization of Japan since WWII. Even the color palette seems to evoke the muted McCarthy-era colors of the Universal comedies release around the same time. What remains consistent are Ozu's signature visual compositions - the use of the hillside to place the horizon in the middle of the frame, the use of silhouettes against the hillside, the movement of figures darting between the identical homes.

Set in a shoebox-tight housing community in Tokyo, the plot seamlessly interweaves the activities of five households - four of the more traditional variety and the fifth, a young beatnik couple who has the prized possession of the neighborhood, a TV set, which draws all the children in like clockwork after school. In the meantime, the housewives discover their association dues are missing and in "Peyton Place"-style, rumors swirl that the culprit is the woman who just bought a washing machine. Further subplots involve an unemployed English teacher, who can only speak banalities to the woman he loves; an older unemployed man who habitually gets drunk at the local bar and can't find his own home since they all look alike; and the funniest about two young brothers, the older particularly obstreperous in furiously sharing his all-too-perceptive observations of the adults - and practicing a strike of silence when their parents refuse to buy a TV set. Of course, that doesn't prevent the brothers and their friends from playing competitive rounds of "pull my finger" - a tap on the forehead yields a forced fart.

The performances are charming and quite undemanding with several members of Ozu's regular troupe present - Chishu Ryu and Kuniko Miyake (the father and older son's wife in "Tokyo Story") as the put-upon parents of the TV-demanding brothers; Haruko Sugimura (the petty daughter in "Tokyo Story") as the accused dues pilferer; and Toyoko Takahashi (the Onomichi neighbor in "Tokyo Story") as another of the gossipy housewives. As the young people unable to articulate their feelings for each other, Keiji Sada is the English teacher and Yoshiko Kuga is the boys' shy aunt, who couriers the documents for translation. And as the brothers, 13-year old Koji Shitara plays Minoru and seven-year old Masahiko Shimazu is Isamu, the latter particularly adorable when mimicking his older brother. This movie is certainly not in the class of "Tokyo Story" or "Floating Weeds", but I doubt if Ozu intended it to be. It's just a gentle, well-coordinated, sometimes hilarious poke at Japanese cultural traditions, a parable masquerading as a family comedy. Personally this is the Ozu film I can relate to the most since it speaks to my generation of Japanese-born Americans. The DVD package from the Criterion Collection is surprisingly sparse - no audio commentary, no trailer - but the video transfer and sound quality are excellent.

Slight Ozu, not "second-rate" Ozu
With all due respect to the previous reviewer, I do not belive that Ozu has ever made a "second-rate" film. Good Morning is cheerful and slight, but it is a charming comedy of manners, and is a refreshing change of style for a director much more well recognized for his domestic serious drams on meditations on life and the transience of human existence. I will agree that it quite does not pack the punch of "I was Born but..", but is is very charming and entertaining in its own way. I am glad that Ozu was able to leave us with the beautiful swan-song "Autumn Afternoon" shot in lovely color, as a fond remembrance of his genius.