Thursday Afternoon Love (Ozu)

Good Afternoon, my Darling,

I'm at Pearl's already. She got out of the hair salon at 3:30, so I figured I'd just stay here rather than go home for a few minutes and then all the way back. I hope you are having a good day. I've seen the weather reports from the Great Lakes area, and I know it's really cold right now, so I hope you are hanging in there, and I also hope you get a break from it asap.

Tonight is movie night, and we will once again be seeing a double feature, Ozu's "The Only Son" and "There Was A Father". Many of his films have family as a theme. Both are of moderate length, 90 minutes each, so I should be out of the theater by 10:15 or so, and back at Pearl's by 10:45. So I will write at the usual time.

I had fun thinking and writing about all those old books last night. That was awesome!

Enjoy your evening, Sweet Baby, and I will see you in just a little while. Here for now til 6:30.

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Midnight : Happy Late Night, my Darling, if you are still awake. We saw two more quietly powerful Ozu films tonight, the titles mentioned above. Both stories dealt with a parent and a child in school, and the sacrifices the parent must make in order for the child to succeed. These tales take place in poverty stricken Japan in the post-Depression years just before the war. One of Ozu's stylistic quirks was to repeat his themes, and these two films could be viewed as companion pieces because they both have the same theme, though different details. In "The Only Son", the parent is a mother who works in a textile factory. She has a very bright son she hopes to put through middle school, which in Japan you had to pay for. In "There Was A Father", the parent is obviously a father, in this case a teacher, who wants to put his own very bright son through middle school but loses his job through tragic circumstances involving a recreational outing with his students. Thus, he has to move away to Tokyo to earn a living. He puts his son through school, though never again do they live together.

What makes Ozu so great is that he deals with the timeless Artist's Questions : in both films, he asks, for the sons, if their desires are the same as what their parents desire for them, i.e. school as a ladder toward "success", or more succinctly, "making something of themselves". Pride and shame are historically depicted as a factor in the Japanese psyche - "saving face" as an example - and that is somewhat apparent in these movies, but what is more apparent is how like everyone else they were, at least at that time in their history. It could be because Ozu was a fan of American movies, but he has them dressed in what we would see as contemporary clothing of the time, even listening to jazz music. Many of the characters have no built-in need to "save face" or achieve dreams of material success because in the circumstances they live in, those dreams are just that - something that may or may not be possible. In both movies, family is shown to be the source of true happiness, family and friendship.

These are simple movies, again as I've described, without a moving camera, without much action, and yet in spite of that (or maybe because), a very powerful story is told. The acting is simple too, but not amateur, and you will never forget these characters. They hit you harder even after you've finished watching them.

I can see Ozu is considered one of the very greatest directors of all time. Many film scholars think him in the top five, even though he made the simplest of films, in everything but story.

That's all I know for tonight, my Baby. Sweet Dreams and I will see you in the morning.

I Love You!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)