Slideshow
RECORD OF A TENEMENT GENTLEMAN
Japan, 1947
Directed by Yasujirō Ozu
With Chôko Iida, Chishû Ryû, Hôhi Aoki, Takeshi Sakamoto
Approx. 72 min. 35mm.
In Japanese with English subtitles
Immediately post-war, widowed shopkeeper Chôko Iida gets saddled with a lice-ridden, silently expressionless homeless boy, then begins scheming to dump him herself, once foiled by the boy’s head-down run-up to the beach. But… (Chishû Ryû’s party recitation is a memorable highlight.)
Reviews
“One of Ozu’s most perfect domestic comedies.”
– Donald Richie
“Ozu deflects the sentimental thrust of the material by taking it all in through his passive, profoundly accepting point of view.”
– Dave Kehr
“A deceptively simple story in the manner typical of the most powerful of his films.”
– Michael Price, Senses of Cinema