This shot illustrates a special contrast between the father
and his boys. Yoshii is sitting in the
foreground to appear larger than his boys, but he's sitting in the same
position as they are. All three people
in the frame are using their right hand to eat a rice cake. If you look at Keiji, he's got the rice bowl
in his lap. It's almost as if he has a
burden that neither his father nor Ryoichi have anymore. At the end of the film,
as we discussed in class, Keiji is the one who tells his father to wish his
boss a good morning. Perhaps this shot is indicative of this character
development. I also want to point out
the color contrast with their costumes.
The boys are wearing the same thing they've been wearing, but the father
is wearing the same black robe that he wore the night before. It's really a way of exposing the father to
his kids. It's the first time that we
don't see him with that grey suit.
To add my interpretation, it seems as though the father is
trying to position himself with his kids in order to relate to them. We already know that his kids threw a fit the
night before, and that he's trying to mend broken bridges. Putting himself in this position puts him on
the same plane as his children. I think
that it's really important to note that Ozu could have put him on the left side
of his kids in this shot, which would have really framed him like his children
size wise. Instead, Ozu put him right in
front to really expose him, making the shot a close up of his body. I think that it says that he's a human being
like his children, but he's still in a much different stage of life than his
children.
Your response was very interesting and pointed out things I didn't even think about! For starters, I didn't notice that each of the characters had been holding the rice ball in their right hand. Do you think this has some sort of significance? Or do you think Ozu had done it just for the effect of the way it would turn out on camera? I also hadn't noticed the position Keiji was in and hadn't thought about the character development. I really like and agree with what you say about the contrast in the costumes. I find it interesting how much the dark, non-suit outfit makes the father seem much more vulnerable to the children as well as what you commented on regarding Ozu's positioning of the father character. Overall, a good analysis of things I didn't pick up on! The only criticism I have is to make the picture a little bigger next time to fill up the blog space (honestly just a small detail you're fine). :)
ReplyDeletei agree with your interpretation that the father is trying to relate to the boys and make himself appear the same as them or their equals. I didn't think about the positioning of the kids when it came to the positioning of the father in front instead of behind the kids.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a really good job and taking note of positioning, color, and costumes of the scene. These things really help understand how Ozu carefully crafted the scene to show the father on equal levels not only by his position, what he was wearing, but also what he was doing. Making the connection to how they were all holding the rice ball was really interesting and show just how connected and equal they were in this scene. My only critique would be you didn't really talk about the mothers role in almost staging this scene as she is the one who brought the rice bowl out and after we see this scene we see the mother having a knowing smile on her face that everything would work out. I also don't know how important the background is or if it has any significance but it may have been important to mention especially as Ozu clearly loves to play with even the littlest things in scenes. As you said, I also wonder how important the rice bow is to be on Keiji's lap.
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