In the third installment of our ongoing series on the films and career of Yasujiro Ozu, we find a filmmaker in transition, with Ozu finding elements of his voice and themes that will persist over the following three decades.

Part 3 in Ozu Seasons, an ongoing series

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Films Covered

• 9: Fighting Friends: Japanese Style (1929)
• 10: I Graduated, But... (1929)
• 11: The Life of an Office Worker (1929)
• 12: The Knock-Down Kid (aka "A Straightforward Boy") (1929)
• 13: An Introduction to Marriage (1930)
• 14: Walk Cheerfully (1930)
• 15: I Flunked, But... (1930)

Names Worth Learning

• Kogo Noda
  • screenwriter
• Tatsuo Saito
  • actor, prominent in the silent period
• Choko Iida
  • actress who graduates from bit mom/maid parts to break-your-heart leads
• Takeshi Sakamoto
  • actor, goes on to play "Ozu's tramp" Kihachi
• Chishu Ryu
  • Ozu's trademark actor collaborator
• Kinuyo Tanaka
  • begins as an ingénue actress, becomes an important part of Japanese cinema history

Show Notes and Links

• Criterion Collected now has a dedicated Twitter account that will not only update and communicate about the show specifically, but also occasional bits of Criterion ephemera.
• Surviving footage from Fighting Friends: Japanese Style
• Surviving footage from "Tokkan kozo" (The Knock-Down Kid)
• Ozu-san deserves credit for being one of the longest-running sources of good Ozu info on the web for some time.
• David Bordwell's indispensible Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema is available for free as a PDF by following a link on his website.
• The vast majority of Ozu's surviving filmography is available to U.S. listeners on Criterion's Hulu channel (there's a 2008 movie mistakenly listed in the last row, ignore it).
• A current listing of Ozu's films available from Criterion, on disc and otherwise via iTunes or Hulu Plus, including the trio that make up this week's Eclipse 42: Silent Ozu - Three Crime Dramas, all of which will be covered in the coming weeks.

NEXT IN "OZU SEASONS" ON CRITERION COLLECTED

A look across the career of one of Ozu's most frequent collaborators during this period, actor Tatsuo Saito.

NEXT ON CRITERION COLLECTED

Some extras and bonus material in tribute to Janus Films co-founder William Becker. His is a name that any Criterion fan should know from the credits of every supplement and collectible booklet in the Collection.

Self-described "Cheknov and Shakespeare fan" Oscar Isaac on the distinctly different personalities of the directors he's worked with, mostly focusing on his work with the Coen Brothers for new-to-the-Collection Inside Llewyn Davis.

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Show Notes

• Guillermo del Toro appeared (via time travel) on Electric Shadow last fall, talking about monsters and Hitchcock.
• Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) is now available on Blu-ray and DVD from Amazon and directly from Criterion.
• The soundtrack is pretty great, too.

This Is Spinal Tap is probably the most-selected OOP title on filmmakers' Criterion Top Ten lists. The 1994 Laserdisc (1998 DVD) features the only out-of-character commentary track ever recorded by the headline trio. Featured here: excerpts from that track, as well as a mournful recounting of the now-fifteen-years-out-of-print features that really "lick [the] love pump" for fans.

Show Notes and Links

• Criterion page for the film's entry in the collection
• Long, long-running fan site
• Wikipedia
• Did you celebrate 11/11/11 as "Nigel Tufnel Day"? Bet you feel like a loser now, huh?
• The majority (actually all) of the anecdotes in this THR piece from last year's NY Film Festival 30th Anniversary screening are recounted on the commentary track. You know, the one that fans of the movie who are subscribed to this show feed could thearetically listen to soon. Yeah...they sure will be able to listen to it as soon as they want to...once it is made available to them...inside the next 24-48 hours. Could be a fun weekend listen. Just saying.

In the second installment of our ongoing series on the films and career of Yasujiro Ozu, we blaze through his first eight films (seven of which are competely lost) as we watch a Japanese slacker who loves American movies find his voice.

Part 2 in Ozu Seasons, an ongoing series

Films Covered

1. Sword of Penitence (1927)
2. The Dreams of Youth (1928)
3. Wife Lost (1928)
4. Pumpkin (1928)
5. A Couple on the Move (1928)
6. Body Beautiful (1928)
7. Treasure Mountain (1928)
8. Days of Youth (1929), the only surviving film of the bunch

Ozu Collaborator Names Worth Learning

• Kogo Noda
  • screenwriter
• Tatsuo Saito
  • actor, prominent in the silent period
• Choko Iida
  • actress who graduates from bit mom/maid parts to break-your-heart leads
• Takeshi Sakamoto
  • actor, goes on to play "Ozu's tramp" Kihachi
• Chishu Ryu
  • actor, Ozu's trademark actor, over even Setsuko Hara

Show Notes and Links

• Ozu-san deserves credit for being one of the longest-running sources of good Ozu info on the web for some time.
• David Bordwell's indispensible Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema is available for free as a PDF by following a link on his website.
• The vast majority of Ozu's surviving filmography is available to U.S. listeners on Criterion's Hulu Plus channel (there's a 2008 movie mistakenly listed in the last row, ignore it).
• A current listing of Ozu's films available from Criterion, on disc and otherwise via iTunes or Hulu Plus, including the trio that make up this week's Eclipse 42: Silent Ozu - Three Crime Dramas, all of which will be covered in the coming weeks.

NEXT IN "OZU SEASONS" ON CRITERION COLLECTED

We enter one of the most diverse phases of Ozu's early filmography, covering college comedies (and dramedies), crime films, and melodramas, along with yet more Ozu films that have been completely lost.

Roger Ebert's voice introduces us to a new, "seasonal" (in more than one sense) series focusing on Yasujiro Ozu.

Part 1 in Ozu Seasons, an ongoing series

Show Notes and Links

• Roger Ebert's commentary track (briefly excerpted here) can be heard in full on Criterion's release of Floating Weeds (1959), a remake of A Story of Floating Weeds (1934). Our excerpt was taken from the same opening minutes found in Criterion's tribute post to Ebert, published just after his passing.
• David Bordwell's indispensible Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema is available for free as a PDF by following a link on his website.
• The vast majority of Ozu's surviving filmography is available to U.S. listeners on Criterion's Hulu Plus channel (there's a 2008 movie mistakenly listed in the last row, ignore it).
• A current listing of Ozu's films available from Criterion, on disc and otherwise via iTunes or Hulu Plus, including the trio that make up next week's Eclipse 42: Silent Ozu - Three Crime Dramas, which I may have blogged my way into predicting a few years ago, during my most just-previous pass at covering Ozu.
• Next time, we start digging into the early-career films you would never expect from a director known for mature, calm, and considered family dramas: slapstick college comedies, a samurai movie he didn't finish directing, crime melodramas, and more.

When you ask someone the name their favorite Charles Chaplin film, I've found that it generally is not The Great Dictator (1940). Popularity be damned, it may be his most culturally significant and important. This is a taste of why, especially in the WikiLeaks Era of the Information Age, I think you should make time for it.

We look at the "Banned Bond" commentaries from the Laserdisc Era of Criterion, using clips from the Dr. No track as context for why they're important and unique. Listen to them on their own or synced up with the movies.

The long-out-of-print and never-to-be-reissued commentaries for Dr. No, From Russia With Love, and Goldfinger were posted on 21 December 2014 alongside this blog post.

The commentary track on Criterion's 1991 laserdisc for Goldfinger so angered producer Albert Broccoli that he had it recalled from sale and reissued, without the offending track. The same went for the commentaries on Dr. No and From Russia With Love that were released both a few months before Goldfinger.

Reference Links

• Editor Peter Hunt makes mention near the end what Sean Connery can walk into "virtually any room" and do to "anybody". Guess. Just guess.

• This commentary also features a lesbian slur.

• The 007 Dossier first liberated these tracks from out-of-print obscurity back in 2011.

• The HMSS Weblog goes into great detail and context, though it spoils some of the best bits in all three tracks, like the word that is broadly considered a slur director Guy Hamilton used to describe Pussy Galore.

The commentary track on Criterion's 1991 laserdisc for From Russia With Love so angered producer Albert Broccoli that he had it recalled from sale and reissued, without the offending track. The same went for the commentaries on Dr. No and Goldfinger that were released both a few months before and a few months after From Russia With Love, respectively.

Reference Links

• This one was notably hosted by "Steve Rubin", or Steven Jay Rubin, the author of 1981's unapproved-by-Eon book The James Bond Films. He does not appear in the supplements of future Eon-approved DVDs and Blu-rays.

• Director Terence Young makes particularly pointed reference to how the success of Dr. No led the production to spend money like it was going out of style.

• The 007 Dossier first liberated these tracks from out-of-print obscurity back in 2011.

• The HMSS Weblog goes into great detail and context, though it spoils some of the best bits in all three tracks, like the word that is broadly considered a slur director Guy Hamilton used to describe Pussy Galore.

The commentary track on Criterion's 1991 laserdisc for Dr. No so angered producer Albert Broccoli that he had it recalled from sale and reissued, without the offending track. The same went for the commentaries on From Russia With Love and Goldfinger that were released in the months following Dr. No.

Reference Links

• Word has it that what set Cubby Broccoli off was a passing reference to Ian Fleming having been an alcoholic.

• You'll hear in this one about how Sean Connery met a foreign dignitary wearing absolutely nothing from the waist down, as detailed in Criterion Collected #4.

• The 007 Dossier first liberated these tracks from out-of-print obscurity back in 2011.

• The HMSS Weblog goes into great detail and context, though it spoils some of the best bits in all three tracks, like the word that is broadly considered a slur director Guy Hamilton used to describe Pussy Galore.

A look at Criterion Designs, Criterion's first standalone "book" project, which looks at the evolution of their art and design choices and sensibilities over the last 30 years.

Don't assume you'll buy it and it'll just sit on a shelf, like an unwrapped DVD or Blu-ray.

Show Notes and Links

• If you order from Amazon or B&N and use these links, it supports the show. All things being equal, we'd prefer you support any local bookshop that carries beautiful things like this book by buying from them.

• Make sure to subscribe to the Criterion Collected feed (or the Electric Shadow, Electric Shadow Channel, or Master Feed) to make sure you don't miss a holiday gift....something(s). They might be digital items thought lost to time that are more than merely worth having. There's absolutely No telling how long it'll be there, like Russia leaving Gold laying around on the street.

Want to taste-test Criterion movies via streaming, or love their taste and can't afford to buy every disc? Are you likewise not interested in spending a ton renting everything on iTunes? Hulu Plus and Fandor (as of a couple weeks ago) are both great options at under $8 a month.

Show Notes and Links

• Hulu Plus features a Criterion channel that includes almost the entire filmographies of many directors, including Chaplin, Kurosawa, Ozu, Bergman, and many more. (available on the same array of devices as Netflix, at this point)

• The Hulu Plus Criterion channel routinely adds movies before they hit disc (if some ever do), and more than just "black and white art movies". Weird Japanese genre stuff from the 70's, animated classic Watership Down, David Lynch and Guillermo del Toro mindbenders, they have all kinds of stuff. You can actually lose an afternoon flipping around (I know I have).

• Fandor struck a deal recently to carry a limited selection of Hulu's Criterion movies in a rotating, featured section. (Roku, iPad/AirPlay, website)

• If you're into off-the-beaten path streaming channel options, Warner Archive Instant is worth a look too, even though they have nothing to do with Criterion. They have similar app/availability options as Fandor (Roku, iPad/AirPlay)

• Are you an American traveling abroad and want access to the services you use? Try TunnelBear. Industry friends who find themselves abroad regularly swear by it.

• Not mentioned on the episode itself, but Criterion's "Current" feed is a great repository of video, video essays, and "special features" that are all completely free, and one of the unsung best things Criterion is doing now.

• Two new-to-ESN shows: Systematic and Overtired.

Our inaugural episode addresses the first question that generally comes out of people's mouths about Criterion: why Armageddon and The Rock? The short answer is that they belong there. Both more than fit the definition of "important" in a very specific way.

Support the show in its trial run by shopping Barnes & Noble's "50% off Criterion" Sale, running through 1 December 2014.

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