Art house: Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family
Paul Fonoroff
Despite his reputation as "the most Japanese of all directors", Yasujiro Ozu's oeuvre has a universal quality that overcomes its cultural specificity. This was evident relatively early on in Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family (1941). Telling the tale of an elite Tokyo household beset by personal and financial problems, the script's underlying premise was partially based on American drama Over the Hill (first made as a silent film in 1920 and then a talkie in 1931).
Not that there is anything patently Hollywood in Ozu's interpretation of the dilemmas facing the Toda progeny when the death of the family patriarch (Hideo Fujino) reveals the precariousness of their economic and social standing. With the grand mansion sold, his widow (Ayako Katsuragi) and sole unmarried daughter, Setsuko (an early, charismatic turn by the great Mieko Takamine) find themselves unwanted guests in the residences of indifferent siblings and unwelcoming in-laws.
Visually, the film marked Ozu's initial partnership with cinematographer Yuharu Atsuta, who would be the cameraman on a dozen postwar Ozu films and a key component in the realisation of the director's trademark style. Equally momentous was the film being Ozu's first major moneymaker since his debut nearly 15 years earlier.
While extremely subdued compared to its Hollywood counterparts, this movie's emotionality is not quite as nuanced or refined as that exhibited by later Ozu classics. Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family is fascinating for its reflection of life among the upper echelons of society during the last halcyon days prior to the destruction of their world. This was Ozu's first production after his return from a stint in China as a draftee in the invading Imperial Army in 1937-39, and Chinese viewers will find the film's presentation of Tianjin as a haven for ambitious Japanese seeking an escape from troubles back home chilling.
Such is the case of youngest son Shojiro (Shin Saburi, in the first of his five Ozu film appearances). In the end, this most righteous member of the Toda's younger generation deemed the Chinese port a place where his mother and sister could start a new existence free of familial chains. Fictional characters they may be, but Ozu paints such a vivid picture that one cannot help but shudder at the fate awaiting them just a few years down the line in the wake of their nation's defeat.