“In this highly original and richly illustrated work, Daisuke Miyao examines the work of master filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu from fresh perspectives. Ozu’s use of color and camera movement are discussed more thoroughly than ever before. Miyao reveals how Ozu films emerged from Japanese society as only a critic deeply knowledgeable of both that culture and the international influences of film history could manage.”—Tom Gunning, author of <i>The Attractions of the Moving Image: Essays on History, Theory, and the Avant-Garde</i><br /><br />"Daisuke Miyao beautifully reveals how Ozu turns every color choice, every cut, every object and moment of transience into an act of compassion for the spectator. His luminous book captures the quiet humanity inside Ozu's cinema and reminds us that how we look at film - and life - determines how gently we move through it."—Daniel Raim, director of <i>The Ozu Diaries</i>
Introduction. Cinema and the Ethics of Indeterminacy 1
1. Cats and the Gaze of Things: Record of a Tenement Gentleman (Nagaya shinshiroku, 1947) 29
2. Coca-Cola and “Asian Cinema”: Late Spring (Bansbun, 1949) 49
3. Camera Movements and Ethics: Early Summer (Bakusbū, 1951) and The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice (Ochazuke no aji, 1952) 74
4. Clocks and Melodrama: Tokyo Story (Tokyo monogatari, 1953) 127
5. Color Environment and Red: Floating Weeds (Ukikusa, 1959) 155
Conclusion 211
Acknowledgments 219
Notes 221
Bibliography 243
Index 263