Shochiku Sets 120 Year Anniversary Celebration Of Iconic Filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu

Japanese studio Shochiku REVEALED TODAY that the Cannes Classics screening of legendary Japanese auteur Yasujiro Ozu's "Record of a Tenement Gentleman" will serve as the kick-off to a major worldwide celebration of Ozu, which begins in May and lasts through the end of the year.

2023 marks the 120th anniversary of Yasujiro Ozu's birth (and 60th since his death) and Shochiku, where Ozu spent the majority of career and made his iconic movies, is planning a series of curated retrospectives, festival screenings, and special events around the world that pay homage to his enduring legacy as one of the most influential directors in the history of cinema.

Shochiku is launching this international celebration by presenting a fully restored 4K version of Ozu's "Record of a Tenement Gentleman" at the Cannes Film Festival, as part of the prestigious Cannes Classics lineup.

Additional events and screenings will follow throughout the summer and the fall. In all, Shochiku is planning to screen all films made by Yasujiro Ozu at various events throughout the year. These include:

• The Harvard Film Archive will present The Complete Yasujiro Ozu featuring all extant titles, from June 9 through August 13, with support from the Japan Foundation in partnership with Janus Films and the Criterion Collection.
• New York's Film Forum is hosting OZU 120, a three-week Ozu retrospective, including all of the director's extant titles, June 9 through the 29th with support from the Japan Foundation in partnership with Janus Films and the Criterion Collection.
• The BFI will be celebrating Ozu with a 16-film retrospective at BFI Southbank from September 1 through October 3; a UK-wide theatrical re-release of "Tokyo Story"'; a box set of newly remastered titles on BFI Blu-ray; and a collection of films on their streaming platform BFI Player.
• The Taiwan Film & Audiovisual Institute presenting The Aftertaste of Time: Ozu Yasujiro 120 with eight films from June 9 through July 16.
• "Tokyo Story" being adapted as a stage play with Simon Friend ("The Father") developing for London's West End.
• Carlotta Films planning a nationwide theatrical release of newly 4K restored titles in October in France.
• A photo exhibition at Margaret Herrick Library in Los Angeles titled Academy Foundation / Margaret Herrick Library 60 Years + 60 Photos = 120 YEARS OF YASUJIRO OZU.

Meri Koyama, Shochiku's Head of Sales, said: "It's important to celebrate the achievements of legends in a manner that does justice to their profound and lasting impact, and we feel the program created to celebrate Yasujiro Ozu's 120 year anniversary is befitting of his legacy. Several generations of filmmakers from all around the world were influenced by Yasujiro Ozu and through this celebration, there will be opportunities to rediscover the artistry and magic that inspired them. And for those unfamiliar with Ozu and his work, these will be moments of delightful discovery. We're excited to make this celebration a reality and to kick it off in grand fashion at the Cannes Film Festival."

The films of Yasujiro Ozu examine the basic struggles that we all face in life: the cycles of birth and death, the transition from childhood to adulthood, and the tension between tradition and modernity. His titles often emphasize the changing of seasons, a symbolic backdrop for the evolving transitions of human experience. Seen together, Ozu's oeuvre amounts to one of the most profound visions of family life in the history of cinema.

Ozu's career falls loosely into two halves, divided by the Second World War. His breezier early works are unafraid to acknowledge the influence of Hollywood melodramas or to flirt with farce. Such films contrast greatly with his later masterpieces, which portray a uniquely contemplative style so rigorously simplistic that it renounces almost all known film grammar.

Born in Tokyo in 1903, it was at the age of 10 when Ozu became passionate about cinema. In 1923 he entered Shochiku as an assistant cameraman before quickly becoming an assistant director before ascending to director and one of the most influential figures in cinema.

Western influences and the American model are omnipresent in his earlier pre-war films, which included noir, gangster films, and comedies. Over the years, his style became more refined and increasingly Japanese at its core, and the themes of his films consistently focused on the family, the past, the conflict of generations and nostalgia.

Ozu died in 1963 on the day of his 60th birthday, a little more than a year after the release of his last film "An Autumn Afternoon."

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