A rarely-screened fragment of Ozu’s 12th film. Much of the film is missing, including the middle scene were the kidnappers unsuccessfully attempt to return the boy they snatched. It stars three actors who would become Ozu regulars: Tatsuo Saito, Takeshi Sakamoto, and Aoki Tomio (who took the stagename Tokkan Kozo from this film’s Japanese title). Recalling this work, Ozu wrote, “There was a child star in The Life of an Office Worker named Aoki Tomio who sometimes dozed off in the middle of a shoot. He was so much fun that I decided to make him the leading role in my next film. Since we had the incentive of drinking German beer from the advance for this film, everyone wanted to chip in to the script. ‘Nozu Chuji’ the scriptwriter listed in the credits was a pen name derived from an anagram of our names: Noda Kogo, my name, Ikeda Tadao, and Okubo Tadamoto. If I remember correctly, shooting was completed in three days.”
LIVE music performance by Chris McNamara.
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