Seniors' Free Talk: Ozu's Children: Tuesday 5 March, 12:00 (90 mins)

From mischievous boys to sentimental daughters, Yasujiro Ozu's children can be obstinate in the demands they make on their parents, where these involve buying a bicycle, a television set or event finding a spouse. In this illustrated talk, Dr Jinhee Choi, author and Reader in Film Studies at King's College London explores the desires and disappointments that are experienced by children and their parents in Ozu's wonderful family dramas. 

Seniors' Archive Free Matinee: An Autumn Afternoon Sanma no aji and a intro by Dr Jinhee Choi, King's College London, 14:00 (113 min) 

Yasujiro Ozu's final film is a gentle portrait of an ageing widower as he attempts to cope with his married and extravagant son and take responsibility for his daughter, who is committed to caring for hum rather than pursuing her own happiness and marriage. It's a humorous yet also deeply moving drama from one of the world's greatest film directors. 

 

 

 

Workshop: Reorienting Ozu 

Thursday 7 March 18:00 - 20:00  Bush House Lecture Theatre 2 BH(S)4.04

Followed by a reception and book launch

Considered by many film critics and scholars as a master of Japanese Cinema, director Yasujirô Ozu still inspires filmmakers both within and outside of Japan. This book presents new perspectives on Ozu's aesthetic before sensibility and his influence on global art cinema directors. With twenty never published chapters by contributors from the US, England, and Japan, Reorienting Ozu explores the Japanese director's oeuvre and his lasting impact on global art cinema. Divided into three sections, this edited volume highlights several of the major theoretical frameworks that have come to characterize studies devoted to the director. In doing so, chapters consider the various cultural factors that influenced the director's cinematic output, such as the anxiety of middleclass Japan in the 1930s, the censorship imposed by the US-occupation after World War II, and women's rights in 1957's Tokyo Twilight.

Ultimately, chapters illuminate Ozu's influence on the directors of Japan and beyond. With the recent restoration and re-release of Ozu's early and late work, this volume provides an opportunity to examine not only the auteur's major works but also the relationships-both cultural and aesthetic-that are forged among directors across the world.

(Oxford University Press, 2018)

Participants

• Mark Betz (King’s College London) “Wenders Travels with Ozu”
• William Brown (University of Roehampton) “Sparse or Slow: Ozu and Joanna Hogg”
• Jinhee Choi (King’s College London) “Ozuesque as a Sensibility: Or, on the Notion of Influence”
• David Deamer (Independent Scholar; Manchester Metropolitan University) “Look? Optical/Sound Situations and Interpretation: Ozu—(Deleuze)—Kiarostami”
• Manuel Garin (Pompeu Fabra University)/Albert Elduque Busquets (University of Reading “Playing the Holes: Notes on the Ozuesque Gag”
• Alastair Philips (University of Warwick) “Spaces of Memory”
• Kate E. Taylor-Jones (Sheffield University) “Rhythm, Texture, Moods: Ozu Yasujiro, Claire Denis, and a Vision of a Postcolonial Aesthetic”

The workshop is free, please click here to register for the event.