In
the history of cinema, probably no director had a finer touch when it came to
working with child actors than Yasujiro Ozu. He became known for his mastery of
domestic dramas, but he also made a few crime melodramas early in his career, because
that was the work he could get. This silent short always sounded like a hybrid
of the various types of Ozu films, but we didn’t know for sure because it was
missing. Then a few years ago, sixteen minutes of the thirty-eight-minute film
were re-discovered. Recently, another six minutes were uncovered. The resulting
re-assembled and restored twenty-two-minute cut of Ozu’s A Straightforward
Boy premieres today on Le Cinema Club.
Essentially,
Straightforward Boy is a Japanese riff on O. Henry’s “The Ransom of Red
Chief,” but in all honesty, Tetsubo does not seem like such a relentlessly
punishing Helion. Nevertheless, he will prove to be too much for Bunkichi and
his accomplice to handle. Basic math tells us there is still sixteen minutes
missing from Straightforward Boy, but the latest restoration is quite
cohesive in terms of narrative—especially by the standards of silent cinema,
with no obvious gaps.
Still,
it inevitably feels somewhat dated, particularly during the scenes in which
Bunkichi tries to buy Tetsubo’s trust with toys and sweets. Frankly, his smarmy
leering makes him look like a pedophile on the prowl to contemporary eyes, but
that is not Ozu’s problem. It is a problem of our times.
Regardless,
Tatsuo Saito definitely has a flamboyantly villainous, Snidely Whiplash kind of
thing going on as Bunkichi. Tomio Aoki, who later starred in Ozu’s great classic
silent feature I was Born, But… (in which Saito also appeared as his father),
is suitably mischievous but not abrasively annoying as Tetsubo.
A
Straightforward Boy is
a perfectly nice little film, but the best way to see it is as part of a deep dive
into Ozu’s collected filmography. In any event, it is great to have even more
of it available, so hats off to Le Cinema Club for programming it. Recommended
for all fans of Ozu and silent cinema, the freshly restored A
Straightforward Boy streams 7/12-7/18.
