Good Morning

1959 comedy

Rating: 16/20

Plot: Two boys in the Japanese equivalent of suburbia want a television to watch obscenely-hefty scantily-clad men bump bellies. The parents refuse, so the two brothers take a vow of silence which, because they don't understand how annoying children are, they believe will be some sort of retaliation. The neighbors gossip, and a lot of people fart.

Seriously, what's with all the farting? This movie has more farting than all three Shrek movies combined. I'd like to think it's Ozu's shrewd way of proving his point that television "will produce 100 million idiots." Only it's not television. That's wonderfully prescient though, isn't it? If you've seen any clips of Japanese television floating around the Internet, you've probably noticed that it's like one giant fart joke. That's not a bad thing, of course. Neither is the reply of the parents to a visit from their kids' teacher--"Please use Spartan methods. We don't mind." Wow! What a beautiful thing that would be to hear, like a golden ticket for teachers. This is a charming little story despite all the flatulence. It's more charming than humorous anyway. The kids are likable enough, and I like how the story, though not all the way seen through their eyes, is from this naive perspective. There's an innocence there that allows you as the viewer to discover things about the adults in this story. And about a rapidly-modernizing and Western-izing Japan. Don't get me wrong because there's nothing heavy-handed here at all. It's about as light as an American 50's sitcom; in fact, I half-expected Beaver Cleaver to walk out and fart. If I didn't know any better, I'd think Ozu was making fun of Western civilization a little bit. It's a deceptively simple little comedy. My favorite thing about it is how a touching second story sneaks up on you by the end and makes you realize that Good Morning was kind of about something else all along.

I believe this is the only Ozu movie on the blog. I might rectify this by declaring this the Summer of Ozu! Who's with me?

P.S. I may have just farted. LOL!