Ukigusa monogatari (A story of floating weeds) 1934 - Joy and sadness in everyday life

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025929/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
IMDB rating: 7,8

Director: Yasujiro Ozu
Main Cast: Takeshi Sakamoto, Choko Iida, Koji Mitsui, Rieko Yagumo

"Ozu's silent film, inspired by the now-obscure 1928 carnival-troupe drama The Barker, a much inferior American film on a similar theme, might seem to inevitably be swamped by sentimentality, given the plot outline. But the director's genius adroitly avoids any hint of mawkishness by grounding the film in the most mundane details of daily life as he fashions one of the most powerfully moving works of his early career. The pleasure taken by the actor in a moment of peace for a cigarette, water dropping through the roof of the rickety theater into bowls, the horny supporting actors of the troupe always on the make -- these and dozens of other carefully observed fragments of the ebb and flow of the quotidian, shot in the director's characteristically understated visual style, emphasize his belief that everything his eye falls upon has value and meaning.
Ozu was justifiably proud of this meticulous character study, in which his celebrated low-angle style began to assert itself. A quarter-century later, he remade the film as Floating Weeds, retaining the same story and characters, switching the setting to a seaside town." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/ukigusa-monogatari-v111851/

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Otona no miru ehon, umarete wa mita keredo (I was born but...) 1932 - Yasujiro Ozu's silent classic

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023634/?ref_=nv_sr_1
IMDB rating: 7,8

Director: Yasujiro Ozu
Main Cast: Tatsuo Saito, Tomio Aoki, Mitsuko Yoshikawa, Hideo Sugawara

"One of the last great Japanese silent films and one of director Yasujiro Ozu's first masterpieces, I was born but... features many of the characteristics that would become common in his later works: the focus on the subtleties of familial relationships, the quiet but deeply probing approach to life, and the measured but rhythmic pace to storytelling. The first half of the film plays almost like a superior, extended Our Gang short. The focus is on comedy as two young brothers try to adjust to their new home and neighborhood. The second half of the film, which concerns the two boys' changing opinion of their father, places drama at a higher priority, and the shift in tone is handled smoothly and naturally with no disruption to the story. Ozu is one of the few directors who could make a film about the joys of childhood without wallowing in nostalgia. Many aspects of the film's story have been told before and after Ozu tells them here, but rarely with such insight and charm, as well as a natural feeling for the characters. The two boys' battles, and then games, with the local kids ring entirely true, and the performances by the children are refreshingly genuine. The strength of an Ozu film can often be found in the simplicity of his presentation even without the aid of dialogue here.
Ozu reworked this film for his 1959 opus Ohayo." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/i-was-born-but-v139534

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