About

A charming comedy from a pre-eminent auteur of Japanese cinema, Yasujirō Ozu’s Good Morning is a spirited diorama of intergenerational family relationships told with the director’s meticulous, meditative style and endearing tenderness toward his subjects.

A reimagining of his earlier silent film I Was Born, But… 1932, the film follows the day-to-day goings-on in a housing development in suburban Tokyo, where two young boys take a vow of silence in protest against their parents, Keitarô and Tamiko, in order to get them to buy a television set. Their remonstration does not go unnoticed by the neighbours, who mistake the pair’s silence for personal rebuke, and respond with idle chatter and meddlesome gossip.

A delight from first to final frame, Ozu’s second ever colour feature takes satiric aim at community, consumerism, and the family unit in post-war Japan; seeking to ask – in a fashion not unlike that of its young protagonists – why bother with meaningless pleasantries when one can merely pass wind?

Good Morning will screen from a 2K digital restoration.