Good Morning

Good Morning

Directed by Yasujiro Ozu • 1959 • Japan
Starring Masahiko Shimazu, Koji Shidara, Kuniko Miyake

A lighthearted take on director Yasujiro Ozu’s perennial theme of the challenges of inter­generational relationships, GOOD MORNING tells the story of two young boys who stop speaking in protest after their parents refuse to buy a television set. Ozu weaves a wealth of subtle gags through a family portrait as rich as those of his dramatic films, mocking the foibles of the adult world through the eyes of his child protagonists. Shot in stunning color and set in a suburb of Tokyo where housewives gossip about the neighbors’ new washing machine and unemployed husbands look for work as door-to-door salesmen, this charming comedy refashions Ozu’s own silent classic I WAS BORN, BUT . . . to gently satirize consumerism in postwar Japan.

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Good Morning
  • Good Morning

    Directed by Yasujiro Ozu • 1959 • Japan
    Starring Masahiko Shimazu, Koji Shidara, Kuniko Miyake

    A lighthearted take on director Yasujiro Ozu’s perennial theme of the challenges of inter­generational relationships, GOOD MORNING tells the story of two young boys who stop speaking in protest after t...

Extras

  • David Cairns on GOOD MORNING

    In this new video essay, David Cairns examines Yasujiro Ozu’s use of humor in his films.

  • David Bordwell on GOOD MORNING

    In the following interview, conducted in February 2017, film scholar David Bordwell analyzes the evolution of director Yasujiro Ozu’s style by comparing the 1932 silent film I WAS BORN, BUT . . . with the filmmaker’s own 1959 reworking of the story, GOOD MORNING.

  • I Was Born, But . . .

    Directed by Yasujiro Ozu • 1932 • Japan

    One of Ozu's most popular films, I WAS BORN, BUT . . . is a blithe portrait of the financial and psychological toils of one family, as told from the rascally point of view of a couple of stubborn little boys. For two brothers, the daily struggles of bullie...

  • A Straightforward Boy

    Directed by Yasujiro Ozu • 1929 • Japan

    A kidnapped boy proves to be more than his abductor can handle in this fragment, presented without a score, from a film whose full version has been lost.