Episode 308: GOOD MORNING (1959)

Trylove

Arguably Yasujirō Ozu’s masterpiece, GOOD MORNING (1959) has more going on than its simple plot would have you believe. World War II is fully in the rearview in a quiet, out-of-the-way town. Instead of wartime anxieties, nosy neighbors gossip about their friends’ lifestyles; punkish kids covet the new TV set next door; men teach boys how to fart on command. They’re bound together more by niceties than a particular commonality — to Ozu, life is indeed about the attachments we build, the favors we don’t collect on, and the stupid shit we say on the way to work every morning.

In GOOD MORNING, the most disposable interactions are the most human, both lubricant for socializing and the glue that holds the community together. From his iconic camera angle, stooped low to the ground, Ozu insists it’s through small talk — not despite it — that we learn to be people.

References:

• Give to the Trylon’s Film Forever Fund so they never have to increase ticket prices!
• Watch GOOD MORNING on the Internet Archive
• “TraditionVision: Ozu’s Exploration of the Multi-Generational Adjustment to TV” by Dan Howard for Perisphere, the Trylon blog
• “TV Time” by Nate Logsdon for Perisphere, the Trylon blog
• Check the calendar, preview upcoming series, and buy tickets at https://www.trylon.org/
• Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/perisphere-blog-post-guidelines/

#YasujiroOzuInColor #35mm

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Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: “Radio Exercises No. 1” composed by Hidemaro Yanagawa and Saburo Okubo.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 308: GOOD MORNING (1959)

2:03 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

3:12 - Our expOZUre to Ozu

8:37 - The narrative conveyed by Ozu’s ‘tatami shot’ camera angles

22:41 - Uplifting the mundane, rural niceties, and attempts to hide genuineness

36:06 - A movie about the necessity of smalltalk

41:15 - Get societypilled, idiot (or, Converse Jokerfication)

54:47 - New vectors, same drive to relate to (or against) one another

1:01:36 - Why the hip urban couple moves away

1:08:11 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1959

1:11:13 - The Junk Drawer