May 18th Log

A HEN IN THE WIND
1948, Yasujiro Ozu, Japan
Repeat Viewing, DVD

Though Ozu regarded this film as a failure, it remains among his most emotionally impacting films. Made just two years after the war and during the American occupation, A Hen in the Wind may be the most violent and disturbing film Ozu ever made. However, early traces of his postwar mastery style become evident (notably including compositions, and editing). A Hen in the Wind was the last film Ozu made without co-writer Kogo Noda. Fighting restrictions from the American occupation of Japan, Ozu poetically captures a postwar Japan that is equally tragic and hopeful. Perhaps the driving force of the films heavy emotional impact is from the performance of the great Kinuyo Tanaka, here playing a mother that must turn to prostitution in order to pay medical bills for her sick child, while her husband is away at war. The final images are particularly moving as after we see the couple embrace, Ozu follows with a serious of expressive shots concluding with a similar image that opened the film (there are slight poetic differences between the two).

>>> More on A Hen in the Wind @ A2P Cinema's Yasujiro Ozu website HERE

>>> Here is a clip from A Hen in the Wind: