Day 83: Good Morning (1959)
With “Good Morning,” Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu delivers a slow paced but very funny film that takes aim at both suburban life and a culture at the dawn of the television era. While all the Japanese films watched so far in “The Criterion Summer” have been either period dramas or police procedurals, “Good Morning” sets itself apart for not only taking place in the present day of its own filming but also being about the small things in life that help us go about our day to day lives.
A loose remake of his own 1932 silent film ”I Was Born, But…,” Ozu gives us a tale of two brothers- Minoru and Isamu Hayashi, who live with their parents and Aunt in a very westernized Tokyo suburban housing complex. With the closeness of each resident to their neighbors, many in the complex get along very well, although their is always random gossip, and their children move from house to house to play and meet friends with ease.
On many days after school, Minoru, Isamu, and their friends Kôzô and Zennosuke all go over to a neighbor’s house to watch Sumo wrestling on the only television set in the entire complex. Though Minoru and Isamu have begged their parents for their own set, they’ve only ever been met with a stern no and an explanation that it cost far too much and is slowly bringing on the downfall of society. “TV,” their father states sternly, “will produce 100 million idiots.”
Desperate to have a set of their own, the two brothers throw a temper tantrum, which is only met with pity from their parents and a command for them to quiet down. Taking this as literal as possible, Minoru and Isamu take a vow of silence, at least in front of adults anyway, and plan on holding out until their parents cave in and a television is bought. With the vow in place, both brothers will soon learn of their parent’s iron wills and find out just how far they’ll have to go until a TV sits in their living room.
What makes “Good Morning” such an interesting cinematic work is just how Westernized this Japanese film feels. While other directors from the country had taken elements of style and editing from American cinema, this is the first film that feels almost as if you could throw the plot across the sea and perform it in a suburb of New York without changing much of anything. Of all the surprises the film holds, oddly the biggest one seems to be that it contains a recurring fart joke- something I thought I’d never see in 1950′s Japanese cinema.
But, even though the film does have the feel of a Japanese “Leave it to Beaver,” albeit with flatulence gags, there is a real heart to it deep down that reflects something the entire world culture was just trying to understand at the time. The title of the film, “Good Morning,” reflects a small angry speech Minoru gives to his parents where he chastises all of adulthood for saying too much that means too little. With their little niceties of conversation, the entire world seems to prattle on, just filling the awkward silence, without really giving much thought or care to any response. Though this is certainly a critique directed at Japanese culture, it can be said that this defiant need to seek out for more substance than the generation before reflects a true changing of the times and, as the world barreled into the 1960′s, this small seed of an idea would blossom into something far bigger than anyone could imagine.
“Good Morning” is a wonderful little film that, through all its funny moments, shows a true culture shift happening in the world and in the children of that time. Ironically, it was released just as the attendance in Japanese cinemas began to decline due to the rising numbers of TV sets in people’s homes. Apparently, the film was on to something.
To learn more about “Good Morning,” check out Criterion’s page here.
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