Review of I Was Born, But... (1932) by Kevin N — 13 Apr 2013

Considered by many to be his first masterpiece, Yasujiro Ozu's 'I Was Born, But...' chronicles the beginning of young brothers' coming of age as they discover the complexities and unfairness of adult life through their still youthful eyes.

Though it is shaped like a family drama/comedy (as many of his other films are), Ozu separates us from the perspective of the boys' parents for most of the film so as to effectively remind us of the simple purity of seeing things from a child's eyes.

The brothers, who are played brilliantly by Hideo Sugawara and Tokkan Kozou, approach problems not through established, civilized human law but instead from a much simpler point of view. When they become angry that their father bows to often to his employer- father to another boy at school- they ask him bluntly why he does so.

When he explains that the man pays him his salary, the boys retort: then why don't you start paying his salary instead? Ozu's choice to separate the adults and the children is smart for many reasons, another being that it causes us to consider and evaluate that moment, that age, when we become accepting of things the way they are and decide that fighting them is futile.

We aren't given an answer as to what that age or moment is; nor does Ozu condemn the children for their innocence or the adults for their conformity. Instead he asks us to take a little from each viewpoint so that we may think like a child a little more often, but have the patience of an adult who knows that sometimes there are truly no easy solutions to life's seemingly basic problems.