I Was Born, But... (1932)

I Was Born, But... (Japanese: 大人の見る絵本　生れてはみたけれど Otona no miru ehon - Umarete wa mita keredo "An Adult's Picture Book View — I Was Born, But...") is a 1932 black-and-white Japanese silent film directed by Yasujiro Ozu. It became the first of six Ozu films to win the Kinema Junpō Critics' Prize. Ozu later loosely remade the film as Good Morning (1959).

The film's story centers on two young brothers whose faith in their father, an office worker, is shaken by what they perceive as his kowtowing to the boss.

Synopsis

The Yoshi family has just moved to the Tokyo suburbs, close to where the father Kennosuke's (Tatsuo Saitō) direct boss, Iwasaki (Takeshi Sakamoto), is staying. Kennosuke's two young sons Keiji and Ryoichi (Tomio Aoki and Hideo Sugawara) are supposed to be going to school, but owing to the threats of a group of neighborhood and school bullies, they decide to play truant. After the teacher speaks to their father, Keiji and Ryoichi have no choice but to go to school. They attempt to eat sparrow's eggs to get stronger so that they can get back at the boys, but an older delivery boy Kozou (Shoichi Kofujita) decides to help them out to threaten the bullies, and they emerge as the top dogs amongst the gang.

Actors