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Cinema Ozu (15): Dreams of...The Soda Shop Girl

Feature #24
Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth? / Seishun no yume imaizuko
(1932)
Status: fully preserved and available on DVD in Asia
Script: fully preserved
Prints: negative and multiple prints survive
Region1 DVD: none as of this writing

I didn't think too much of this next feature in and of itself, especially in contrast to the compelling I Was Born, But..., which I re-watched earlier the same day. It is an interesting waypoint in Ozu's career, in that so many elements of his prior salaryman and college films are echoed and, to some extent, left behind here. Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth? finds Ozu once again toiling in the realm of student comedy, with leads just about to enter the job market. The main guy must resolve his feelings for an idealized love interest alongside a sudden responsibility thrust into his lap.

The three buddies: (l. to r.) Saito, Ryu, and Ozu one-timer Takeda

Where Now's "son of privilege" protagonist Horino (Ureo Egawa) is content to goof off in college with his three pals. They all would prefer to delay their descent into the "real world" of adulthood. Tatsuo Saito plays the bumbling and awkward Saiki, one of these close friends. Chishu Ryu appears as the "rascal" friend, and Haruo Takeda plays "the fat friend". Takeda only worked with Ozu this once. Ryu Horino falls for Oshige (Kinuyo Tanaka), a cute girl who works in the campus soda shop.

Tatsuo Saito (l.) and Chishu Ryu (r.)

Kinuyo Tanaka as Oshige

Horino doesn't really show much interest in getting a job or the women who push themselves on him. Our beloved "nasty bad girl" Satoko Date (from Walk Cheerfully and Lady & the Beard) appears as a booze and smoke-fueled party girl who is obsessed with trapping Horino into marriage (with the aid of Horino's uncle). Horino goes a bit too far when pushing back against her advances. He gets unreasonably vicious in tearing down her self-confidence.

One of my favorite Ozu "character girls", Satoko Date. She plays somewhat unhinged and boy-crazy, but she does so sympathetically for the first time.

She's a pushy, annoying caricature of a woman, but she doesn't deserve the coarse hostility that Horino rains down on her. This interchange shows Horino to be the first student protagonist of Ozu's who is not generally sympathetic. She later gives up after discovering that he has...other interests.

While "the boys" prepare to cheat their way through exams, Horino receives word that his dad is at death's door. His father dies shortly thereafter, and he inherits his dad's company. Next we see a scene that's a bungling, semi-slapstick coronation of the new boy King. Horino's old pals then come begging him to help them cheat on their exams and then, subsequently, asking him for salary jobs. A year passes.

Horino continues to court Oshige, unaware that one of his closest pals has become engaged to her. Horino inevitably discovers this, but before that happens, the friend releases her from obligation so that Horino won't fire him in retaliation. The friend has no choice but to save his job, since he has to provide for his elderly mother.

Horino uncovers the reason behind it all and then reprimands his friend for his cowardice and starts beating the ever-loving shit out of his "buddy". Just when you think he's going to let up, he just keeps going. Where Now goes from romantic comedy to revenge drama in he span of about thirty seconds. It's a jarring, sudden moment of violence that is unparalleled at this point in Ozu's filmography.

Oshige thought that super-wealthy Horino was beyond her social reach, so she hooked up with Horino's friend out of pity. Once armed with this knowledge, Horino insists that his friend and Oshige marry to satisfy traditional social propriety in spite of the fact that Oshige still prefers Horino. Unlike Tokyo Chorus, using your connections from school causes more problems than it solves. Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth? distances itself from the ideal happiness of prior features (The Dreams of Youth, Days of Youth) by employing the imperfect resolution of a more realistic world.

One of many departing train shots found in Ozu's work

Oshige comes off as a mere piece of property, with no real control over her fate. Later this week, we'll see Kinuyo Tanaka (the actress who plays her) play a starkly different kind of woman in Dragnet Girl. Tanaka previously acted for Ozu in the first two "But..." movies and Young Miss in supporting parts. She started acting on film when she was 14, and had quite a future ahead of her. Watch for an Appendix article on her soon.

Hope for a Region1 DVD: This one really needs to be anchored by other films, not only because it's a "lesser" Ozu, but also due to how it echoes in a series of films that directly follow it: Woman of Tokyo, Dragnet Girl, and A Mother Should Be Loved. Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth? would do best in a multi-film Early Ozu or four-film Ozu's Women box set.

Cinema Ozu is a limited-run series of articles about the career and impact of Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu. My primary intent is to chronicle my own journey through his films, a fair number of which I have seen, but even more of which I have not. The most essential research tools I have used are David Bordwell's book Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema and definitive Ozu fansite "Ozu-san".

The series is also timed to celebrate the July 2010 U.S. release of The Only Son and There Was a Father as a DVD double-set by The Criterion Collection. You can find all entries in Cinema Ozu here. New to the series? It's best to start from the beginning.