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Cinema Ozu (Appendix D): Takeshi Sakamoto, Actor

Sakamoto as his signature character, Kihachi, in the character's swan song, An Inn in Tokyo

Takeshi Sakamoto was one of Ozu's most frequent go-to actors in the 1920's and 30's, like Tatsuo Saito, with whom he often appeared. Sakamoto showed up in three of Ozu's (now lost) first seven films. He then pops up in the earliest surviving film, Days of Youth. He's also in the partially-surviving I Graduated, But..., the lost Life of an Office Worker, and then plays the criminal boss in Tokkan Kozo, where a great partnership is born. Tomio Aoki, who plays the spoiled little kid in Tokkan Kozo (who took on the title as a stage name), would appear in a few more movies both alongside and simply with Sakamoto.

"Kihachi" (Takeshi Sakamoto) in a cameo as a janitor.

Sakamoto's most enduring role was that of Kihachi, the lovable but selfish scoundrel who would appear in a leading role four times (Passing Fancy, Story of Floating Weeds, An Innocent Maid, and An Inn in Tokyo). Sakamoto had a cameo as a janitor in Where Now Are the Dreams of Youth?, where I note the first surviving instance of his Kihachi-trademark butt scratching. I'd like to think that it was the birth of the character completely by chance, with further fleshing-out brainstormed over a few bottles of sake after filming that day.

In Passing Fancy

"Tokkan Kozo" would play either Kihachi's kid or another kid that has to interact with him and do some slapstick. They were pretty funny together in Passing Fancy, where Kozo plays a kid who's honestly more mature and smart than his dad.

Kihachi with mistress Otaka in A Story of Floating Weeds

Sakamoto and Kozo were both in A Story of Floating Weeds, but they had very little to do together. Story of Floating Weeds and the last Kihachi movie, An Inn in Tokyo, are probably evenly matched as Sakamoto's strongest silent film (or even career) performances. Inn allows Sakamoto to really evolve Kihachi, who begins the movie more selfless with two kids, but who regresses into the irresponsible drunk he's been previously, only to triumph in the end.

After An Inn in Tokyo, Sakamoto wouldn't headline another Ozu film again, though he would appear in another five films for the master. Interesting to note in What Did the Lady Forget? is that his on-screen wife, Choko Iida, had played a semi-desperate woman pursing him somewhat more than once. Here, she has snagged him and orders him around like a servant. I thought he was her driver until he showed back up later as her husband. His next largest role would be in 1942's There Was a Father in a supporting part. The other three (Brothers & Sisters of the Toda Family, Record of a Tenement Gentleman, and A Hen in the Wind) are only available to U.S. viewers via import.

Digging up gossip or hard facts on various actors like Sakamoto, who would semi-abruptly disappear from Ozu's films, has been difficult to say the least. Some idle speculation that must contribute to the decline of many silent era stars is that the ballgame completely changed with the onset of sound. It changed once again in the ramp-up to the war and thereafter, when the working classes were much less frequently the subject of films. "Workman type man" would then equal a background or minor supporting role. Sakamoto would keep working through 1965, most often working for Keisuke Kinoshita (mentor to The Human Condition director Masaki Kobayashi).

Sakamoto is one of the more indelible faces from Ozu's early films, and it's unfortunate that it's so hard to see some of his most stellar work (like An Inn in Tokyo).

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.