Record of a Tenement Gentleman (Nagaya Shinshiroku)

media release: Japan | 1947 | 35mm | 72 min. | Japanese with English subtitles

Director: Yasujiro Ozu

Cast: Chishu Ryu, Hôhi Aoki, Chouko Iida

Ozu's first movie made after World War II is set in a Tokyo neighborhood where a stoic middle-aged widow begrudgingly shelters an abandoned child, their initially chilly relationship thawing over time. With humor, poignancy, and a stark lack of sentimentality, the film delicately unveils the unlikely bond that forms between them amidst the rubble of war. “If Ozu had only made this seventy-two minute film, he would have to be considered one of the world’s great directors” (David Bordwell).

35mm print courtesy Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research.