What would be your perfect death? After an evening out with friends you suddenly are taken ill the following morning, living just long enough to deliver a perfectly honed homily from your hospital bed before slipping peacefully away. It doesn't usually happen like that, of course, but in this Ozu film it appears as the reward for an exemplary life. A widower bringing up his son alone feels obliged to resign from his post as school teacher after the death of a pupil for which he feels responsible. His search for work elsewhere leads to separation from the son even while the latter is still at school. The close bond between them is evoked by shots early and late in the film of their fishing together. These are beautifully economical, the pair framed together from behind. Later when the son himself has become a teacher he wishes to resign his post to be closer to his ageing father who is now a bureaucrat in Tokyo. The father explains to him the importance of dedication to duty as the only path to happiness, a message accepted by the son who is only able to spend a brief time with the father who dies shortly afterwards. As this might suggest it is more simplistic in its morality than later better known films such as 'Tokyo Story'. The poignancy of the film derives from a much simpler conflict between social duty and family ties. This is doubtless partly accountable in terms of the war time context in which the 'good father' would be the one who cheerfully accepted the absence and possible death of his sons. Nonetheless a certain psychological complexity is permitted. The father blames himself for the death of the student in a boating accident on his failure to exert proper authority. However what we see is his involvement in a game of 'Go' which distracts his attention while the boys disobey his instructions not to go boating. Lack of competence and authority he can confront. Neglect of duty he cannot. At the time of writing (August 2005) a pretty dreadful copy of this is drawing very respectable audiences in a Paris cinema. It is certainly a moving experience but its problematic political subtext should not be ignored.
Review of There Was a Father
