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Title: The Only Son (Hitori Mushuko)
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Parents, this film is suitable for all ages. |
There is nothing quite like the bond between a mother and her child. Sure fathers love their kids too and I’m sure when the kids get married their spouses certainly love them in a special kind of way, but the bond between a mother and her child is something on a whole different level. When the child comes out of the mother and she looks at it she will want to do anything for that child. That child - in return - will want to please it’s mother as much as they possibly can. It’s this bond that is the driving force behind Yasujiro Ozu’s “The Only Son.” In the film we see that a mother is all alone and her only family is her son. The son wants to go to middle school but (unlike America) school is not free in Japan and the mother simply can’t afford it.
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Determined to give her son a better life though, she vows to find a way to send him to school. The movie jumps forward many years. Now the son has grown up. He went not only to middle school but to high school as well. His mom visits him in Tokyo to see him and the successful life he’s made for himself. When she gets there the reality is very different. Tokyo has so many people that competition for the successful jobs is fierce, and her son has had to take a night teaching job that barely pays any money to support his family. He now has a wife and son of his own, though he didn’t tell his mom this for fear she would reject them. Though he has no money he manages to borrow some to take his mom out every day.
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A trip to the beach leads to a deep conversation where the son apologizes for not having done better with his life. She tells him that there is still time to be successful. Neither one wants to admit how much they’ve sacrificed just to be the positions they’re in. “The Only Son” is grounded in Japanese tradition, so many American’s may need a translator to explain why there is so much conflict at times. Many might assume that so long as the son is happy with his family his pay should be far from important. But Japanese society hinges on how successful you can be. Considering that the mother had to sell her house and live in a basement to get her son schooled, you can imagine why discovering that he’s a mere teacher would disappoint her.
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Likewise the son feels like a failure in his own right. He feels he should be doing better, but so many years of trying has gotten him to the point where he settles for less. As someone whose life hasn’t turned out quite how I’d like it to have turned out, I can relate to this feeling of failure. This was director Yasujiro Ozu’s first “talkie” film. A term once used when sound was a big deal to audiences. He uses the new medium of sound to convey the emotion on peoples face. He must have been pleased when he could have someone talk off camera while the picture would focus on the other persons reaction. There are many moments like this where you realize just how much for granted we take sound sometimes.
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Filming this as a silent film would have likely been very distracting with all the word cards that would have to interrupt the flow of the images. For years the film was thought to be lost but a print was found and restored as best as it could be. Criterion has released it in America in a two movie box set. The picture flickers a lot and the soundtrack has lots of noise in it. Even with all those distractions the movie was a pleasure to watch and absorbing from beginning to end. Yeah I would have preferred the film be taken care of better, but considering the condition the film is in I guess we should be grateful that we have it all. We should also thank Criterion for once again saving a film that would have been a real loss to have never seen.
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