The 120th Anniversary of Director Yasujiro Ozu!

The Togeki Building. Photo by Brett Homenick.

The year 2023 will mark the 120th anniversary of acclaimed director Yasujiro Ozu, whose most famous work is Tokyo Story (1953). He is also closely associated with the film studio Shochiku, so it should come as no surprise that a special panel exhibition featuring Ozu's film works (posters, awards, etc.) is currently on display on the first floor of the Togeki Building (which is where Shochiku is headquartered) in Tsukiji. The exhibition opened on November 16 and will run through late December. While out and about on Sunday, November 20, I stopped by to look around. Here's what I saw. 

 

SETSUKO HARA: 1920-2015

Japan's biggest female motion picture star of all time, Setsuko Hara, died of pneumonia in Kanagawa Prefecture on September 5. She was 95.

The late actress often collaborated with celebrated filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu and starred in such pictures as Late Spring (1949), Tokyo Story (1953), Late Autumn (1960), among other works. Hara can also be seen in the Toho classics The Three Treasures (1959) and Chushingura (1962).

She announced her retirement from acting around the time Yasujiro Ozu passed away in 1963, after which she lived a reclusive life in Kamakura, Kanagawa. Not much was known about her life in the 50-plus years since her retirement, and the fact that the media in Japan are only learning about her death now says it all.

Rest in peace, Setsuko Hara.