The MIYUMI Project at The Music Box Theatre

From the organizers: 

Among the most celebrated of all Japanese film directors, Yasujirō Ozu began his studio career in 1923 at the Shochiku Film Company and would remain employed there until his death 40 years later. As the only major film studio operating in Tokyo following the Kantō earthquake of 1923, Shochiku was uniquely positioned to produce films tackling urban life in modern Japan. Inspired by the work of Charlie Chaplin and Ernst Lubitsch, Ozu would quickly blossom into one of the company’s signature talents, tackling contemporary subject matter with a quietly thorny comedic sensibility. The most popular and enduring of Ozu’s silent films, I Was Born, But… follows Ryoichi and Keiji Yoshi, a pair of schoolboys recently relocated to the suburbs of Tokyo, where they’re forced to suffer the wrath of local bullies and assaults on their salary-man father’s dignity. I Was Born, But… would set the stage for Ozu’s subsequent career as the great chronicler of 20th century Japanese family life and prove to be the director’s major breakthrough with film critics, named the best release of 1932 by film magazine Kinema Junpo and later appearing on their list of the greatest Japanese films of all time. (CW) 90 min • Shochiku Film Group • 35mm from Janus Films  

Live musical accompaniment by MIYUMI Project Japanese Experimental Ensemble

Preceded by a very special short subject recently preserved by CFS! “Doll Messengers of Friendship” (1927) – 9 min – 35mm

For more information visit: https://www.chicagofilmsociety.org/