MisterWhiplash I'll start off saying something about Good Morning that will sound like I'm putting it down, but I'm really not: the ingredients of the story (or stories if you want to get technical, there are sort of three running plot-lines here with characters all centered around several houses right below one of Ozu's quintessential small hills), in a lot of other's less imaginative or more hackneyed sensibilities, could have made for a sitcom. The stuff here isn't complicated, and as it starts, it all feels so... simple. All one is doing is seeing... a few kids, two of them brothers, who live ordinary lives, and their parents deal with ordinary problems like... well, did this person pay the dues owed to that other person and did the other woman use that money to get a *washing machine*? Good heavens, the scandal! That's the way I always come to Ozu's films, where it starts off and for at least the first twenty minutes to nearly half an hour, it feels like "nothing" is happening, but that's only because of expectations that come from seeing decades of movies where incident is supposed to happen, drama is supposed to escalate quickly, and those pesky lessons from screen writing classes get jammed down our throats. Good Morning doesn't do that; this is the kind of story where what would seem to be a moment of high dramatic conflict comes when the door-to-door salesman, hocking his wares of rubber bands and pencils (yes, *pencils*), drops by and makes the mother of the two boys a little uncomfortable, saying "We don't need anything." As it turns out, he's probably one of the nicest salesmen in the history of cinema.But I hope you can see what I mean if you watch this, or even read the synopsis, how the stuff of this story could have been used as parts for a sitcom type of scenario (Leave it to Beaver, mayhap?) While it should go without saying that the idea of, you know, buying a television being the central conflict and driving force of the two boys who decide to stage a hunger-and-or-"talking" strike (farts are okay though) may appear dated in a world where if one finds a home that does *not* have a TV (or a decent laptop or home projection system or who knows what else), the idea of encroaching technology is something that is universal. Certainly the parents are fine with them going to the movies (if they do, that never comes up), or something that's easy to take for granted like, you know, *electricity*, who why the problem with the TV? The distraction is part of it, maybe the key part for the mother (when will those pesky kids do their English homework?!), but it's also something a little deeper than that.Ozu's mastery here is to take parts that, again I must stress, seem not only like nothing extraordinary but precisely the stuff that families deal with day in and day out - down to one of those "life's little observation" things a stand-up like Seinfeld might point out, as in why people use those "good morning" "nice weather" observations as a way of masking how one really feels, say, to the woman that's a crush - but gives it a depth of feeling and subtlety that you grow to appreciate. Like with Tokyo Story, and a few others by this director, it suddenly hits you about half an hour in what Ozu is really trying to do here (for me it's when the kids throw their tantrum and decide to go on their speaking-strike, but, again, the farts are okay), and it becomes a richer experience, one that has a uniqueness despite seeming on the surface to be the stuff that people deal with day in and day out.That the movie is also funny is a plus, but it's not like a 'LOL' sort of scenario, you're not going to bust a gut exactly through this (though I found some hearty laughs with the kid, the son of that actress who is in a lot of Ozu movies as the bitchiest of the characters, I believe the more ungrateful daughter on Tokyo Story actually). No, this is a gentle comedy that relies a lot on behavior, a little repetition like the little (very cute) brother repeating everything his older brother does, and what are perceptive touches of social satire. It's such a realistically drawn film, even down to (yes, I must stress again) the fart jokes, that it may be lost on some, like those who would be fine with a typical sitcom for families, that there is commentary about how we live and adapt to changes, and the resistance is just as natural as the gradual acceptance of the change and how we use language (which I used to watch, a lot, I'm not kidding, this feels like something that could've been on Full House!)

MartinHafer This film is typical of the films of the Japanese director, Ozu, because it has to do with the conflict between traditions and modern life in this country. It also features his old fashioned use of the camera--with the typical placement of the camera just below the actors as well as it remaining stationary during the shots. However, unlike most of his films, this is more of a lite comedy and makes fun of social conventions and neighbors.The film begins with two simultaneous themes. First, a group of neighbor women are in a women's club and the dues they gave their leader seem to have vanished. While the lady is sure she turned the money in, the other women begin wondering what might have happened with the funds. Second, two boys are very upset because their parents won't buy them a television. And, when the parents are sick of hearing the kids ask, they tell the boys to be quiet. Then, in a form of social protest, the boys refuse to talk any more to anyone--even at school. The only time they talk at all is when they are alone together.Later, it turns out that the club leader's mother had misplaced the money and everything was okay. BUT, because the boys stopped talking to everyone, the leader of the club thinks their not acknowledging or talking with her is because the family is still mad about the money. So, the rest of the film consists of come misunderstandings that all come about due to the spunky kids.Overall, this is not a laugh out loud sort of film, but a droll little film that gives insight into life in late 1950s Japan. It's slow and gentle--just like all of Ozu's films but with a sense of satire that makes some points about the hazards of post-war life. Well directed and acted from start to finish.By the way, note the comment the one lady makes to her mother about Mt. Norayama--it's amazingly brutal and harsh, but also makes a point about alienation and the disintegration of respect of the elderly.

Claudio Carvalho In a small community of workers in Japan, two brothers decide to not speak because they want to force their parents to buy a television.With this single storyline, Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu exposes a delightful and critical view of the behavior of the Japanese working class under the American influence in the post-WWII. Once again the major concern of Ozu is with the family and human relationship. The situation of the retired people is magnificently pictured through the desperate men looking for a job; the domination of the USA in Japan is represented through the need of private English classes for the two brothers, and the translation of documents to English; superfluous consume of the American society is represented through the importance of the useless television for the younger generation, while their parents are concerned with have some savings for their retirement. The destructive little gossips, the difficulties of communication, and many other problems of relationship are also shown in this little gem. For movie lovers like me, I regret to inform that this is the first DVD of the great director released in Brazil. Only in festivals, and occasionally in cable television, Brazilians have the chance to see the work of this great director. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Bom Dia" ("Good Morning")

thallinan For viewers who have seen only one or two of Ozu's statelier films -- say, "Tokyo Story" or "Equinox Flower" -- "Good Morning" will be a surprise. Two children take a vow of silence to coerce their parents into buying a television set: that's pretty much the whole plot. But what happens as a result affects almost every aspect of life in the nondescript, gossipy, elbow-to-elbow suburb in which the boys' family lives.This is a comedy, and like all good comedies it's very serious. The boys' act of rebellion is very un-Japanese, and it threatens many of the politely ritualistic social behaviors that mask and deflect the tensions in Japanese society. Whole alliances among the village's women teeter and threaten to topple. The family's authority structure is upended, with the all-powerful father crumbling against the stubborn silence of two little boys.What wins in the end is love -- or rather (Ozu must have found this particularly funny) love and television. The resolution will probably tear you up (it has brought moisture to the eyes of everyone I've seen it with) but it represents enormous changes in Japanese society -- the collapse of patriarchal authority, the invasion of foreign culture, and especially English-language culture, and the inexorable rise of that great leveler of aesthetics, television. Ozu saw the future, and he wasn't in it.So naturally, he presents all this in a gentle, even sweet-natured comedy. There may be greater Ozu films, but it's hard to think of one I actually like more than "Good Morning."