Yasujirō Ozu

Yasujirō Ozu
Ozu in the early 1950s
Native name	小津 安二郎
Born	(1903-12-12)12 December 1903 Tokyo, Japan
Died	12 December 1963(1963-12-12) (aged 60) Tokyo, Japan
Cause of death	Cancer
Resting place	Engaku-ji
Other names	James Maki
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter
Years active	1929–1963

Yasujirō Ozu (小津 安二郎, Ozu Yasujirō^?, 12 December 1903 – 12 December 1963) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He began his career during the era of silent films. Ozu first made a number of short comedies, before turning to more serious themes in the 1930s.

Marriage and family, especially the relationships between the generations, are prominent themes in Ozu's work. His most lauded films include Late Spring (1949), Tokyo Story (1953), Floating Weeds (1959), and An Autumn Afternoon (1962).

His reputation has continued to grow since his death, and he is widely regarded as one of the world's most influential directors. In the 2012 Sight and Sound poll, Ozu's Tokyo Story was voted the greatest film of all time by world directors.

Ozu was born in the Fukagawa district of Tokyo, the second son of five brothers and sisters. His father was a fertilizer seller. He attended Meiji nursery school and primary school. In March 1913, at the age of nine, he and his siblings were sent by his father to live in his father's home town of Matsusaka in Mie Prefecture, where he lived until 1924. In March 1916, at the age of 13 he entered what is now Ujiyamada High School. He was a boarder at the school and did judo. He frequently skipped school to watch films such as Quo Vadis? or The Last Days of Pompei. In 1917 he saw the film Civilization and decided that he wanted to be a film director.

In 1920, at the age of 17, he was thrown out of the dormitory after being accused of writing a love letter to a good-looking boy in a lower class, and had to commute to school by train.