There are times when you read a book or watch a movie when you can't help but pause for a moment and look away at absolutely nothing to contemplate what just happened or what has been said. Usually for me, that nothing is a wall or the ceiling or the floor. I feel like Ozu provided the viewers the same "pause" to look away and contemplate what has just been said.
Yes, it's even relatable to singers leaving a mic for a moment, taking a pause because of the intense feeling they get while they indulge in the art-creation-process fully
@@jamesatwood4433 next to no one tells their own jokes. it's literally human culture to repeat jokes youve heard from others, the point of telling people jokes is that
I thought the vase represents the “tradition” the same one that forces people to make decisions that they don’t want like that marriage. As she asks her father that question he was sleeping and the question stays in the air. Then, we cut to the vase. As if the vase, the “tradition” answers in his place, by just being there, motionless. So the girl’s face becomes bitter from the silent answer. I got that same sensation when in 2001: A Space Odyssey at the end the protagonist screams for help and then we cut to the red light of HAL that doesn’t answer anymore. No dialogue, no movement. That’s what I felt in this scene and i think each one of us can have a different feeling and meaning!
My thoughts exactly here - the vase is a product of culture, the same that also sets certain standards to which they adhere to and which silently oppresses their own expression of what they would like life to mean and be. So it's like a silent policeman - just waiting there, sitting, reminding of traditions to be observed.
My immediate reaction was that the moment she realizes that her father is asleep the cut goes to the vase (or a spece with innanimate objects) rather than back an forth between the two people, because she is no longer talking to her father, she is essentially talking out into the room. When she realizes she is alone, the smile goes away and she lets out her sadness. She was keeping up apperances for her dad.
That's something like what I get out of it. A vase full of flowers is a complete thing, something of beauty, a sort of static performance; there are two parts to it that make one thing. This is what an intense and heart-felt conversation is. And there's something about the feeling that you have when you're talking to someone and you suddenly find that they aren't listening, they aren't present. The empty vase in a silent room what the conversation is: an incomplete thing.
There's something inherently evocative about cutting to a still shot of an environment, and I think people often miss one of the reasons why. Think back to the last time you had a serious conversation with somebody. Maybe it was at night, around a fire, or maybe it was on the couch in the day with no one else around. Either way, try and think back to where **your eyes were looking** during that conversation. I can guarantee you that your gaze was not fixed on the other person's eyes the entire conversation. Often times, when things get heavy, we break eye contact and stare at everything but others and ourselves. We break eye contact to release some intensity of the moment. When we do so, our minds begin to wander. We start to absorb what is being said and look at things that might ease that process of understanding. So when we see that cut to the vase, part of it is that we're seeing what she's **focusing** on. We're getting a peek into her mind. Her focus left her father, moved to the environment, and returned to herself.
i don't think so only because shes laying down facing up at the ceiling and the shot of the vase is from straight on. She wouldnt be able to get that point of view without sitting up
@@pdreding Yeah we tend to overanalyze stuff that in the analog film era most of the times were just accidents or deliberate production changes. Doesn't mean that we shouldn't praise them for their artistry, I just think that it's stupid to look that much into it.
@@arminvanbuuren883 Looking too much into things is what this channel does. When we see conspiracy theorists do it we can fall back on facts to debunk their ideas, but with art, there's nothing to anchor us to reality, it's all subjective, so you can say whatever the hell you want.
@@arminvanbuuren883 Sure, maybe they put the vase shot in here due to missing footage, but it still doesn't answer WHY the director chose the vase specifically. When you're a filmmaker, you have to edit together a story based on a vibe you're trying to express. The filmmaker wouldn't have cut to a shot of a chicken or a godzilla or the floor. He put that vase shot in there because for whatever reason, it felt right. And it has long been the tradition of critics to try and encapsulate the why behind the "vibe" of other artists for the same reason we contemplate our meaning in the world.
"They're doing what neither of them want but what both feel the other needs and expects." Captures the root cause of so many instances of miscommunication.
A couple of thoughts: one I remember dimly from my Japanese film class in college is that Ozu liked graphical matches that silently suggest that one thing is like another. In that moment, the vase *is* Noriko: beautiful, silent, and alone. Another thought is that what you can *see* in the scene is not the whole of the story, because you can also *hear* Chishu Ryu's character snoring, which Noriko can also hear. This must also be poignant for her, because if she is getting married and leaving her home, she will not be able to listen to her father snore again like this, or find comfort in the sound.
That's exactly how I have understood that scene when I first saw it. It was a simple execution, not sure how these critics have made it overwrought & convoluted
@@andrewsearles9893 it's the quiet resignation, for me. the full weight of separation from his daughter, building and building as he peels until it reaches its peak, it's simple when you describe it but it's masterful in execution still
I'd be on board with this as an idea to analyse if it was paired with some other examples and reasonings in other films. But honestly it just seems like they either ran out of footage on the original take they used, didn't like the transition she makes between, or some other editing error and this was just a nice way of filling in the change. I feel like sometimes film can just be very literal unless the director is being intentional. Maybe they had several bits of footage they could have used in between the shots but maybe the one that was liked was the vase and so they assigned some meaning to it, but the intention was to cover up a take change.
Michael Price There’s a multitude of examples in Ozu’s filmography where he did the same kind of thing. So it is not some random footage that he used to camouflage a transition. Ozu was an extremely precise filmmaker, and yes some analyses of this shot are definitely a bit stretched, but it’s not ‘nice filling’.
I love this late stage of Nerwdriter. You've already used up all of the 'traditional' video essay topics, and now you wonderfully stroll around any niche idea you come across, and it's as wonderful a viewing experience ever.
Japanese cinema was so interesting around this time... You had two great cinematic artistic movements that were totally opposed to eachother.. You had the Kurosawa style 'samurai' film, a hugely influential genre that really pushed the boundaries of the language of popular film. You can see the influence in most modern day hollywood 'blockbusters'. But then you had the serene film-making style of artists like Ozu, which depicted the beauty in everyday life. They were slow and peaceful, they portrayed the the narratives of common human existence - Something that everyone can directly relate to. It's fascinating that such different, polarising art can come from a small country at the same time in history.
Hey, in occident we had the same paradox, between the narrative cinema with Orson Wells, Alfred Hitchcock or George Méliès and the realist kind with movies like Mother, Stalker and the naturalist genre in general. We find this distinction in the whole scale of Art, in litterature, paints, even pictures. And also in the entertainment like in the video games industry with the "realist" game like the walking-simulator, the serious games and the political games, and the games where the purpose is narration (even there, we have the split between gameplay centered games and narration centered games, which I could argue (maybe an edit when I have the time) that they are the same than realist/narrative split), or like in the pornographic industry with the live action and the books/hentais where we have the pure action and the narration. (Even in live action we have some movies that are more character driven than pure gonzos). I find it really interesting that we naturally have, even in other countries, the vision of Art split between escapism (narrative) and observation (realism), where one shows a different reality and the other shows us pieces of our reality. It could be pure delusion but I see the same distinction in phisophy, where we have a side ruled by metaphysics and the other more "practical" (more focused on moral and ethics). Maybe we could rewind since the Antiquity era where we had mythology living with historical chronicles of conquerors. I think it could be important to search why we have this distinction, maybe because of the language, where we use abstraction of reality to communicate ideas to others (words), we can also point the reality to show the application of the ideas. Just a guess.
It reminds me of action anime compared to slice of life and slower paced shows (ghibli). Very nice to see that sort of storytelling tradition kept for so long
I'm a simpleton who had never heard of ozu or the vase until watching this video. I still watched the whole thing because I love your passion. I love the depth you expose in art and life itself. Thank you.
I immediately thought the vase meaning 2 things at the same time in a very simple metaphorical sense: 1) That is what she will become after marriage, a part of the house. Just a wife doing wife things. A piece of equipment or furniture. A life with no choice. A life that is not human. 2) Her father just fell asleep as she was talking to him. This is after she told him she decided to go through with marriage. Him falling asleep after she told him she will leave, is the same as leaving him to die. The vase being where you store the ashes of a cremated relative. The vase represents a double death. One of the father and one of her human self.
Floating Weeds by Ozu is probably my favourite Japanese film of all time.. There is an umbrella scene where the shot composition was absolutely phenomenal...it was a good listen with Roger Ebert’s commentary as well..
By the end of this video, You gave me goosebumps. I am now more motivated to watch all OZU films I can get my hands on. Pls keep on making these incredible videos.
When I was in college I threw a sign into a shot for my film project as a joke that read: Mushrooms $500. My teacher (who had a past as an experimental filmmaker) latched onto it and read things into it. I got an A+ though.
This channel is a gift. In the age of redundant clickbait and youtube algorithm-gaming, I'll always respect Nerdwriter's willingness to expose his audience to subjects he's truly interested in.
Not possible for a fastidious filmmaker like Ozu. He was the editor that controlled every single shot. He even had a pocket watch to time the duration of each shot, especially a shot that lasts that long. I don't see why scholars need to make a big deal about the vase shot since that kind of cutaway or transition shots are all over Ozu's oeuvre. I blame it on Paul Schrader who over-interpreted in his flawed book "Transcendental Style In Film" and drew more attention to it than necessary, just as this video does more confusion than clarity. Ozu was a formalist, his playfulness of forms was what made him enjoyable more than just a storyteller.
Agreed…the editor ruined the film at that point & had to fill it but had nothing so he panicked & had the videographer give him whatever he had from shooting the scene…Ozu praised as a genius but has the last laugh
I think the vase is a symbol of keeping your emotions inside. In the scene, she was about to tell her father how she really felt and ultimately didn’t. The cut was to show how she was thinking without telling the audience what she was about to do. Without the vase the scene becomes disjointed and odd as we don’t understand why she didn’t tell her truth. I’ve seen scenes where a character would talk about their issues only to have a secondary character sleeping, not listening, or distracted. Although the father was sleeping, she still didn’t indulge the viewer. She stopped short. I felt it added weight and reality to a fictional story. We all have moments where we just stop short of explaining ourselves and our motivations.
You know, regardless of Ozu’s intended meaning, or any speculation about it, the cut to the vase definitely made the scene more powerful in someway. It just intensified the already sad emotional feeling of the situation. It was very inspiring as well.
I've only seen one Ozu film, "Tokyo Story." It made me cry. It was that good. Is this man Ozu capable of a bad film shot??? Every single take he has in his movies are great works of composition. Every. Single. Damn. One. He's a master. You could tell he was very detail oriented, and probably took forever to get his films done. Like a Japanese Stanley Kubrick. Except better because he was the OG, coming roughly 20 to 30 years before Kubrick.
I come to nerdwriter1 when I need a break... Watching these videos is like taking a long breath in the midst of a busy afternoon.... Those words ground me more than any yoga that I have tried...
Imo it feels like it perfectly captures the stillness of the moment. Telling the one you love what you feel only to see they are asleep, alone in your thoughts and in this moment with only the passage of time and the soft ruffle of bamboo to comfort you. It in a sense shows what its like to be in that moment right before she comes to her realization, thus allowing you to come to it too.
"The vase was a sign of Ozu's transcendental style. We're already thinking of Noriko's loss. In cutting to this image of stasis, Ozu triggers a deeper Zen-like contemplation not just of this specific situation but of the transience of all things, of ephemerality as the truth of life." Whoa, this sentence is loaded.
What I thought of is the parallel, just like the father is asleep and she is awake speaking to him, the vase still and the plants in the background moving.
possible but I don't see Ozu giving up shooting a scene because the actress could not success the playing in one single shot...does not fit so well with the tradition of perfection of the japanes culture...
Your videos have been dearly missed!!! I didn't know I needed this particular video and yet somehow I knew it was the exact kind of content I came over to your channel seeking. Thank you! And now I'm def gonna try reading while listening to the audio book
I really enjoyed this and the different interpretations from the critics. Ozu has a lot of peculiarities that really make one try to look beyond the plot as a linear thing and ponder on what the images show us.
This type of cut reminds me of the concept of "Ma" which shows up in a lot of Ghibli films. The concept of nothing. It's a breath, of nothing just to let us feel. On the other hand, the cut to the vase also fills me with a strange nostalgia, a reminder of all the times I stared senselessly at the surroundings of my room, unable to sleep, nights of solitude and loneliness. In both cases, it's not about the vase but the feeling, the overwhelming melancholy for something we have yet to lose.
@@HP_____ That is very valid, as these concepts, symbols and meanings can be ancient. The Japanese "MA" 間, incorporates nothingness, just as "Mu" includes emptiness. One thing can be agreed upon, is that Ozu reached for something more than simply a pause/transition with this scene. I appreciate your views and correspondence.
Never seen nor heard of this picture, but my initial reaction to the shot was a sort of visual metaphor for the emptiness that came with the character unable to convey what they wanted. I dunno, this is why I love film, there can be a million answers from a single moment of time, subjectivity is a strange and awesome escapism.
The small room reminded me of a tokonoma (床の間). For me, the tokonoma is the space in which, as you described in your video, you just be with yourself in the room and time passes over you, through you, around you. The vase and other objects, such as a hanging scroll, are with you, but they do not have to be the focus. "Look at it. Live within that looking. Experience the vanishing of ourselves." As you said, each of the descriptions of that scene are compelling, but I find myself drawn to Hasumi Shigehiko's description. Thank you for your excellent videos.
I just watched this film and I was struck by the scene so I was very happy to find this video. For me the vase and also the zen garden scenes refer to something that was said during the theater presentation “the only thing that stays the same is the color of the flowers”. I think it means the emotional turmoil that the characters are going throw about this experience that is very important in their lives and all of the things that are non-human and that are environments are somehow impacted by that. So nothing stays the same but it does at the same time, these shots point at the colors of the flowers.
To me it’s straight forward, though I have never seen the movie: Noriko wants to say something to her father but he’s asleep, then she thinks one day she will want to say something to her father but he will already have passed away. The vase represents ashes of death
Whenever I'm lying up at night and have a Eureka moment my surroundings become atypical. In my opinion the scene perfectly invokes that moment of crossing over.
I thought the vase represents Nariko’s mother. In Japan these pretty, ornate vases are used as urns. She was just talking about her feelings about her father remarrying, and the pang of grief due to the absence of her mother shifts her mood. It seems pretty direct to me.
Has anyone considered that maybe the editor needed some transitional shot because the footage they had was insufficient in some way? Perhaps the actor's performance was not working or the take was too long.
That was my thought too honestly. Like, it's cool to get all artistic and up your own butt with flowery interpretations, but sometimes "art" happens because of some necessary edit that needs to take place.
It’s not something that happens unless the movie is a cluster of a thousand camera angles. Here we have at the most two cameras and the scene is usually done again until the director is satisfied with the result from the actors performance. Therefore it’s not possibile that this is plugging a hole in the roll and is intentional.
I watched this jusr because you made a video about it. I can finally watch this essay now that i made time to see the film. And what a gem it was. Excellent essay too. Thanks for the art.
To me. The vase is everything mentioned. But also a harsh transition. As she empathises with the vase. It's a beautiful vase. But it's there. It doesn't have a personality nor a voice. But it is the centerpiece of the room. Fine China in traditional Japanese. It doesn't fit in. Taking in the context of fine China being quite tacky for traditionalist minimalist Japanese furniture culture. It shows her fears. Her anxiousness. Her future. The theme of the film. And the fears she has of the future. That being a beautiful vase. She is still the centerpiece in a dark traditional room. In the way and standing out. Unable to do anything about where she is. Her only reason for being there. Eventhough she's out of place. Is because someone else sees value in you right now.
If you analyze a movie, if you look for subtext to interpret or themes to better understand what the director wants to say, you're engaging in scholarship.
@@AlexJ1 Right but it's very similar, and what is a vase anyway but an empty urn. + it comes 2 cuts after a shot of her father lying down motionless, "as if dead"
Looking literally at the vase , its purpose. Either to be something to look at and admire, or something to hold something , to be a protective barrier to keep what is inside "safe". Much like the relationship between a father and his daughter.
Or he just did not quite like the way the actress' face changed from smile to frown. So he cut the next best thing in between. Just saying. Jk great video.
I really enjoyed this presentation. What I noticed, only when the vase was blurred out, was the composition of the shot appeared to have a structure, within what could be seen as a doorway, and then the vase was past that “doorway” and into the light. For me, the patterned continued in the other still shots, especially the trees. All had a pattern of something “moving away” from something similar, one of the objects were in shadow/dying/looking incomplete, while the other object of focus were “in the light”/living/more complete (thinking of the chairs scene). It all seemed to echo her “surrender” to what is, it is her time to move into the “Spotlight” and his turn to become a shadow in her life. The smile of hope and vibrancy, cutting away to the stillness of “what was to come” (her-being a vessel for a new life; him being the rocks/statue in the shadows), and that realization causes her to “come back down to earth” for what must happen next. The next scene is her trying to hold onto the past, still double checking her surrender perspective and wanting to keep her life familiar, not ready to move on. Thank you for an opportunity to offer my take on this and am sure others have held similar perspectives. I love learning and expanding based on what others share.
I’ll have to give this a go too. For me when I watched it I viewed it as not just a vase, but an empty vase. I took it that she felt an emptiness about her situation. This video has made me rethink what I always thought I understood about this cut. What a genius Ozu was and what an incredible film.
I always thought the vase setting was in her mind. Trying to come to terms with a situation she now cannot control. Finding that space in her mind where she is at peace and returning as she struggles to act appropriately with the change to come and not upset her father. It's not just the vase, it's the scene itself where she has put the focus of her mind. 🥂
