| Director: | Daniel Raim |
|---|---|
| Production: | Adama Films |
| Running Time: | 139’ |
| Language: | Japanese, English, Chinese, French |
| Country: | USA |
| Screenplay: | Daniel Raim |
| Cinematographer: | Koichi Furuya |
| Editor: | Daniel Raim |
| Music: | Dave Lebolt |
| As themselves: | Yasujiro Ozu, Kogo Noda, Wim Wenders, Kyoko Kagawa, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Luc Dardenne, Tsai Mingliang, Akiko Ozu, Isao Shirosawa |
|---|
The Ozu Diaries draws from master Yasujiro Ozu’s private journals, letters, photographs, drawings, and never-before-seen home movies to reveal the man behind the legend. Through Ozu’s own words, combined with reflections from Kyoko Kagawa, Wim Wenders, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Tsai Ming-liang, and Luc Dardenne, the film traces how Ozu transformed personal loss and wartime trauma into enduring masterpieces such as Early Summer, Tokyo Story, and An Autumn Afternoon.
Ozu’s films didn’t come easily to me at first. But his poetic portraits of family life and loneliness lingered. An Autumn Afternoon became the gateway — not through plot or drama, but through presence. As Kiyoshi Kurosawa says in this documentary, “Watching Ozu for the first time, I felt I was glimpsing the very secret of cinema itself.” In 2017, while making a short film for The Criterion Collection titled In Search of Ozu, I sensed a deeper story waiting to be told: the human being behind the films. The most challenging part was confronting Ozu’s wartime experience. His diaries from that period and postwar interviews reveal a rupture — a profound loss. As Tanaka Masasumi wrote, “Ozu survived the war. But we cannot deny that his humanity was in crisis”. And yet, in the decades that followed, he created some of the most tender, humorous, formally playful, and emotionally resonant films in cinema. This documentary is told largely in Ozu’s own words. It’s an attempt to sit with him across time — to understand his pain, his joy, his contradictions, and his singular way of seeing the world.
PRODUCTION:
Adama Films - Daniel Raim, Yuki Machida
2843 Sycamore Ave
91214 La Crescenta, CA, United States of America
Tel: +1 3236972887
E-mail: daniel.raim@gmail.com
Web: http://danielraim.com
Social Media: @DanielRaim - X (Twitter)
WORLD SALES:
Adama Films - Daniel Raim
2843 Sycamore Ave
91214 La Crescenta, CA, United States of America
Tel: +1 3236972887
E-mail: daniel.raim@gmail.com
Web: http://danielraim.com
Social Media: @DanielRaim - X (Twitter)
PRESS OFFICE:
Yuki Machida
Tel: +1 (310) 344-9810
E-mail: yukisnow74@gmail.com
