7/10
An Ozu film involving a small community (neighborhood I guess) and their amusing internal politics, the central ones being the neighborhood's collective rent that went missing instead of being turned in, and two of the young boys refusing to speak until their parents buy them a TV. It is typical Ozu - charming and lightly humorous and a little poignant at times. I don't love any of Ozu's movies but they're all enjoyable on one level or another.
8/10
It took me quite a long time to get around to this classic. It was good - didn't blow me away but I liked it. It wasn't altogether entirely what I was expecting, but I'm not really sure what I was expecting. I actually found a lot of similarities between this movie and The White Ribbon...not sure if that's a valid comparison or not but there you have it.
8/10
What a coincidence - I had watched this a couple of days ago and I come in here to find it a topic of discussion. The camera work and cinematography is indeed the highlight of this movie (I've yet to see Cranes, so no comparisons). In fact, it's been suggested that the plot is just a loose excuse to get the central quartet to Siberia (or somewhere suggestive of Siberia) and film them in all manner of beautiful landscape. But it's never boring, and definitely worth a look, especially if your tastes trend toward the more visual side of things. I grabbed it during a 50% off sale as a total blind buy and I'm not disappointed, but it's not often you get disappointed by Criterion either.
