Ozu: The Student Comedies

Donald Richie has pointed out that tempo in Ozu's films is not used to manipulate our emotions. Characters' emotional scenes are not prolonged; nor are their everyday interests clipped to achieve a 'tight' film. The experience of time in Ozu's empty shots thus becomes palpable. Creating scores to these films has meant learning from this remarkable approach. One seeks to match the tempos and visual patterns of the films in musical terms, rather than mimic them. I also value and use silence occasionally to provide a beat that's like the effect of Ozu's often enigmatic 'empty' [*] shots. In this way I seek a balanced approach which responds to the humour and pathos of these films while at the same time interpreting their fascinating formal structures. Reference. Donald Richie, 'Ozu' (California: 1974), 182