Ototo (1960)
Director: Kon Ichikawa
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
This adaptation of Aya Koda's autobiographical novel about life with her famous novelist father Rohan was a project Ichikawa had to fight for, and it brought him significant commercial success in Japan. It's a study of loneliness within the family, as the scholarly patriarch remains distant while his rheumatic wife (Tanaka) schemes to drive a wedge between the tearaway tubercular son (Kawaguchi) and the sister (Kishi) who dotes on him to a perhaps unhealthy degree. The potential for melodrama is obvious, but Ichikawa opts for restraint, refusing easy sentimentality and even denying us tearful release by abruptly pulling out of the tragic final scene. Instead, the theme of the transience of happiness comes through in the rainwater imagery keyed in the opening sequence, and the deliberately washed out treatment of the film stock to resemble faded old photographs of the Taisho era (1912-26) in which the film is set. Its steely delicacy is most distinctive.Author: TJ
Cast & crew
Director: Kon Ichikawa
Producer: Masaichi Nagata
Cast: Keiko Kishi, Hiroshi Kawaguchi, Kinuyo Tanaka, Masayuki Mori, Kyoko Kishida, Jun Hamamura full cast
Duration: 98 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
War is cel
Ari Folman uses an unconventional format to unearth repressed memories in Waltz with Bashir.
The best (and worst) of 2008
Our critics' picks.
That '70s show
Michael Sheen re-creates one half of a cunning TV conversation.
I'm officially obsessed with...
Gay for pay.
From here to maternity
Catherine Deneuve, belle maman, reigns in A Christmas Tale.



What do you think?
Post your review now