A Straightforward Boy

Surviving only in an incomplete print, this light-hearted Ozu frolic looks like a dry run for I Was Born, But... with comically inept kidnapper Saito and cheeky-faced scamp Aoki playing father and son in the later feature. The gag here is that the 'victim' is more than a match for his abductor, while the assorted cakes he's fed to keep him quiet makes the boy rather unwilling to be returned whence he came. Mischievous Aoki was such a hit in the part, he became popularly known in Japan as 'Tokkan kozo'.