Top Ranked Films of Yasujiro Ozu

Yasujiro Ozu
4 titles, 65th in points with 12,725

Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu makes beautifully designed films with an almost painter’s view of scenes. A movie buff from childhood, he got his start as a cameraman in 1923, then as assistant director before shooting his first film in 1927. His 54 films have won 14 awards (the awards page at IMDB), with these going to 8 different titles.

Floating Weeds (1959)

He often shoots the same scene from opposite sides to show it from the point of view of each character in a way, though you still see all the actors. His films may seem a little slower than other Japanese masters like Kurosawa, yet he still had 9 titles make the polls. If we included all 2280 films in our count, his total of 9 would have him tied for 10th overall with Fellini, though some others may have leapfrogged over this from below as well, so he’d probably be about 12th-15th, still pretty high esteem when you’re talking about all-time directors. Kurosawa had 13 total titles and is currently 4th overall in points.

The Story of Floating Weeds (1935)

These are all the films of classic Japanese director Ozu’s that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. Tokyo Story (1953) #76
2. I Was Born, But… (1932) #370
3. Late Spring (1949) #453
4. An Autumn Afternoon (1962) #746

Others just out of the top 1000
5. Early Summer (Bakushû, 1951) #1249
6. Floating Weeds (1959) #1431
7. Early Autumn #1544
8. Late Autumn (1960) #1814
9. Good Morning (1959) #2214

Other Japanese directors: Akira Kurosawais 4th, Hayao Miyazaki is 39th, Mizoguchi is 46th [The next Japanese directors after Ozu are Takahata at 182nd and Tore-eda at 204th]

Autumn Afternoon (1962) - this composition

is typical of how Ozu frames people

in everyday social situations

See the full list of top ranked 100 directors here: Top Ranked 100 Directors, 2011 Edition