I Was Born, But...
I Was Born, But...

Watch I Was Born, But... Online Free

- 79/100 based on 5,932 votes

The Yoshi family - husband and wife Kennesuke and Haha, a middle manager at an office and a housewife respectively, and their two adolescent sons Keiji and Ryoichi - have just moved from the inner city to the suburbs of Tokyo, into the same neighborhood where Kennesuke's boss, Iwasaki, and his family live. The boys get off to a rocky start in their new neighborhood as they end up being bullied by a group of similarly aged boys, led by slightly bigger Kamekichi. Keiji and Ryoi... (Full plot summary below)

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Actors in I Was Born, But...:

Tatsuo Saitō
Tomio Aoki
Mitsuko Yoshikawa
Hideo Sugawara
Takeshi Sakamoto
Teruyo Hayami

Full Plot Details

The Yoshi family - husband and wife Kennesuke and Haha, a middle manager at an office and a housewife respectively, and their two adolescent sons Keiji and Ryoichi - have just moved from the inner city to the suburbs of Tokyo, into the same neighborhood where Kennesuke's boss, Iwasaki, and his family live. The boys get off to a rocky start in their new neighborhood as they end up being bullied by a group of similarly aged boys, led by slightly bigger Kamekichi. Keiji and Ryoichi even secretly play hooky from school, not wanting to have to confront the bullies. After befriending Kozou, the older delivery boy at the local store who ends up being their protector of sorts, Keiji and Ryoichi are able to stand up to their tormentors to become the ones among the boys who call the shots. Their newfound pride takes a hit when they end up being at the same social gathering as their father and his coworkers at Iwasaki's house, and see that their father is a proverbial apple-polisher toward Iwasaki and not the important man they previously believed him to be. Kennesuke knows how his behavior looks to his sons, but justifies it to himself by probably being further ahead in life than they would be otherwise. The Yoshis will have to reconcile these two issues for harmony to return within their family.

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Movie Reviews

New Yorker - 10/10 by Anthony Lane[I Was Born, But . . .] is a master class -- one of the [Ozu's] earliest -- in the art of distilling emotional intensity from quiet lives.
Slate - 9/10 by Dana StevensOzu's movie is also smart at levels almost too subtle to discern, perhaps not so much smart as wise.
eye WEEKLY - 8/10 by Jason AndersonA delightful silent film about two young brothers whose family moves to a new town.
Village Voice - 8/10 by Nick SchagerThe film retains a measure of tempered hope, born not simply from the father's command-cum-wish to his slumbering offspring but also from a final act of youthful compassion that binds Ozu's intensely human characters in glass-half-full solidarity.
Time Out - 8/10 by Joshua RothkopfWatching the first hour of I Was Born, But... (unspooling with a bright, new piano score by Donald Sosin) might remind you of a subdued Our Gang skit, and not unpleasantly.
Combustible Celluloid - 8/10 by Jeffrey M. AndersonA masterpiece, and one of Ozu's three or four greatest works.
Classic Film and Television - 6/10 by Michael E. GrostVisually creative comedy about children and their parents.
Turner Classic Movies Online - 6/10 by Sean AxmakerBehind the deft comedy and spirited performances of the two boys is a rather somber engagement with the compromises adults make to the demands of the social order.
Chicago Reader - 6/10 by Jonathan RosenbaumOne of Yasujiro Ozu's most sublime films.
User Review - 10/10 by Dustin DThis latter-day silent film, Umarete wa mita keredo, is interesting for its prewar Tokyo setting, but it is also interesting to see how little has changed in Japan. This is also attributable to the timeless and universal themes of schoolyard bullies, adult-world politics an hierarchies in human society. Well-crafted and powerful film.

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