Self-Restraint
Ozu, like Hou, was anything but flashy. Indeed, for most critics who
connect the two directors, this vague sense of self-restraint covering
both their films probably constitutes the main basis for comparison. For
Ozu, any effects that interfered with his own ideas about composition
were caste away; he never zoomed and used only one dissolve (in the 1930
Life of an Office Worker). Because he also subordinated
camera movement to composition, he didn't use pans because they
disturbed his framing. The few tracking shots he staged were designed to
maintain a static composition (by moving along a road with a character,
for example). When Ozu began shooting in color, he did away with camera
movement altogether. As a general comparison, Hou and Ozu seem quite
similar in terms of their self-restraint. However, when one looks at
specifics the comparison breaks down. Most of Hou's shots involve slight
reframings, despite their apparent stillness. He occasionally
trucks his camera, but unlike Ozu he doesn't attempt to maintain the same
composition throughout the pan. Hou may show proclivities toward Ozu's
approach to cinema, but is by no means as rigorous.
Main Table of Contents
Ozu and Hou --- Introduction