I Was Born, But... Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

I Was Born, But... Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson May 22, 2025

I Was Born, But... (1932) is being released as part of the BFI's Two Films by Yasujirō Ozu.

Before a became a master of the home drama, Ozu worked in such genres as the gangster film, college comedy, and family comedy. One early work in the latter genre he produced is I Was Born, But..., often considered by critics and historians to be the first great movie by the Japanese auteur. Ozu scholar David Bordwell places it in the Fame phase (1931-40) of the director's career. Bordwell notes that I Was Born, But... and two pictures Ozu made right after it garnered the Kinema Jumpo Best Picture award.

The film is a journey of budding social awareness for two young brothers. The boys and their parents have moved to a Tokyo suburb so Yoshii (Tatsuo Saito), the family patriarch, can be close to his job. Yoshi's eldest son Ryoichi (Hideo Sugawara) and his younger brother, Keiji (Tokkan Kozo), hang around a local gang. They have quarrels with a bully and Taro (Seiichi Kato), the son of their father's boss. To avoid any encounters with the bully, the brothers play hooky from school. They later enlist the help of a delivery boy at a sake shop to take down the bully. The delivery boy says he accepted the assignment because the brothers' parents buy beer. But he won't beat up Taro because his father, Mr. Iwasaki (Takeshi Sakamoto), buys sake.

Brothers.

Ozu presents a class analysis among the different social strata portrayed in the film. When the brothers assume control of the gang, their elevated position makes them think that they have the "best" father. But their views of Yoshii change when they attend a screening of amateur movies at the Iwasaki home. Iwasaki's films show their father in a pathetic light. He acts like a fool in front of the camera in order to earn a promotion with Iwasaki's company. Yoshii is just a low-level office worker or an ordinary "salaryman" whose family is among the lower classes. Iwasaki is a CEO and rich man. Taro already has a "leg up" class-wise on Ryoichi and Keiji. The boys chastise their father and wonder why he hasn't gotten a better job. Ozu depicts these scenes and the rest of the film with charm, comedic wit, and dramatic pathos.

I Was Born, But... Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The following text appears in the booklet:

I Was Born, But... was restored by Shochiku Co., Ltd. and National Film Archive of Japan in 4K resolution using a 35mm print located in the Harvard Film Archive and a 16mm duplicating negative held by Shochiku and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

Technical Producers Douglas Weir, Peter Stanley (BFI)
Thanks to Ayana Ando, Aya Takagawa and Mayumi Ito (Shochiku Co., Ltd.)
Disc producer Upekha Bandaranayake
Disc authoring Fidelity in Motion

I Was Born, But... was first issued on home video in 1999 when New Yorker Video released it on VHS. It made its debut on DVD in 2008 courtesy of Criterion's Eclipse Series in a box set titled Silent Ozu—Three Family Comedies, which also includes Tokyo Chorus (1931) and Passing Fancy (1933). Three years later, the BFI put it on a PAL DVD as part of a dual-format combo edition with Good Morning, which my colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov reviewed here. Criterion later stuck it on its 2017 Blu-ray of Good Morning, which I own and have included many identical frames to compare with the latest BFI transfer in the Screenshots tab.

The 2011 BFI DVD and 2017 Criterion BD likely derive from the same master included on the 2008 box set. The image on the BFI Blu-ray is vastly superior to the older transfer in every way. The BFI leaps ahead with much-improved grayscale and black levels. It is so much cleaner and clearer (sans any excessive DNR) than Criterion's master. For example, note the chemical stains on Criterion's image in Screenshot #s 23 and 27. Those stains are not present on the recent restoration. The Criterion also has various scratches and patches of dirt that are largely non-existent on the BFI's 1080p transfer. The BFI's image does retain some tramlines that you'll spot in the screen captures, but these in no way mar a mostly stellar presentation.

Compression is better on the BFI. I Was Born, But... occupies 12.1 GB of space on Criterion's BD-50. The silent feature boasts a mean video bitrate of 18000 kbps. The space allotted for the same film on BFI's BD-50 is 21.6 GB. The feature sports an average video bitrate of 29861 kbps.
Note: I Was Born, But... has different run times on the two discs. It runs for 1:34:24 on the Criterion while the total duration is 1:31:09 on the BFI. The content is essentially identical on both discs, however. The film is run at a slightly slower speed on the Criterion.

Screenshot #s 1-10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, & 30 = BFI 2024 Blu-ray
Screenshot #s 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, & 29 = The Criterion Collection 2010 DVD

Ten chapter breaks are included on the BFI disc.

I Was Born, But... Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The BFI has supplied a LPCM 1.0 Music track (1152 kbps, 24-bit). This contains a score Ed Hughes wrote in 2005. It was initially performed at film festivals and later recorded in 2010 for the BFI DVD released a year later. Hughes wrote for an ensemble of six musicians: flute/alto flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion. Hughes writes about the film and his score in the booklet. I particularly find it enlightening that he wrote for the flute and alto flute to produce "a faint echo of the most traditional of Japanese musical instruments, the shakuhachi." The score sounds fine on the single-mono track but I wish the BFI had remixed it in stereo to open it up more.

I compared Hughes's score with Donald Sosin's score on the Criterion editions. It's presented as a Dolby Digital 1.0 track (192 kbps). Sosin definitely takes Scott Joplin as an inspiration. He crafts a playful theme on piano for the brothers, which is integrated wonderfully into the film. Hughes's music is darker. I appreciated his score more as it progresses later into the film.

The BFI presents English intertitles that are clear and legible to read.

I Was Born, But... Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• NEW Audio Commentary by Film Critic Adrian Martin - the Australian cites I Was Born, But... as a "transitional film" in this early juncture of Ozu's career. He spends a lot of time describing the acting style in the film and the movement of the characters within the frame. He identifies a lot of the movie's interrelations. He defines "cinematic gagology" and gives examples of how the concept is illustrated in the picture. Additionally, Martin discusses Ozu's "unrealties." He also compares and contrasts I Was Born, But... with its color remake, Good Morning. Martin shares an experience of a theatrical screening he attended of I Was Born, But... and the reaction he had of a then-new musical score written for it. (This is a different score than the ones included on the Criterion and BFI discs.) Martin imparts a lot of interesting information throughout and hardly pauses. In English, not subtitled.

I Was Born, But... Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you own any of the older releases that have I Was Born, But... on them, you'll definitely want to upgrade with this super-fine BFI Blu-ray. The 4K restoration is night and day compared to the previous master. I prefer Donald Sosin's score over Ed Hughes's but the latter still fits the film pretty well. The Adrian Martin commentary is a must listen. A VERY WARM RECOMMENDATION.