Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu importance is universally acknowledged, and his films’ merits are innumerable. Director Suo Masayuki once said, “Yasujirō Ozu only made comedies, and Yasujirō Ozu only made entertaining movies.” Contemporary American film theorist David Bordwell said, “No filmmaker, to my mind, has come closer to perfection.”

During “Yasujirō Ozu: A Retrospective,” UCCA and The Japan Foundation have jointly invited Hong Kong film critic Shu Ming to give lecture on four film experts’ views on Yasujirō Ozu’s works. The lecture attempts to understand the mystery of Ozu’s cinematic art through four critical studies by American and Japanese film experts: Ozu (1974) by Donald Richie, Kantoku Ozu Yasujirō (1983/2003) by Hasumi Shigehiko, Ozu Yasujirō no Han Eiga (1998) by Yoshida Yoshishige, and eight film reviews by Roger Ebert written between 1993 and 2011.

Shu Ming (H. C. Li), a veteran film critic in Hong Kong, has published several hundred film reviews and five books: Aspects of Japanese Cinema (Taibei, 1995), Ozu Yasujiro, 100th Anniversary (co-edited with Li Cheuk-to, Hong Kong, 2003), Japanese Cinema of the Heisei Era (Hong Kong, 2007), Top Ten of Japanese Cinema (co-authored with Zheng Shusen, Shanghai, 2011), and Japanese Actresses of Heisei Cinema (Shanghai, 2012).

The Japan Foundation