I Was Born, But...

As Donald Richie pointed out, Ozu’s film An Adult’s Picture Book – I Was Born, But… (Usually referred to as “I Was Born, But…) was “built around the social use of power.” This power was divided among the adults in the film as well as the young boys. For the young boys, the power came from age, brains, and/or brawn; whereas in the society adults live in, which have not changed much from the 1930s, power came from one’s social status in society (Richie 224).

Within the film, the young boy who held the power within the group, or “gang” as Richie had called them, was able to act out a killing of the other boys. This act of killing one another would start with a finger gun, shot down the other child, and ended with a graveyard ceremony. Richie even went as far as saying that this act was a parody of Christianity; however, there is not enough evidence that was proven to prove such a claim (225). Perhaps it was the motion of creating a cross among the head to body that lead Richie to believe this?

Below I will provide a shot-by-shot analysis of the first time the Yoshii boys had encountered and fought with the gang of young boys. All the shots below are taken from a lowered camera, as if it were to give us the children’s perspective (227).

Shot one: A full, two-shot of Yoshii Ryoichi and Keiji; Ryoichi is at the center of the screen. They are walking on what seems to be a dirt road and passing houses in the background. Light piano music could be heard. The shorter boy (Keiji) points over to something that is off screen. Ryoichi has his head turned towards the direction Keiji pointed over to. Keiji then wiped off both eyes, indicating that he was crying. He wiped with the right hand first then left hand. As Keiji was wiping off the tears, Ryoichi has his head turned slightly towards Keiji, but still looking towards the area Keiji pointed to earlier

Shot Two: At first, only six boys can be seen. It appears to be a long shot. The piano music from shot one continues. One boy is standing off to the side watching the other boys with this back turned away from the camera; he seems to be shorter than the other boys as well. He also has a sign on the back of his shirt, though in this particular scene, it cannot be read. To the left of him are two boys wrestling with one another. They seem almost equal in height; though it appears that one may be slightly taller than the other. The two wrestling are a couple feet away from the smaller boy. Between these three boys, almost in the center of the screen, are three more boys. There are two others lying on the grass in front of the small boy with the sign. Above them is a bigger boy (Kamekichi) standing over them; his legs are in a wide stance. He is looking down upon the two on the ground. The camera had used the tracking shot movement to reveal two other boys playing with Kamekichi. As Kamekichi points to each of the fallen boys, they stand back up.

Shot three: Another full , two-shot. The camera returns back to the Yoshii boys. They are standing close to each other. They are watching on as the other boys/the gang continues whatever they were doing.

Shot four: Camera went back to the gang. The angle is now different than before; however, it is still a long shot. The boys, who were lying down, are now standing up on the left most side of the screen while the wrestling boys are diagonal to the small boy wearing the sign. The wrestling boys are still wrestling whereas the other group in the gang is surrounding Kamekichi, who is now on the ground. With his hands in his pockets, Ryoichi entered the shot towards the space between the boys; Keiji follows Ryoichi into the shot in a similar fashion. Ryoichi walked up to the small boy with the sign and pushes his head. The small boy walks away from Ryoichi and Keiji, who is still keeping a slight distance, while rubbing his head. The other boys did not notice this occurrence.

Shot five: a full, two-shot of Ryoichi and Keiji. Keiji closed the distance between him and Ryoichi by stepping forward. He then points to something off screen and sticks his hand back into his pocket.

Shot six: Cut to the two wrestling boys. It is a full shot. They stop playing and look at Ryoichi and Keiji, who are now off screen. The other boys in the background still have not noticed.

Shot seven: Two-shot, median shot of the Yoshii boys. Ryoichi tapped Keiji on the chest with his hand while speaking to the two wrestlers. “Who made my brother cry?”

Shot eight: Another full shot; this one is closer to the boys than the previous ones. The two wrestlers turn their backs on the Yoshii’s and hurried to the rest of the members. They stand around in a circle until Kamekichi stands up. He then pushes the wrestlers out of his way while the rest look on. He is much taller than the rest of the members. The music changed lightly to indicate a change in mood; it sounds more alarming.

Shot nine: Two-shot, full shot of the Yoshii’s. Ryoichi stays in his spot while Keiji cowers behind him. After what happened between Keiji and Kamekichi, Keiji is still scared of him. (The height could also help in this case).

Shot ten: Median shot of Kamekichi and four other members behind him. He is standing with a slightly curved back. This seems almost more “gangster-like” due to his manner.

Shot eleven: Median, two-shot of Yoshii’s. The same as shot nine.

Shot twelve: Master shot! Keiji is still behind Ryoichi whereas the gang is almost completely lined up in two rows, except for the small sign boy standing close to them. The emerging city could be seen in the background. Most of them take a step forward and wait for Kamekichi to move before moving anymore. Kamekichi takes multiple steps to stand a few feet apart. Shortly after, the rest of his gang joined him.

Shot thirteen: A full shot of all the boys. The distance between them all got relatively smaller. Kamekichi grabbed Ryoichi’s hat’s rim and moved it. Ryoichi gave no reaction.

Shot fourteen: A Three-Quarter shot of the gang. Only four out of the eight boys can be clearly seen. Kamekichi and the well-dressed boy (Taro) are in front.

Shot fifteen: Three-Quarter shot, two-shot of the Yoshii’s. Keiji is holding onto Ryoichi’s shoulder; he looks disheartened. Ryoichi is still standing with his hands in his pockets with his body turned to an angle towards Keiji. He turned his head in the direction of the gang.

Shot sixteen: Three-Quarter shot of the six boys of the gang. Taro tapped Kamekichi on the stomach while saying something to him. Kamekichi nodded and looked at the ones standing to his left, who also nod. He then takes another step forward.

Shot seventeen: Full shot of Kamekichi and Ryoichi staring at each other while Keiji is bent over taking off his geta (wooden sandals). Kamekichi asked Ryoichi, “Where did you move here from?” To which Ryoichi responded, “Azabu.” Kamekichi looked Ryoichi up and down before imitating a gun with his fingers.

Shot eighteen: Close-up to Median shot of Kamekichi. He repeats the same gun motion, but has a confused look upon his face as he tilts his head to the side.

Shot nineteen: Median, two-shot of Yoshii boys. They look at each other than back to Kamekichi and his gang.

Shot twenty: Close-up to Median shot of Kamekichi. He still has his fingers in the gun position and shakes them at the Yoshii’s. He then fixed his hat and turned his attention back to the gang members.

Shot twenty-one: Full, master shot of the boys; they are in a half-circle formation. Kamekichi nods at one of the members who then stepped forward towards him. Kamekichi repeated the gun motion once again, to which the member fell down on the ground. Kamekichi proceeded to make the cross with his hands while the light piano music played. He commanded the fallen boy to stand up again by placing his hand out. The boy does what he is told to be shot down again. Kamekichi then ignores the boy on the ground while he turned his attention back onto the Yoshii’s. He then attempts to shoot down Ryoichi, but Ryoichi does not fall down. Kamekichi does the motion twice and tilts his head to the side both times after Ryoichi does not comply. Kamekichi is mad that Ryoichi would not play along so he hits Ryoichi’s hat.

Shot twenty-two: Three-Quarter shot of Kamekichi, Ryoichi, and Keiji. They are standing in a diagonal row by height; Kamekichi’s head is touching the top of the screen, proving his height. He attempts to shoot Ryoichi once more before shoving him. Ryoichi responded by shoving Kamekichi back. To which leads them to wrestle with one another. Keiji turns his back to the camera and begins to run away from the fighting.

Shot twenty-three: A full, long shot of Keiji. He is barefoot in the grass at a safer distance from the fight. He turns his head back at his brother and the gang.

Shot twenty-four: long shot of the fight and gang. One boy, on the left side of the screen is sitting down while the others are standing while watching Ryoichi and Kamekichi fight.

Shot twenty-five: Cut back to a full shot of Keiji. He just stares at the fight as well. He then turns his body towards the camera and begins to scratch his genitals. The music changes to a quicker pace and more comical sounding while he looks off-screen.

Shot twenty-six: Long shot of Mr. Yoshii walking along the path. He is looking down and wiping off his pants leg. He is wearing a suit.

Shot twenty-seven: Cut back to Keiji; it is the same as Shot twenty-five. He is looking at the fight then switching back to their father. He shouts something to Ryoichi.

Shot twenty-eight: Full shot of the boys fighting. While Kamekichi and Ryoichi are going back and forth, the gang members are cheering them (most likely Kamekichi) on.

Shot twenty-nine: Full shot of Keiji, same as shot twenty-five and twenty-seven. He is looking at the fighting then quickly looks over at his father. He bends down to pick up his shoes and runs towards the camera.

Shot thirty: Long shot of the fighting boys and the gang. Keiji enters the shot at screen right and taps Ryoichi. Ryoichi stop momentarily to see what Keiji wants; Keiji at the same time has his body turned facing the camera with his mouth opened. He then runs off screen. Ryoichi also attempts to run off-screen; however after trying to get the last hit in, Kamekichi pulls Ryoichi back to him. Ryoichi struggles a bit before he breaks free. He runs after Keiji, going off screen, with Kamekichi running off screen behind him. The gang members are still cheering them on.

Shot thirty-one: A long shot of Mr. Yoshii. He is still walking on the path, but there is tall grass surrounding the path, making it harder to see. Keiji, Ryoichi, and Kamekichi appear on the left-most side of the screen. They run to the father’s general position as he is walking; Mr. Yoshii does not notice them at first. Kamekichi runs straight whereas the Yoshii boys curved to go to their father.

Shot thirty-two: Full shot of Kamekichi watching the Yoshii’s. He looks annoyed at the boys as he stands still watching them.

Shot thirty-three: Cut to the young Yoshii’s. It is a long shot. They stop running and turn their attention to Kamekichi.

Shot thirty-four: The same as shot thirty-two, however, this time he hook punched the air before saying, “I’ll give it to you good at school.” He continues to imitate a hook punch one more time before wiping his mouth while staring at the boys, appearing to be tough.

Shot thirty-five: Median, two-shot of Ryoichi and Keiji. They look at each other then back to Kamekichi.

Shot thirty-six: Kamekichi is seen in a full shot; his stance is wide legged and hook punched the air once again. This makes him seem bigger than he is as well as tougher.

Shot thirty-seven: A full, two-shot of the Yoshii boys. They are looking at one another then back at Kamekichi. They slowly step to the side. Ryoichi turns his back at Kamekichi (off-screen) and tilts his hat. At the same time, Keiji stand facing Kamekichi and poses with his left leg in the air and arms stretched out in a diagonal while making a face, mouth gapped open to the side. When Keiji notices Ryoichi went off without him, he puts his foot down which matched the last key in the tune. They both ran off-screen to the left.

Although this section of a scene was a little over two minutes long, there were a total of thirty-seven shots. Within this one scene alone, we are able to see who among the young boys held power within the gang at that moment: Kamekichi was the brawn of the group and Taro was the brains. This was presented by Kamekichi being able to shoot down the other boys and command them on when they could stand up again. Taro is seen as the brains of this group by how Kamekichi, the same one who shot down Taro earlier, was now looking at Taro on what action he should take, as seen in shot sixteen.

This scene is interesting to think about because it is the first scene in which all the young boys are presented together. Before Kamekichi tried to make Ryoichi and Keiji fall down like the other boys and was rejected, he asked the two where they came from. Once he found out, he included them in the ritual as if people from Azabu would know how to play. However, the look on the three faces (Kamekichi, Ryoichi, and Keiji) indicates that they might not have known what to do. That is when Kamekichi calls out another member to demonstrate the ritual with him so Ryoichi and Keiji would understand. This is first time the viewer sees this ritual as well. This ritual is important to the boys because it shows who holds the power within the group. The Yoshii boys were able to “outfight” Taro and Kamekichi later on and gain the power to punish the disobeying members as a result of it (224).