我出生了，但……

现在被大部分人公认的第一部电影是卢米埃尔兄弟的《工厂大门》，诞生于1895年的法国。电影技术远跨重洋来到了亚洲，亚洲的第一部电影便诞生于日本。1898年日本拍摄了头两部电影，一部叫做《地藏精》，一部叫做《死人复活》，远远早于亚洲其他国家。用作对照，中国的第一部电影《定军山》诞生于1905年，而韩国的第一部电影或可称为写真连锁剧《义理的仇讨》在1919年才拍摄出来。

（插一句：感觉这些第一部电影都满反应民族性格的。）

不单首部电影诞生的时间早，日本电影的繁荣期也比其他国家来得早很多。20世纪30年代，便诞生了第一批电影巨匠。而邻国韩国到60年代才诞生第一批电影大师，足足晚了三十年之久。

这当然跟政治局势脱不了干系，日本当年到处搞侵略，搞得别的国家不能好好拍电影，自己却能在家里好好拍电影。这个略过不提。

20世纪30年代这个黄金时代涌现了小津安二郎、沟口健二等电影大师，他们的电影不单影响了日本电影，甚至影响了世界电影。不得不提的小津安二郎更是世界各地知名导演、影评人的心头好，可以说，没有人不爱小津。

这时候的小津刚刚出道，二三十岁，意气风发，极有年轻人的活泼、顽皮。1903年出生的1923年他进入了松竹电影制片厂，1927年便得到机会拍摄第一部电影《忏悔之刃》，当时他才24岁。

据小津自己回忆说，他当时在做大久保导演的助理导演，在收工后的晚餐时间，大家在排队等咖喱饭，眼看就到他了，大久保导演却进来，小津大喊：“为什么不给我？到我的顺序了。”打饭的人说：“要先给导演。”小津大喊：“快点上饭，按顺序！”这话传到当时的松竹厂长耳朵里，厂长觉得他这个人蛮有意思，便决定给他部电影拍拍。

这种幸运，鲜少人有。

当然，小津的成就也并未辜负这种幸运。

小津的早期电影都是默片，直到1936年，小津才拍摄自己的第一部有声电影《独生子》，而这已经是他的39部电影了。

轻松、幽默、自在，这是小津的早期风格。他的1932年电影《我出生了，但……》无疑是他默片时期的代表作。这部电影是一个儿童喜剧，吉井家的两个孩子（一对兄弟）随父母搬家到郊外，认识了一些新的朋友，之后发生的故事。

充满了童真童趣的同时，在儿童世界与成人世界交汇时，现实的无奈也反映在其中。两个孩子搬到新家后，被欺生的其他孩子欺负，两个孩子绞尽脑汁，赢得了孩子们的战斗，说一不二。

却发现，被他们制服的孩子之一是父亲上司岩崎的孩子，而父亲每次见到岩崎总是点头哈腰，卑躬屈膝，甚至作为丑角，被人取笑。

由此诞生了孩子和父亲之间的冲突，在大吵之后，两个孩子接受了父亲的无奈与现实世界。虽然略带沉重，但结尾依然充满了童真，孩子在看到了父亲和其上司去上班之后，依然使出原来的花招让那个孩子乖乖听话。又形成了儿童世界与成人世界的分离。

不管成人世界如何被金钱与地位左右，但在孩子的世界里，两个孩子伸出两个手指，有钱人的孩子也必须装死立刻倒在地上。

拍摄这部电影的小津29岁，也充满了顽皮劲儿。他自己聊到这个时期的电影的时候，也说，和编剧伏见晁（本片编剧，和小津合作了很多部电影）当时在一起吃饭、喝茶，聊天聊到天亮基本上就能编出一个故事。可以想见，整个创作过程是多么有趣，也难怪会想出这么多可爱、搞笑的情节。

这些喜剧元素虽然基于日本而完成，但同时也能看出小津受到了美国电影很大的影响。片中的喜剧元素，及整片的结构，似乎都受到了刘别谦的影响。在他的另一部默片《年轻的日子》中，这一影响更加明显。两个男大学生为一个女生明争暗斗，互相拆台，搞得笑料百出，最后女生却跟别人去相亲，两个男生知晓真相，和好如初。这种故事是非常好莱坞的。

虽然这个时候还没有完全形成后来为人称道的“小津风格”，但可以看出小津已经有意识地将拍摄主题转向家庭内部。那些细腻而温柔的，家人之间的摩擦，将越来越成为小津电影中的主题。

参考书目：

小津安二郎《我是开豆腐店的，我只做豆腐》

四方田犬彦《日本电影110年》

AlthoughI Was Born, But…(Yasujiro Ozu, 1932) was one of the early works by Ozu, he demonstrates an exceptional aptitude on embodying the callous power dynamics within Japanese working-class structure through the lens of two kids’ growing dismay and perplexity. The film, through a parallel narrative of the father Yoshii (Tatsuo Saito) in work and his children Ryoichi (Hideo Sugawara) and Keiji (Tomio Aoki) in school, presents a keen comparison of the power dynamics of these characters when dealing with convoluted interpersonal relationships.

I Was Born, But…revolves around the notion of power. For salarymen like Yoshii, all the powers concentrate on the hands of the Iwasaki (Takeshi Sakamoto), the big executive in charge of the firm. In order to receive a good salary, and afford a better life for the family, Yoshii racks his mind to hobnob with his boss. Regardless of the physical locations, he would approach Iwasaki in an adulatory manner whenever he has a chance, to not only physically, but mentally live near the boss. Knowing Iwasaki’s passion for film, Yoshii even participates in Iwasaki’s filming of daily vignettes to cater for his interest, which will later trigger a galling incidence, provoking a series of family dramas. While Ozu revealed a bleak image of underlying hierarchies in the adult world and the hypocritical social fabric embedded in the system, he presented a rather humorous and frisky plot via the scope of the neighborhood children, paralleling with the salaryman script. Unlike the adult world brimming with intrigues and office politics, for children, the advent of power lies in physical strength. New to the neighborhood, Ryoichi and Keiji struggle to blend in the new environment, especially when they are intimidated by school bullies, led by a bigger kid (Zentaro Iijima). Luckily, they are wise enough to exploit the physical power of the older delivery boy (Shoichi Kofujita), and eventually to supersede the bigger kid as the most dominant figures in the neighborhood. Even Taro (Katô), Iwasaki’s son, has to pay deference to the boys’ incantation. (a game often played among the children) In the sequence in which the kids witness Yoshii accompanying Iwasaki back home, we finally see these two storylines interweave. Ashamed of the fact that Taro’s father is their father’s boss, Ryoichi and Keiji once again cast the incantation on Toro, hoping to regain at least part of their supremacy. However, Yoshii intervenes and halts the game forthwith, helping Taro gets up from the ground as if he is treating his boss at work at the same time reproaching his sons’ impropriety. Of course, the twins would not understand why their father, an undisputed hero figure in their opinion, would treat Taro in such an obsequious manner. Nevertheless, Father’s reprimand is a blow to the brothers’ imaginary fantasy, offering them a snippet of the how things should work in the reality. The scene puts the two independent worlds under the same frame, revealing adult society’s boot-licking conducts as oppose to children’s ingenuous power ideology and imparting them an imperative lesson about the rigid stratification of the society for the first time.

Ozu's deft camera movements usage are inalienable from narrative functions achieved inI Was Born, But.Nonetheless, the most salient visual style ought to be his utilization of camera movements as a medium to navigate between the two major storylines. Reminiscent of Fritz Lang’s employment of sound as a cue to cut between different spaces inM, (Fritz Lang, 1931), Ozu harnessed the tracking of the camera to establish a relationship between two shots regardless of the discontinuous spaces. In the playground/office scene, a sequence of students marching down the playground is cut to the father’s office smoothly as the camera tracks from left to right. The playful camera movement proffers a sense of verisimilitude as audiences mentally follow the camera motion, navigating between the two settings despite the lack of temporal unity. The juxtaposition of irrelevant sequences also puts two drastically different worlds (children and adults) in compare and contrast with each other, soliciting viewers’ examination of the ulterior motifs behind the image. On the playground, the bigger kid got excoriated by the teacher for not following instructions like other students do. In a cut to the next sequence, the camera, however, now tracking from left to right, capturing an associate who meant to concentrate on work, and shifts right forthwith as he could not resist the soporific working environment and began to yawn like anyone else. These nuances in each character’s synchronous motions allude to the social conformity which everyone ought to obey, epitomizing the foreboding transition from carefree children to institutionalized worker for each person living in the society surrounded by sheer competition.

Although taking immense amounts of inspiration from classical Hollywood comedy, Ozu repeatedly violated the Hollywood continuity editing principle. Instead filming the dialogue scene in the traditional over-the-shoulder method, Ozu framed his dialogue scene more often in a 360-degree style, constantly switching camera positions, proffering a discordant but holistic scene. In the film’s final scene, after understanding the father’s identity and accepting the reality of the life, the two brothers admitted Taro’s father is indeed better. After reconciliation, a straight-on medium long shot shows that the brothers again casting incantation on Taro. In the next shot, however, the camera has already moved behind Ryoichi’s feet, as we observe Taro’s “death” on the ground. At the moment that Ryoichi and Keiji cast the second “revival” incantation in the subsequent shot, the camera has completely switched to the opposite point of view that the initial shot is at, revealing not only the twin brothers but also the train rail barrier.

People would often associate discontinuity film production such as 360-degree system, uncanny camera positions, and playful editing with a sense of distance and detachment because of the diminishing effect on the temporal unity across the narrative. But for Ozu, the combination of these techniques results the opposite, presenting a self-aware and emotionally-intense everyday scenario which builds upon a direct conversation with the audience. The usage of these cinematic techniques continues to be an inextricable part of Ozu’s directing language through his entire film career, embodying his philosophy of straddling the realm of subjectivity and objectivity, and offering contemplative cinemas to viewers not only to realize the sadness and melancholy about the reality of life but to retrospect their own experiences.

这部片子既滑稽又辛辣，尤其是最后的高潮，父子吵架之后，父亲问母亲，他们是否会过上像我们一样悲伤的生活？

这部片子在现在很应景，迎合了当下许多人不想生孩子的想法。假如生下来的孩子仍然会像父母一样当打工人，对老板笑脸相迎，做着自己不喜欢的事情，碌碌无为的过完慌乱的一生，那又有什么意义？

像在玩游戏一样，我们的主控角色是两个孩子。在这个视角里，观众可以感受孩子的纯净，幼稚。但是作为心智成熟的成年人，我们也可以理解父亲的所做所为。世界上的大多数人，都只会默默无闻的过完一生。

影片的前部分着重塑造了孩子们之间的联系：交战双方的孩子各自找着更strong的人来征服对方、神秘的让Taro躺下的手势魔法、掏鸟蛋当电影入场券等等。Taro这个孩子的角色随着剧情的推进逐渐立体了起来。后来上学的片段揭示了虽然他不strong，但是他的爸爸是老板。可见孩子的世界就像是成年世界的幼稚翻版，是否strong是评判孩子在孩子世界里的地位的重要指标，strong的孩子可以操纵不那么strong的孩子。而在成人世界里，这个指标就说钱了。

看电影这一段终于把孩子的世界和成人世界连接了起来，也引发了最终的矛盾。看电影之前，strong的孩子们都只能把鸟蛋给Taro才能得到电影的入场券，现在想来，这其实是一种暗示。看电影这个情节将父亲这个角色推向了矛盾的顶点。在孩子的世界里，他是严厉的父亲，a important somebody（我没有找到中文字幕，所以看的是英文的字幕。。），在成人世界里，他是老板的舔狗。这是非常不同的自我表露，却在这个交错的世界里重合在一起了，孩子们看到了成人世界里的未曾设想的父亲，他的形象分崩离析了。在这个片段里，父亲没有回头看两个孩子，也许是不敢看吧。这一段出现了多个父亲背影的镜头，我们期待父亲会回过头来，期待他的表情，反应，可是他自始至终没有回头。

另外，长子长得好像陈冠希。

吃面包的次子

小孩

电影史同款截图，父亲的动作和衣服达成一种默契

有点有趣

看电影的父亲的背影

生气的长子

“你是一个弱虫。”

他们会过上和我们一样悲伤的生活吗？