This article discusses the visual style of Japanese cinema before 1945.  By the mid 1920s, Japanese editing and visual style had mostly adopted the Hollywood style, meaning continuity editing, the 180-degree rule, and so on.  However, during the 1920s and 30s, Japanese filmmakers revised many of these rules for their own purposes.  For example, the 180-degree rule was sometimes violated.  The pictorialist approach contained “longer takes, more distant framings, [and] less cutting in to details”.  Piecemeal decoupage was typical of many of the directors from the Shochiku studio (of which Ozu was one).  In piecemeal decoupage, every scene is broken up into many different smaller shots.  Ozu was one of the most famous users of this style in his early career, though he later gave it up.  Piecemeal decoupage was mostly used by Shochiku studios in shomin-geki, dramas and comedies about middle and lower class contemporary families.  Shochiku’s studio was in Kamata, so this is called the Kamata style.

This article is useful in putting Ozu’s style in “I was born but…” in context with his peers at the time.  Ozu was an avid admirer of Hollywood films, but much like his peers, he broke many of the rules made by Hollywood.  He often breaks the 180-degree rule, as well as many other basic rules of continuity editing.  “I was born but…” is edited in piecemeal decoupage style, while his later work contains many pictorialist elements.  This article shows that while the techniques used by Ozu were certainly unusual, they were not completely revolutionary.  Other directors of the time were using piecemeal decoupage and pictorialist techniques as well.  In addition, Ozu’s style is very similar to other directors that worked at Shochiku studios (the so-called Kamata style).  “I was born but…”, is done in piecemeal decoupage and focuses on the everyday life of a middle-class family.

Bordwell, David. Visual Style in Japanese Cinema, 1925-1945. Film History, Vol. 7, No. 1, Asian Cinema (Spring, 1995), pp. 5-31