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Mubi’s retrospective, Spotlight on Kenji Mizoguchi, is showing in France until May 22, 2020.Above: Kenji Mizoguchi and Kyōko Kagawa on the set of The Crucified Lovers (1954).On multiple occasions, Kenji Mizoguchi was said to have compared himself to Vincent van Gogh, even calling the painter his "artistic model" in conversation with actress Kinuyo Tanaka. One has good reason to take Mizoguchi's word for such self-identification, considering his former aspirations to become a painter. On set, he was a notoriously stringent perfectionist and, if displeased at all with the technicalities of a production, rather cruel towards those with whom he worked. What does it mean to refer to Mizoguchi's films as "painterly," as is so often done? Indeed, the filmmaker wanted to be a painter in his youth, and was an ardent student of the craft: In Patterns of Time: Mizoguchi and the 1930s, Donald Kirihara writes that Mizoguchi even "wept before the Mona Lisa.

It’s Yasujiro Ozu in light mode, except that his insights into the human social mechanism make this cheerful neighborhood comedy as meaningful as his dramas. Two boys go on a ‘talk strike’ because they want a television set, a choice that has an effect on everyone around them. And what can you say about a movie with running jokes about flatulence . . . and is still a world-class classic?

Good Morning

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 84

1959 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 94 min. / ohayo / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date May 16, 2017 / 39.95

Starring: Keiji Sada, Yoshiko Kuga, Chishu Ryu, Kuniko Miyake, Haruko Sugimura, Koji Shitara, Masahiko Shimazu, Isamu Hayashi, Kyoko Izumi, Toyo Takahashi, Sadako Sawamura, Eijiro Tono.

Cinematography: Yushun Atsuta

Film Editor: Yoshiyasu Hamamura

Original Music: Toshiro Mayuzumi

Written by Yasujiro Ozu, Kogo Noda

Produced by Shizuo Yamanouchi

Directed by Yasujiro Ozu

Ozu’s Good Morning is a straight-out delight, being both inconsequential and insightful.