First Steps Ashore

For decades, film buffs have been told that until Kurosawa’s RASHOMON, Japanese cinema was a forbidden kingdom, bearing little relationship to the cinema of the West. Of course, that was nonsense. Early Ozu looks looks like Leo McCarey with Japanese actors and this one starts out exactly like von Sternberg’s DOCKS OF NEW YORK. It doesn’t end that way. However, it is clear that Shimazu, who within a few years would be telling elegant little stories disguised as rural travelogues, was very much influenced by American movies.It’s also pretty good on its own terms, even though the lead actors seem a bit uncomfortable with dialogue on a movie sound stage. While sound techniques were settled by this time, Japanese studios would continue to make silent movies for another four years. Still, if you get a chance to see this transitional film, you should find it enjoyable, if not as a work of art, then as an historical artifact.