Directed by Yasujirô Ozu with a live score by Coupler
“It is indeed one of Ozu’s most appealing films.”—David Boardwell, Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema
The great Japanese filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu is best known for the stately, meditative, domestic dramas he made after World War II. But during his first decade at Shochiku studios, where he dabbled in many genres, he put out a trio of precisely rendered, magnificently shot and edited silent crime films about the hopes, dreams, and loves of small-time crooks. Heavily influenced in narrative and visual style by the American films Ozu adored, these movies are revelatory early examples of his cinematic genius.
This formally accomplished and psychologically complex gangster tale pivots on the growing attraction between Joji, a hardened career criminal, and Kazuko, the sweet-natured older sister of a newly initiated young hoodlum—a relationship that provokes the jealousy of Joji’s otherwise patient moll, Tokiko. With effortlessly cool performances and visual inventiveness, Dragnet Girl is a daring work from Yasujirō Ozu. 1933, Japan, DCP, silent with live score by Coupler and English intertitles, 100 minutes. Recommended for 12+.
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