Good Morning

Good Morning (お早よう, 1959) is Yasujiro Ozu's gentle comedy, and you can watch it online on iFILM. On the edge of Tokyo, in a tidy row of identical little houses, a small war breaks out over a television set — shot in soft, glowing color, a rarity for a director famous for his quiet black-and-white dramas.

Brothers Minoru and Isamu are desperate for a TV so they can watch sumo, but their parents keep saying no. So the boys go on strike: they simply stop speaking. Silent at home, silent at school, they drive every adult around them to distraction. Meanwhile ordinary life hums along — housewives trade gossip about a neighbor's new washing machine, an out-of-work husband tries his luck as a door-to-door salesman, and everyone quietly tracks who can afford what. Keiji Sada, Yoshiko Kuga and Ozu regular Chishu Ryu fill out the cast.

It's a loose reworking of Ozu's own silent film I Was Born, But..., now aimed at the consumer boom of postwar Japan. He tucks dozens of tiny gags — including a running joke about boys and farting — inside a family portrait as fine as anything in his serious work. Under the laughter sits a sad little truth: grown-ups mumble empty "good mornings" precisely to avoid saying what matters. A perfect way into Ozu if you've never tried him. Stream Good Morning (1959) online on iFILM.