One of Ozu’s earliest films that luckily has not been given up for lost is his 1929 short comedy Fighting Friends Japanese Style. 14 minutes in length and there are already some implications that he had found, more or less, some aspects of the style that he would come to be know for: the use of trains, the existence of Japanese traditions in a changing society (when the two friends go at it at work the boss declares that they shouldn’t be broken up because fighting is a privilege. ) Two friends almost run over a woman one day during work and finding that she has no family to go to they offer her a place to stay where they live. The two men are attracted to this woman and this causes their stable friendship to suffer from a few hiccups. One of the men buys her a secondhand kimono to show her his admiration; basically, they revert from two grown men to two little boys, evident in one scene where the two are trying to outdo each other by trying to find things, mainly money, in their pockets to give to her. But, as the story goes, she falls in love with an entirely different man and leaves, on a train (of course, what is an Ozu film without a train?) , the two friends having reconciled their bump in the road over a humorous event involving what I’m guessing was some sort of wasabi snack. The humorous moments remind one of something from a Chaplin film, informing us of Ozu’s awareness and intense admiration for the American cinema of the time. Not necessarily essential, but an enjoyable viewing for the casual and dedicated Ozu fan.
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