{ "id": "ep9s3t8ssc", "slug": "i-was-born-but", "title": "I Was Born, But... (大人の見る繪本 生れてはみたけれど)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent", "label": "Early and silent cinema", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features", "label": "Silent feature films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features.yr-1927-2012", "label": "Released 1927 to 2012", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features.yr-1927-2012" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.asia.t1800.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Asia (other) · 1800 to 1945: Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1800.culture.performance.screen", "path": [ { "id": "geo.asia", "label": "Asia (other)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1800", "label": "Asia (other) · 1800 to 1945", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1800" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1800.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1800.culture" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1800.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1800.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1800.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1800.culture.performance.screen" } ] } ], "excerpt": "I Was Born, But... (大人の見る繪本 生れてはみたけれど) is Yasujiro Ozu's 1932 Shochiku silent comedy about two boys disillusioned by their salaried father's servility, first-place Kinema Junpo winner, remade as Good Morning (1959).", "snippet": "I Was Born, But... (大人の見る繪本 生れてはみたけれど) is Yasujiro Ozu's 1932 Shochiku silent comedy about two boys disillusioned by their salaried father's servility, first-place Kinema Junpo winner, remade as Good Morning (1959).", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features.yr-1927-2012", "markdown": "# I Was Born, But... (大人の見る繪本 生れてはみたけれど)\n\n**I Was Born, But...** (大人の見る繪本 生れてはみたけれど, *Otona no miru ehon: Umarete wa mitakeredo*, literally \"An Adult's Picture Book: I Was Born, But...\") is a 1932 Japanese black-and-white silent comedy-drama directed by Yasujiro Ozu (小津安二郎) and produced by Shochiku Kinema at its Kamata studio[1](https://nfad.nfaj.go.jp/det.php?data_id=358). It follows two schoolboy brothers who move to a Tokyo suburb, become leaders of the local children, and then lose faith in their salaried father when they see him fawning before his company's executive. The film was ranked first in Kinema Junpo's annual best-films poll for 1932, the first Ozu film to reach that position[2](https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/eizogaku/104/0/104_010407/_pdf/-char/ja), and Ozu later loosely remade it as the sound comedy *Good Morning* (1959)[3](https://www.criterion.com/films/922-i-was-born-but).\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Release | June 3, 1932, distributed by Shochiku Kinema[1](https://nfad.nfaj.go.jp/det.php?data_id=358) • [4](https://cinemaplus.shochiku.co.jp/titles/detail/10/) |\n| Format | Black-and-white silent film, 35 mm, aspect ratio 1.33:1[1](https://nfad.nfaj.go.jp/det.php?data_id=358) • [5](https://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=64365) |\n| Running time | 91 minutes per Shochiku's records; the National Film Archive of Japan's film record lists 90 minutes[4](https://cinemaplus.shochiku.co.jp/titles/detail/10/) • [1](https://nfad.nfaj.go.jp/det.php?data_id=358) |\n| Principal cast | Tatsuo Saito (father), Mitsuko Yoshikawa (mother), Hideo Sugawara (elder son), Tokkan Kozo (younger son), Takeshi Sakamoto (the executive Iwasaki)[1](https://nfad.nfaj.go.jp/det.php?data_id=358) • [3](https://www.criterion.com/films/922-i-was-born-but) |\n| Key staff | Original story by James Maki (ゼェームス槙), script by Akira Fushimi, cinematography and editing by Hideo Mohara (also romanized Hideo Shigehara)[1](https://nfad.nfaj.go.jp/det.php?data_id=358) • [3](https://www.criterion.com/films/922-i-was-born-but) |\n| Recognition | First place, Kinema Junpo Best Ten for 1932[2](https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/eizogaku/104/0/104_010407/_pdf/-char/ja) • [6](https://www.cinemaclassics.jp/ozu/movie/2930/) |\n| Place in Ozu's career | His 24th of 54 completed films[7](https://silentfilm.org/i-was-born-but/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story\nThe Yoshii family moves to a new residential development on the outskirts of Tokyo, where the father (Tatsuo Saito) has settled near the home of his company's executive Iwasaki (Takeshi Sakamoto) in the hope of career advancement; to his sons he remains strictly authoritative[9](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/01407/). The two brothers, Ryoichi (Hideo Sugawara) and Keiji (Tokkan Kozo), fight with the local boys, skip school, and eventually use tricks to become the gang's leaders[9](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/01407/).\n\nThe turn comes when the children boast about whose father is the most important. At a home-movie screening at Iwasaki's house, the brothers see their father flattering the executive and even imitating animals to amuse him[9](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/01407/). Furious and humiliated, they refuse food and skip school in protest. The protest fades, their mother (Mitsuko Yoshikawa) mediates, and the father, watching his sleeping sons, regrets having disappointed them for the family's sake; the next morning father and sons leave for work and school together as always[9](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/01407/).\n\n## Production and release\nThe film was made at Shochiku's Kamata studio in 1932 from an original story credited to James Maki, a pen name used for adapted Western-style material, with a script by Akira Fushimi and cinematography by Hideo Mohara[1](https://nfad.nfaj.go.jp/det.php?data_id=358) • [3](https://www.criterion.com/films/922-i-was-born-but). Trade notices from April 1932 show the film completed and awaiting release under the series heading \"an adult's picture book\" (大人の見る絵本)[8](https://ozu-net.com/literatures/literatures-all/).\n\nOzu left one recorded comment on the film, published in a 1958 issue of Kinema Junpo: \"I started to make a film about children and ended up with a film about grownups; while I had originally planned to make a fairly bright little story, it changed while I was working on it... The company hadn't thought it would turn out this way. They were so unsure of it that they delayed its release for two months.\"[7](https://silentfilm.org/i-was-born-but/) The film opened on June 3, 1932[4](https://cinemaplus.shochiku.co.jp/titles/detail/10/).\n\n## Tone and interpretation\nShochiku's own synopsis describes the structure as a shift from the humorous episodes of the children's world in the first half to a bitter, comic rendering of salaried-worker sorrow in the second[9](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/01407/). The studio's English description calls it \"a critical and perceptive look at Japanese society from children's point of view\"[6](https://www.cinemaclassics.jp/ozu/movie/2930/). A later Japanese film-studies account describes the film as treating, through a child's eyes and with a light touch, the serious question of why a respected father becomes servile before workplace hierarchy[10](https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BB04848538).\n\nScholarly writing has also noted the film's visual texture. One study of Ozu's silent period points to the train that repeatedly races across the background of the frame, giving a story about the conflict between the children's world and the adult world, and between labor and capital, an impression close to exhilaration[11](https://shizuoka.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/7325/files/S10-0027.pdf). Another line of criticism compares Ozu and his cameraman's style to that of new documentary photographers of the period who saw photography as recording how people live[12](https://analepsis.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/japanesecinema.pdf).\n\n## Reception and standing\nThe film brought Ozu immediate critical acclaim. In the early 1930s, after the praise for *[Tokyo Chorus](https://www.edgepedia.org/tokyo-chorus)* (1931), *I Was Born, But...* (1932) made him, for the first time, the number-one film in Kinema Junpo's annual poll, and critics placed him among the leading handlers of petit-bourgeois film and at the peak of Japanese cinema[2](https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/eizogaku/104/0/104_010407/_pdf/-char/ja). It was the first of his films to top the magazine's poll, a position quickly repeated by *Passing Fancy* (1933) and *A Story of Floating Weeds* (1934)[7](https://silentfilm.org/i-was-born-but/). The San Francisco Silent Film Festival's essay calls it Japan's most treasured silent film[7](https://silentfilm.org/i-was-born-but/).\n\n## Later remakes and restorations\nOzu reworked the material decades later as *Good Morning* (1959), a [Technicolor](https://www.edgepedia.org/technicolor) comedy about two boys who go on a television strike[3](https://www.criterion.com/films/922-i-was-born-but). A 4K digital restoration was shown at the 2023 Tokyo International Film Festival as part of the 120th-anniversary program for Ozu's birth, and Shochiku's film page lists a world premiere at the 36th Tokyo International Film Festival[13](https://2023.tiff-jp.net/download/0927_TIFF2023_GUIDE.pdf) • [6](https://www.cinemaclassics.jp/ozu/movie/2930/). The National Film Archive of Japan's restoration work on the film combined a 16mm master positive owned by Shochiku with a 35mm print believed to be the prewar release, held by NFAJ, to produce the version closest to the original release[14](https://www.nfaj.go.jp/wp-content/uploads/NFAJ-Annual-Report_2023.pdf). The film is distributed on home video and streaming in digitally remastered editions[15](https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BD05905245).\n\n## References\n\n1. [大人の見る繪本 生れてはみたけれど, National Film Archive of Japan film collection database](https://nfad.nfaj.go.jp/det.php?data_id=358)\n2. [Eizogaku 104: 31-50 (2020), Japanese Society of Image and Arts Sciences](https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/eizogaku/104/0/104_010407/_pdf/-char/ja)\n3. [I Was Born, But . . . (1932), The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/922-i-was-born-but)\n4. [大人の見る繪本 生れてはみたけれど, Shochiku Cinema Plus](https://cinemaplus.shochiku.co.jp/titles/detail/10/)\n5. [大人の見る繪本 生れてはみたけれど, KINENOTE](https://www.kinenote.com/main/public/cinema/detail.aspx?cinema_id=64365)\n6. [大人の見る繪本 生れてはみたけれど, Shochiku Cinemaclassics (Ozu filmography)](https://www.cinemaclassics.jp/ozu/movie/2930/)\n7. [I Was Born, But..., essay by Brian Darr, San Francisco Silent Film Festival](https://silentfilm.org/i-was-born-but/)\n8. [関連文献・資料, 小津安二郎ネットワーク (Ozu Yasujiro Network)](https://ozu-net.com/literatures/literatures-all/)\n9. [〖作品データベース〗大人の見る繪本 生れてはみたけれど, Shochiku film database](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/01407/)\n10. [晩春+大人の見る繪本生れてはみたけれど, CiNii Books bibliographic record](https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BB04848538)\n11. [静岡大学人文社会科学部研究報告 (Shizuoka University humanities report), on the train motif in Ozu's silent films](https://shizuoka.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/7325/files/S10-0027.pdf)\n12. [Yasujiro's I Was Born, But..., conference paper, analepsis.org](https://analepsis.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/japanesecinema.pdf)\n13. [小津安二郎 生誕120年記念企画, 2023 Tokyo International Film Festival guide](https://2023.tiff-jp.net/download/0927_TIFF2023_GUIDE.pdf)\n14. [NFAJ Annual Report 2023, National Film Archive of Japan](https://www.nfaj.go.jp/wp-content/uploads/NFAJ-Annual-Report_2023.pdf)\n15. [大人の見る繪本 : 生れてはみたけれど, CiNii Books bibliographic record (2010 Shochiku DVD)](https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BD05905245)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Early and silent cinema › Silent feature films › Released 1927 to 2012*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/i-was-born-but", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/i-was-born-but.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"I Was Born, But... (大人の見る繪本 生れてはみたけれど)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/i-was-born-but. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[I Was Born, But... (大人の見る繪本 生れてはみたけれど)](https://www.edgepedia.org/i-was-born-but)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/i-was-born-but](https://www.edgepedia.org/i-was-born-but). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"I Was Born, But... (大人の見る繪本 生れてはみたけれど)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/i-was-born-but. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "I Was Born, But... is Yasujiro Ozu's 1932 Shochiku silent comedy about two boys disillusioned by their salaried father's servility, first-place Kinema Junpo winner, remade as Good Morning." }