FILM DIRECTOR

Yasujirō Ozu

1903 - 1963

Photo of Yasujirō Ozu

Icon of person Yasujirō Ozu

Yasujirō Ozu (小津 安二郎, Ozu Yasujirō, 12 December 1903 – 12 December 1963) was a Japanese filmmaker. He began his career during the era of silent films, and his last films were made in colour in the early 1960s. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Yasujirō Ozu has received more than 1,570,111 page views. His biography is available in 50 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 48 in 2019). Yasujirō Ozu is the 46th most popular film director (up from 62nd in 2019), the 35th most popular biography from Japan (up from 55th in 2019) and the 3rd most popular Japanese Film Director.

Ozu is most famous for his minimalist filmmaking style, which he used to depict the lives of ordinary Japanese people in the post-war era.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.6M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 69.52

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 50

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 6.40

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.20

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Page views of Yasujirō Ozus by language

Over the past year Yasujirō Ozu has had the most page views in the with 310,856 views, followed by English (250,268), and French (82,611). In terms of yearly growth of page views the top 3 wikpedia editions are Swedish (769.61%), German (304.21%), and French (203.42%)

Among FILM DIRECTORS

Among film directors, Yasujirō Ozu ranks 46 out of 2,041. Before him are James Cameron, David Lynch, Lars von Trier, Billy Wilder, Vittorio De Sica, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. After him are Roberto Rossellini, Isao Takahata, Emir Kusturica, Alan Parker, Takeshi Kitano, and Oliver Stone.

Most Popular Film Directors in Wikipedia

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1903, Yasujirō Ozu ranks 13. Before him are Georges Simenon, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Mark Rothko, Habib Bourguiba, C. F. Powell, and Fernandel. After him are Marguerite Yourcenar, Vladimir Horowitz, Adolf Butenandt, Andrey Kolmogorov, Kane Tanaka, and Jan Tinbergen. Among people deceased in 1963, Yasujirō Ozu ranks 14. Before him are Aldous Huxley, Robert Schuman, Ngo Dinh Diem, Tristan Tzara, C. S. Lewis, and Abd el-Krim. After him are Nâzım Hikmet, Theodor Heuss, Francis Poulenc, Sylvia Plath, Paul Hindemith, and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi.

Others Born in 1903

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Others Deceased in 1963

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In Japan

Among people born in Japan, Yasujirō Ozu ranks 35 out of 6,245. Before him are Sadako Sasaki (1943), Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1892), Saigō Takamori (1828), Yayoi Kusama (1929), Sasaki Kojirō (1583), and Lee Myung-bak (1941). After him are Itō Hirobumi (1841), Isao Takahata (1935), Emperor Kōmei (1831), Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi (1894), Hiroshige (1797), and Gichin Funakoshi (1868).

Others born in Japan

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Among FILM DIRECTORS In Japan

Among film directors born in Japan, Yasujirō Ozu ranks 3. Before him are Hayao Miyazaki (1941), and Akira Kurosawa (1910). After him are Isao Takahata (1935), Takeshi Kitano (1947), Kenji Mizoguchi (1898), Shohei Imamura (1926), Masaki Kobayashi (1916), Nagisa Oshima (1932), Hirokazu Kore-eda (1962), Hideaki Anno (1960), and Franklin J. Schaffner (1920).

Japanese born Film Directors

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Filmography

Tokyo Story
Director
The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.
Nov 3o 19538.2 / 10
Late Spring
Director
Noriko is perfectly happy living at home with her widowed father, Shukichi, and has no plans to marry -- that is, until her aunt Masa convinces Shukichi that unless he marries off his 27-year-old daughter soon, she will likely remain alone for the rest of her life. When Noriko resists Masa's matchmaking, Shukichi is forced to deceive his daughter and sacrifice his own happiness to do what he believes is right.
Sep 13o 19498.001 / 10
An Autumn Afternoon
Director
Shuhei Hirayama is a widower with a 24-year-old daughter. Gradually, he comes to realize that she should not be obliged to look after him for the rest of his life, so he arranges a marriage for her.
Nov 18o 19627.8 / 10