Dragnet Girl

Yasujiro Ozu's silent film of 1933 resembles nothing from his later period. It is a crime story set in a boxing gym and in nightclubs; Kinuyo Tanaka plays a typist attached to her gangster boyfriend. When he becomes interested in an innocent shop girl, a three-way tension develops. Ozu was watching American crime films closely in these years and does not hide it. The camera moves, the use of shadow and the hats produce a look that could be mistaken for Hollywood if the setting were not Tokyo. Even so, the empty-space shots between scenes and the low angle are already in place. The ending shows where Ozu's moral interest lies: the matter is not that crime is punished but that two people manage to reach a decision together. It is among the technically most accomplished works of Japanese silent cinema. Who it's for: those curious about a side of Ozu they do not know and about Japanese silent crime films. Who it's not for: viewers expecting family drama from Ozu; generically this film stands somewhere else entirely.