Before I had ever seen Walk Cheerfully, I had read David Bordwell's book Ozu and The Poetics of Cinema. Writing about this film, he comments "Evidently the Japan of 1930 did not have true gangsters." I always found this remark funny and odd, and my interest in the film was awakened. I now came across a copy of the film in bad picture quality (apparently a VHS rip from someone who recorded it from an Italian TV station) and was both pleasantly surprised and somewhat disappointed by this often-cited movie. As Bordwell suggests, the depiction of street hoodlums is taken straight from Hollywood pictures of the time and the narration is disconcertingly bland in it's approach to the material. On the other hand, Ozu takes the opportunity to experiment a lot with form. Tracking shots and exterior shots abound, visual gags are accompanied by self-conscious editing, and at one point Ozu experiments with perspective. It is as if Ozu, conscious of the rather uninspired story, overcompensated by providing us with some of his most playful visuals.
The story is simple. Kenji, a street criminal, takes an interest in the calm and homely Yasue. When he knocks down her boss out of jealousy, Yasue rejects him, and Kenji and his brother decide to go straight. They find "honest" work as window washer and driver respectively. Kenji is approached by an old pal and asked to help with a lucrative job. He refuses. Having overheard that, Yasue realizes that Kenji is truly reformed and she takes him back. But Kenji is ratted out and has to go to prison. There is, however, a happy ending.
Thematically, Walk Cheerfully does not give us as much to chew on as, say, Where Now Are The Dreams of Youth? or The Only Son. One could read it as an examination of masculinity, as Ozu was always very preoccupied with this question. Is it more honorable to be an honest worker than to be a gangster? Does the hoodlum's reliance on physical force to ascertain his masculinity hold any value in the corporate world? How do women, love interests to be more precise, influence men's behavior? From this perspective, Ozu seems to have a rather conservative view of male-female relations. The only way Kenji can get the girl at the end (remember that we are in deep Hollywood territory here) is by quitting his outlaw life and being domesticated. There seems to be no room for transgressions of any kind. On the other hand, the plot machinations force the narrative to go this route and maybe one shouldn't read too much into it. Another way of looking at Walk Cheerfully is to see it as a sort of deconstruction of modernity. Clearly, the imported gangsters (complete with white three piece suits and cigarette holders) are a product of the time and their presence in the modern city landscape speak to certain concerns a contemporary could have with the modern city. But then, going straight only means entering the emerging corporate world that synchronizes people's behavior and thoughts. As far as incarnations of modernity are concerned, Kenji can only jump out of the frying pan into the fire.
Stylistically, the Walk Cheerfully captivates with its dynamic camera work and editing gags. Ozu uses a lot of fade outs. In one scene, the image darkens as if we are in for another fade out, but it is revealed that the camera tracked into a tunnel. When we emerge into daylight again, Ozu fades out in earnest. In another scene, Ozu tempers with perspective and off-action movement. Kenji and Yasue sit in the foreground, while Yasue's younger sister plays with a ball a few yards behind them, which creates visual tension with the immobile primary action in the foreground. A towering statue in the far background compresses the entire image. All these elements combined make for an usual shot in Ozu's catalogue. When the film opens, we are in a naval yard. Ozu shoots it in an extreme wide shot, capturing a pack of men running to the site of an alleged wallet theft, his camera moving at a vibrant pace - a teaser for the exciting formal experiments yet to come.
All in all, a satisfying offering that offers a lot of visual playfulness, despite a somewhat uninspired script.
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