A very literal musing on modernity: Okajima visits the birthday party of his friend's sister Ikuko. He is criticised for being conservative and obnoxious. He rescues a girl, Hiroko, from a robbery. When he can't find work, Hiroko suggests that he should shave his beard. He follows her advice and lands a job. Since he has entered the new corporate world, Ikuko takes a liking to him, as does Hiroko and Satoko, a tuff girl who was about to rob Hiroko before Okajima intervened. In the end, it is the homely Hiroko who wins his heart. An inornate comedy, The Lady and the Beard outlines Ozu's preoccupation with masculinity and how it is influenced by modernity. We also get a lot of Ozu's trademark editing gags.
The most obvious example (and perhaps the most famous) comes towards the middle of the film. Okiko tries to convince Okajima that he should shave his beard. He explains to her that a lot of important historical figures adorned beards and he points to a portrait of Abraham Lincoln on his wall. Cut to a close-up of said portrait. Fade to an intertitle reading "Lincoln, 1931". Cut to the hood of a car. It's a Lincoln. More than a throw-away joke, this sequence ties into the general theme of modernity and how it transforms us and our perception of the past. At Ikuko's birthday party, she and her friends, who all have a westernized lifestyle, vow to humiliate Okajima who is perceived as old-fashioned. Modernity, or what some people perceived as such, is shown here as openly defying tradition: the girls invite Okajima to dance (presumably to "modern" music) and he performs a Kabuki dance, whirling around his sword. It's a clash of two lifestyles, and Ozu does not much to mask his contempt for the blind march towards more glorious, more "modern" days through westernization.
Another gag underlines this. Ikuko converses with an admirer. She tells him that she wouldn't marry someone who doesn't practice Kendo because she wouldn't feel protected. When the man retorts that policemen and laws are there to protect her just as well, she counters: "then I'll marry the police or the law". "Modern" society appoints institutions and bureaucracies that regulate every day life. A romantic longing for past hardihood doesn't belong to an environment where efficiency is king and "progress" is the only important mantra. Ikuko's remark, however, shows the absurdity of such thinking: one can not marry the law or the police. Institutions exist because they create the illusion of their indispensability. Yet, it is tradition and craft that provides real stability.
It is tempting to interpret Okajima's beard as a simple metaphor for tradition: once he shaves, Okajima can finally participate in modernized society. However, one shouldn't ignore what it means for Okajima's masculinity when he gets rid of his beard. He sees himself as a bawcock, as an archetypal male. He despises western clothes and, at first, refuses to interact with women, let alone dance with them. This attitude is rooted in a strong sense of Japanese nationalism and values. But to the people observing him, Okajima seems outdated. Everything that constitutes real masculinity in his eyes is not valued by modern society at large. Only by watering down his customary male posturing (shaving his beard!) does he get recognition and he is courted by three women. Does modern society oust the traditional male and replace him with subordinate pansies? Does Ozu even initiate a sort of pissing contest between Japanese and Western masculinity? The smallest common denominator one can find in The Lady and the Beard is without a doubt Ozu's critical view of blind Westernization, and the effects it has on "tradition" and masculinity.
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