File:1929 Ozu (film).jpg

{ja} Tokkan kozô / {en} A Straightforward Boy [1] [2] (Japan, 1929), directed by Yasujirō Ozu.

A kidnapped boy proves to be more than his abductor can handle.

Inspired by O. Henry's tale, The Ransom of Red Chief.

A delightful, fast-paced silent Japanese short comedy directed by master filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu. Heavily influenced by American silent slapstick and adapted from O. Henry’s short story The Ransom of Red Chief, the caper marks the first major starring vehicle for six-year-old child actor Tomio Aoki. Aoki delivers a tour-de-force performance as a rowdy, hyper-energetic boy who is abducted by petty crooks, but becomes so incredibly unruly, mischievous, and impossible to manage that his desperate captors are forced to try and give him back. -- Ozu's comic adaptation of O. Henry's “The Ransom of Red Chief” gives six-year-old Tomio Aoki the central role of Tetsubo, an unruly boy whose behavior overwhelms his kidnappers. The film is an important Japanese counterpart to the American child-star tradition and demonstrates that the comic possibilities of child performance had become an international cinematic language. A surviving incomplete print exists.

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