1st watched 5/16/2001 - 7 out of 10(Dir-Kon Ichikawa): Simple and sweet film about a child and his family from birth till his 2nd birthday. At times it makes you laugh(especially the voice-overs given to the child), at times those who have been parents understand exactly what the mother & father are going thru, and at other times it is thought-provoking. It makes you think about how you should always cherish children, knowing that they just learn from everything around them and grow without too much trouble. Very sentimental at times, but realistic. In the end, the child experiences life, pain, and death. A complete cycle in only 2 years and hopefully many years left. An irresistable film, and one of the most down-to-earth Japanese films that I've seen.
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dwpollar16 May 2001
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boblipton17 January 2018Looking at Naruse and Ozu movies, you develop a clear idea of the relaxed yet focused way a Japanese family drama should be set up. Kon Ichikawa violates all those conceptions in this movie, with his parents all at sea and quarreling and his grandmother loving and autocratic, kind and cruel. The cinematic world of Naruse and Ozu had rules, and woe betide the mortal who did not bend before them, and stay bent. In Ichikawa's world -- in this movie, at any rate -- there are no rules, just chaos and trying to snatch some sense and happiness out of being the parent of a toddler --- or, indeed, of being a toddler.
That's in the world of this movie. Ichikawa is certainly much more sentimental than his elder film makers, with his moon that becomes a cartoon banana and then a boat. I'm not as fond of it, but I wouldn't argue with you if you asserted it was a matter of taste. -
Irradiata11 October 2006"Being Two Isn't Easy" is a must-see movie for any parent, but especially for parents of toddlers. I laughed, out loud, constantly through the beginning of the movie, which takes place from the viewpoint of the baby, Taro, and also from the viewpoints of the beleaguered and bewildered parents. The subtle competition between the mother and father over who is the better parent was hysterical as was the unwanted advice given to the mother. The funniest scene was a family trip to the zoo, where Taro immediately got lost, and after retrieving him from the very crowded "Lost Child's Room", the mother's self-castigation was very true to life.
If this series of vignettes had continued, I would have rated the movie higher, but unfortunately, it seemed a social agenda had to be filled as well as a plot had to be followed. The social agenda seemed to have something to do with Japan needing daycare? (Who knows?) ***Spoiler Alert*** A child falls off a balcony (and is caught by a milkman), and when the mother is told of this (she's at the park with another kid), she is thankful, but instead of rushing home to see if the child is okay, she nods and then goes off about how children are a handful and that they need day cares to look after them. I would have checked to see if the child was fine, or at least gone to give them a hug, and then to berate the caregiver who wasn't paying attention to let the child fall off a balcony. The movie mother's lackadaisical attitude was perplexing.
The plot involves our little family moving in with the grandmother and the amusing competition of parenting styles between mama and grandma. I felt they could have mined the humour in the original setting even more, but I still found myself giggling away at the exploits of Taro and company.
It has been hard to find other films by Kon Ichikawa on video or DVD, but based on this movie, I'd love to see others. -
mossgrymk10 February 2024This film is your typical Japanese comedy, which is to say that not only is it not very funny but dispels what amusement it has early on so that by the end we are where I'm sure director Kon Ichikawa intended us to be all along, firmly implanted at the intersection of sad and serious. And if the above assessment seems unduly harsh then how to account for the jettisoning, halfway through the film, of the one truly inspired comic trope, the wry and perceptive two year old narrator? It is almost as if Ichikawa and his wife/scenarist Natto Wada heard actual laughter and were frightened by it. C plus.
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Aw-komon2 February 2001It's hard to believe that this semi-precursor of the ultra-popular, silly "Look Who's Talking" films of Amy Heckerling was directed by the same man who made the cannibals-at-war classic "Fires On the Plain." The title of the film says it all. It's about the trials and tribulations of a young Japanese couple as they try to maintain an even-tempred good humor while raising a two year old son, first in an apartment and then in a traditional Japanese house. It's also a film about the way Taro, their doll-like two year old boy, sees things. The generation gap that was the subject of so many Japanese films of the '50s and '60s is also well represented when Taro's mom gets her mother-in-law involved in raising the child and she tries to assert her own ways of doing things in a somewhat slyly condescending way. Of course, all this would be nothing but facile cuteness if it wasn't for Ichikawa's superb visual sense and poetic way of telling the story. Every shot in the film is gorgeous in itself, but it's the understated sophistication and wry humor with which they're edited that makes the film special. A good way to know if a film has 'poetic' potential is to watch it twice to see if it's even better the second time around; most films aren't. The third time you watch "Being Two Isn't Easy" you'll realize that it's like a transcendent piece of music, it flows so right and so dreamlike that it seems to contain everything in the world within its simple storyline; it just keeps pulling you deeper into its beautifully realized cinematic economy. It may be a little too cute for some people, but for me Ichikawa's ode to babies and parents is basically as timeless and inexhaustible a visual poem, albeit on a much smaller scale, as his famous film of the Tokyo Olympiad.
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Dog Breath19 November 2001The only real disappointment with this film is that I will probably never get to see this on DVD. I want to own it so badly now.
I was tremendously impressed with this film when I saw it for the first time at the Ichikawa retrospective in Vancouver tonight. It reminded me of another favourite film of mine, Yasujiro Ozu's Good Morning.
I Am Two revolves around a Japanese nuclear family (husband, wife, and small child) and their trials and tribulations. There's no hard plot here, just vignettes of life taking place over the course of 9 - 12 months (the time span is never made very clear, but that is probably an accurate estimate).
The film is told from the pseudo-perspective of a one year old (who turns two at film's end). I say pseudo, because Kon doesn't inflict childlike camera angles on us throughout the film. Instead he relies on narration by the child, mainly to introduce new characters to us from his perspective and to introduce new plot points, again from the child's perspective.
The film has a similar pace to Good Morning, similar character interactions, and similar themes (i.e. the loss of traditional Japanese values as the pace of change accelerates). It doesn't benefit from Ozu's use of colour, but neither is it a fault of the film. I Am Two is not Good Morning, but you could consider them first cousins, both of which have a great deal of charm.
Like Good Morning there is oblique social commentary, but it is never in your face. If you recognize it, then so be it, the film seems to suggest. If you miss it, then so be it also. Both films recognize changes in Japanese society, but neither film passes judgement on those changes.
One of the interesting aspects of the film is the opening ... it details the birth of Taro, narrated by Taro, and from Taro's "blurry, ill-defined" perspective.
If this retrpspective passes through your town, this is one I VERY VERY HIGHLY recommend. It is a must see. And I would love someone (preferably Criterion) to put it out on DVD. -
net_orders14 July 2018BEING TWO ISN'T EASY / I AM TWO YEARS OLD (WATASHI WA NISAI). Viewed on Streaming. Director Kon Ichikawa's (also credited as co-Producer) apparent objective (at least initially) is to present parallel universes: one inhabited by a baby starting at birth; and another by the kid's first-time parents and their circle of friends and relatives. The infant's point of view (POV) is mostly conveyed by an adult voice-over actor, and seems to indicate that the child has learned enough (perhaps in a former life?) to skip grade school and enroll directly in Junior High (given his rate of growth in the film, that may be pretty darn soon)! The scenario (credited to Ichikawa' wife) probably looked pretty cool on paper, but turned out to be not so much on film. After about the first reel (10 minutes or so), the baby's POV (in audio and video scenes) mostly disappears, as the Director drifts away from an interesting thematic duality and into the banality of talk about how to raise and care for a baby. And there sure is lots of talk most of which is trivial (the stack of cue cards must have been huge (even for dubbing sessions) and/or the two leading actors had mega photographic memories (or acting was mostly improvisational!)). Ichikawa tries to break up the talkathon monotony by injecting an action shot here and there (a cartoon, some kid falling from a balcony and being caught by a mail carrier, close to death suffocation in a plastic bag, a racing motorcycle, etc.). Leading and supporting actors turn in very good performances. The toddler who is supposed to reach the age of two by film's end is obviously being played by a 3-5 year old in later scenes (it also looks suspiciously like several children are playing the same role). Subtitles struggle with the copious dialog and turn out to be close enough (but often have to resort to multiple lines of text!). The unimaginative score is mostly kept in the background (thankfully!). Skip this feather-weight shomin-geki unless suffering from an especially bad bout of insomnia! WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD. Details: streaming/print (FilmStruck) = 9/10 stars; performances = 5 stars; cinematography (narrow screen, color) = 5 stars; lighting = 5 stars; animation = 5 stars; direction = 4/5 stars; subtitles = 4/5 stars; score = 4 stars.
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freakus23 July 1999A little story about first time parents. Over-protective and naive family moves in with Mother-in-law who spoils the kid rotten. Kinda slow at times but has some cute moments.