Ozu Was Right

Ozu Was Right is a full service production company having fun in New York. Early on in our film school career, we bonded over a class screening of the film Late Spring by Yasujirō Ozu. While many of the films we studied were centered around American or European filmmakers, Ozu's naturalistic depictions of everyday life and complete disregard for Western conventions felt like a breath of fresh air. When he was alive, he was considered too rebellious for Japan and too Japanese for the West. It always stuck with us that Ozu and his long-time cinematographer, Yûharu Atsuta, strictly scouted locations on foot. The two of them would walk for miles until eventually passing out from exhaustion. His films and the process behind the work encourage a slower pace of life and a more refined approach to making art. In a similar vein, we believe in a better reality than our present culture of pumping out content. We are being intentional with every step of production and building a system that works from the ground up. Working as Asian women in male-dominated spaces has taught us the power of advocating for ourselves and the people around us. While other art forms can be solitary, filmmaking is one of the most collaborative forms of art, and has taught us how strong we can be when we support one another. At the end of the day, we are driven by a love for our craft and respect for the people that help us bring these projects to life. Ozu Was Right is a project that we hope will create opportunities for underrepresented creatives in film, as well as spaces for them to work, play, and grow.